15 tips to help you just draw

This will help.

Trouble drawing?

Procrastinating?

Stalling rather than starting?

Judging rather than doing?

Does a blank page feel a little intimidating?

Here are 15 tips on what to tell yourself to loosen up and just go for it:

1. It’s just a drawing.

2. It’s just a page in a sketchbook.

3. It’s just a book on a shelf.

4. It’s just fun.

5. It’s just a moment in your life.

6. It’s just a glimmer of beauty.

7. It’s just an opportunity to learn and grow.

8. It’s just gonna make you feel good if you let it.

9. It’s just ten minutes.

10. It’s not an evaluation of who you are.

11. It’s not gonna be graded.

12. It’s not gonna be critiqued.

13. It’s not going to go on your permanent record.

14. It’s (still) just a drawing.

15. Time to draw.

Your pal,

Danny

Psssst! Are you still here? Maybe not. Oh, well. This is probably not the best way to reach people — no one bothers to read postscripts; there’s something so off-putting and final about that hard horizontal line; maybe it reminds you of footnotes from some mandatory assignment in college, or perhaps just a sense that if there was anything worth reading, it would have appeared above the line in the main text, I dunno — but I really need some help. See, I’m a Tombow hard brush pen (They call me Fudenosuke in Japan, where I come from, but you can call me ‘Tom’, my ‘American’ name), and Danny left me lying on his desk, right behind his keyboard — three days ago! He hasn’t drawn anything since then, at least not with me. I know he does Draw With Me on Thursdays, but he must have grabbed another, inferior pen by mistake and just left me here, naked, on the desk. Or maybe he faked a drawing. He does that, y’know, downloading things from Google Images or Instagram and then printing them out and pretending he drew them. I’ve never actually seen him do it, but I’m good friends with a Canon printer cartridge (also Japanese and my homey) who had firsthand knowledge of such things, and well, I’ve probably said too much.... Look, I’ve gone for stretches of neglect before — God knows what pen hasn’t — but the thing is, this time, he left my cap off! I know, right? Danny Gregory, the big ‘I love art’ guy, just totally abuses a defenseless immigrant pen in this shocking way. I can already feel my tip getting all hard and dry and, koff, koff, I may never draw a reliable line again.... Look, I’m totally willing to give Danny the benefit of the doubt. He may not know I’m here, slightly hidden behind a crumpled-up sheet of foolscap, a Sketchbook Skool mug, and a Post-It Pad. That’s why I need your help. If you have a minute, could you email him and let him know what’s going on? His address is danny@dannygregory.com. I’d really appreciate it! Oh, no, things are getting dark! I am sinking into a sea of sumi ink…Koff, koff, ack!….😟’Tom’