Many people are afraid to draw or paint, indoors or outdoors, mostly because they are afraid they don’t know how. Wouldn’t the world be a nicer place if everyone could just have fun with their creativity and not judge the results so much? Anyway, I encourage you to take a notebook or sketchbook outside this summer and have a little fun with some pencils, colored pencils, paints, whatever. Never mind what it looks like. Enjoy the process.
Hang out with a friend while you paint. It’s a different way to spend time together and many people, no matter what their ability level is, find this to be very relaxing.
Bring a kid along. Kids love to draw and paint and you don’t need anything fancy. Use a sketchbook or just clip some blank copy paper to a clipboard that makes it easy to walk around and find cool stuff to draw because you have your “table” with you.
If you feel uncomfortable going out by yourself, check out my summer schedule. Beginners are always welcome and the full schedule is on my Cape Cod Art and Nature website.
nice post Mary. The week I was on the cape was sunny and warm but since returning home mostly rain. i havent been sketching much and want to start up again. It think my reservation would be that people would come over and see what I am doing and make judgments. In Europe, people feel more free to sit outside and paint etc dont they? That's my image anyway though i could be wrong.
I used to feel that way, Suki, and I can still get self conscious if I'm by myself. As a teacher I often get between the sketchers/painters and the wannabe commenters by saying this is a class and my students get nervous with people watching them. Most people get that because they wouldn't want to be watched either 😉
And yes, I do think it is much more common to see people doing sketching or painting on the streets, etc. in Europe but it seems to be catching on here more too….