'DRAWING JOY' | Visual Journaling

Drawing things that bring joy and helping to Raise awareness of Ovarian Cancer

About ‘Drawing Joy’

Drawing Joy is one thing I am doing to help myself find peace with the multitude of challenges having Advanced Ovarian Cancer brings.

It is also one way I can help raise the awareness and understanding of Ovarian Cancer. Too many women, like myself, are diagnosed too late.

I wish there was more research, funding and treatments available.

Let’s Draw Together on Zoom

These sessions are open to all subscribers to the Studio Diaries.

‘Drawing Joy’ is a Visual Journaling Drawing Session where you have the option to draw or paint along with me, to the reference images provided - OR - you can draw or paint from your own reference images.

The reference Images I provide are photo’s I have taken throughout the week /month of things that have brought me Joy.

This has been such a wonderful, and crucial part of my healing journey. Looking for the beauty, the joy and the love that is all around me. Noticing the small things. Paying attention. Looking for light when my body (and mind) is struggling in darkness. Light IS everywhere… when you look for it. Joy CAN be found.

I thoroughly recommend photographing the joys and the delights you see every day / week. Looking for delightful things to photograph will lift your spirits, and the habit, will help you stay a little more positive when times get hard (speaking from experience here).

It could be the way the morning light casts shadow patterns from the lace curtains, the steam of the kettle boiling, bare feet touching ground, a delicious peach or the shape of the tree line at sunset.

Your photos don’t have to be perfect, and neither do your drawings. This is not about being self critical or expecting ourselves to be a ‘Good Photographer’ or a ‘Good Artist’ etc. Its about embracing and enjoying THE PROCESS - celebrating the joy of noticing and responding.

I am more than happy for you to draw my images with me if you haven’t had time or opportunity to gather your own images.

This is about Joy, not pressure, or guilt, or perfection, or comparison - or any of those other things.

Life is short. Lets spread the Joy.

When are The ‘Drawing JOY’ Sessions?

I am aiming for the ‘Drawing Joy’ Sessions to be held some Saturday mornings from 9.45am - 11.30am, Sydney / Melbourne time (AEST - Australian winter time, or AEDT - Australia summer time).

There are likely to be many Saturday’s where my Cancer treatment (or side effects from) gets in the way and I have to postpone or cancel.

In truth, there may also be some Saturdays when the day is just too beautiful to not be outside, and I will want to go out and enjoy as much of life as I can, while I still can.

When this happens, I will give you as much notice as possible via the chat (assuming I have already posted a Luma invite for that particular Saturday. If there is no Luma invite, there will not be a Zoom that week).

Please keep checking the Studio Diaries Chat here on Substack for any updates.

For this reason, all ‘Drawing Joy’ sessions will, for now, be free for all subscribers to the Studio Diaries (subject to change in the future).

Where to find the Zoom / Luma Link:

Drawing Joy Sessions are live on Zoom for subscribers to the STUDIO DIARIES.

Zoom / Luma links for each Drawing Joy session will be posted to the Private, Subscriber only Chat in the days prior to each zoom.

When you register for the ‘Drawing Joy’ session via lu.ma (by entering your email address), you will be able see the time in your part of the world. You will also receive an email reminder an hour before the Zoom. The zoom link will be in your email.

Please try and register as early as possible (i.e. the day before), prior to the Zoom session.

To join the chat, you will need to be a subscriber to the ‘Studio Diaries’.

Don’t forget to update your Zoom app before the Studio Session and remind the members of your household that you are having well earned, sacred, undisturbed Art / healing time for 90 minutes.

What happens in a 90 Minute ‘Drawing Joy’ Session?

Usually, the Drawing Joy sessions go like this:

1. Intro (5 minutes): We will begin with 5 minutes to introduce the session.

2. Planning (5 Minutes): I will show all of the images together, on one PPT slide, with their prospective times, so you can think about sketchbook layout, colour palette, lettering style or do some thumbnail sketching.

3. Warm Up sketches (5 Minutes): 1 PPT slide with 1 - 2 images.

4. Drawing (60 minutes): 3 PPT slides. Each slide will be displayed for 20 minutes. Some slides will have 1 image, others may have 3 or 4 images. Where there are multiple images displayed, you get to choose how many you draw. If you are a slow painter like myself, you may choose to focus on only 1 image. If you like drawing fast, you may choose to draw all images.

   When the time ends, the next slide and image/s will be displayed.

You are welcome to draw or paint along with me, or paint from your own reference images.

5. Sharing (15 Minutes): The last 15 minutes is where we each have the option to share our work. There are 3 ways of doing this whilst in Zoom;

a) Hold your work up to the screen and I will spotlight you.

b) Post your work to the Studio Diaries private, subscriber only Chat, in the thread with the relevant Luma link, and I will screenshare.

c) Post your work to the Studio Diaries Discord, #drawing-joy-art-share channel and I will screen share.

(There will be a link to the Discord in the Studio Diaries private chat. You will need to join at least 24 - 48 hours before the Zoom session so you can be assigned the role of artist - this is for security and privacy reasons).

After the Zoom has ended, you are invited to share your work in the weekly Studio Diaries chat thread - where the Luma Link is (if you joined us live, or if you are doing the replay), in the private, subscriber only chat:

This is intended to be a pressure free, fun , creative, joyful time without comparisons or expectations.

What happens after the Zoom?

1. Immediately after the Zoom meeting ends, you are invited to join us in the Studio Diaries Discord 🔊Studio Lounge (a voice & Video channel similar to Zoom but not recorded). Here you can keep drawing and chatting together for as long as you like. The invite to the Studio Diaries Discord is in the private, subscriber only chat.

2. If you haven’t done so already, please share your work to the Studio Diaries Chat in the relevant thread (i.e. where this week’s Luma link is).

What Materials do you need?

You don’t need anything special. Use whatever you have available, or what you feel like using on the day. There are no rules and no limits. If you are unsure, here are some suggestions:

1. Dry materials work well with limited time frames (pencils, Texta’s, crayons, Markers, pens, etc.)

2. Watercolour paints in pans (dried, not in tubes) are also good. If you need to dry them quickly, put yourself on mute and use a hair dryer.

3. You can sketch, draw or paint in a sketchbook on a double page spread, or you can use separate pieces of paper for each image.

These are some of the things I like to use in my sketchbooks:

1. HB pencils (mechanical are my favourites) - good for planning & lettering

2. Gouache, Acrylic Gouache or flat matt acrylic paint. Flat, non glossy paints are best in sketchbooks as the pages are less likely to stick together.

3. I also use gesso primer, and sometimes watercolour ground before painting.

4. Watercolours, Pencils, Uni pin fine liners, etc.

Helpful things to consider:

1. Layout and Composition (particularly if you are doing a double page sketchbook spread). I use a separate piece of paper, the same size as the Pith sketchbook I am currently using to roughly plan my layout.

2. Leaving space for writing / journaling

3. Lettering - fonts, calligraphy, typography etc. Pinterest is a great resource for this.

4. You may wish to use this session to sketch / draw a draft version first and finish the painting at a later time

5. What materials do you want to use? Will they dry fast? Bleed through the page? You may wish to test materials (swatch them) on a different page ahead of time. (I also keep a hair dryer nearby).

Here are some gorgeous examples of Visual Journaling:

1. Helen C Stark of The Time Foragers Club creates gorgeous Weekly Visual Journals. I love how Helen shows up for herself every week. She has been a huge inspiration to me, and seeing her weekly posts have truly helped me stay positive through the many challenges Ovarian Cancer brings. You can also see / follow Helen’s Instagram

2. Lucia Leyfield of The Ink Pad has a way of journaling she calls Box Journaling. You can see an example in her Fragments of March page in her sketchbook on Lucia’s Instagram

3. Katie Moody has a gorgeous sketchbook spread where she has been drawing ‘Pages from Life’ with her Patreon members. You can follow Katie’s Instagram or join Katie’s Patreon

4. Amy Cowan of Illustrated Life on Substack has numerous inspirational and informative blog posts about Visual Journaling, including; ‘13 Reasons to keep an Illustrated Journal’, as well as ‘12 Things to include in your Illustrated Journal’ and ‘12 things to letter in your Illustrated Journal’. You can also see her work on Instagram oamyoamy

5. Samantha Dion Baker - has a delightful blog post; ‘A Sketchbook Spread Explained’. You can also follow Sam on Instagram, or purchase some of her books from her Website.

6. Michelle Allen - has a beautiful, colourful way of Visual Journaling. You can see some of her Instagram sketchbook spreads HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

7. Gemma Correll - her graphic Sketchbook Diaries

8. Vesna Maric is a sketchbook artist from Oslo who documents her life through her Substack publication; Spring in Norway (also her Instagram)

Please note; because this is a FREE event, it will be recorded and may be posted publicly on both my You Tube Channel and here on Substack

If you share your work on social media, please use the hashtag #samashleyartclub and tag @samashleyart on Instagram

DONATE

Ovarian Cancer Australia You can Donate HERE

Cancer Council Australia You can Donate HERE

Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation You can Donate HERE

Until next time,

Hug the people you love, Celebrate the good things in your life, Exercise and make the art that makes you happy.

All my love,

Other places we can connect:

Instagram

YouTube

Pinterest

Disclaimer

By participating in a Studio Session you are agreeing to be recorded and to let me use any content created (i.e. Zoom Recording) to advertise on various social media channels (such as my Instagram, You tube, Pinterest & Facebook etc.).