When I write my workbooks for Drawing Meditations, I make them more like a series of worksheets than a book: spare and succinct with emphasis on instructions over descriptions of the outcome. It clearly reflects how I teach art.
My teacher’s instinct is to let the student discover their own path to creative insights. I guide but don’t insist. Respect the artist’s own experience over my own. Creative insight is very personal – it’s not about me.
That works well in the classroom where I am on hand to offer encouragement or assistance in real-time. I have good instincts about when to prompt and when to stay quiet. I can see when an artist is on a path or when they are struggling.
But in written form, students don’t get the benefit of my gentle nudges. So when I was reviewing Exploring Intuitive Art with Oracle Cards before translating it to Japanese, I realised it might be improved by inserting my insights.
I swallowed my instinct and added my own voice to the writing. I expanded on the examples that I had drawn in 2021. Now, like a recipe blog, the story comes before the instructions.
It was challenging to overcome my habit to remove myself from the writing. But I did it! I set the stage for each example: why did I try this exercise; what did I want to get from doing it? I described the process where I veered beyond the basic instructions. I shared where I found insight and my conclusions about the how it went for me. And many of the exercises got extra tips and hints; the sort of bonus content I always give in my classes.
The rewrite makes the book more compelling and honest. Readers can see a real-world example of how I use the exercises. It’s still a tiny little book, 17 pages where it used to be ten. But its dense.
And there’s a Japanese version, too. I’ll have a printed samples in both languages at the Kozuka Arts Festival コヅカ・アートフェスティバル next week, so you can have a look. Both versions are available to download at a modest price from the Mediatinker shop.
