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Join me on a journey exploring the ups and downs of being a creator. I make things across many mediums including apps, games, and podcasts. Along the way, I take the side roads to motivation and inspiration. Navigating the winding paths that try to stop us from achieving our dreams and goals.
So it's Monday and I wanna share with you something I did at the weekend that was so great because I have not done it in such a long time and I'm betting there's probably at least a few of you out there who have sort of followed the same path as me and completely forgot about the joys of this. And what am I talking about? Well, I sat down with a pad of paper, some colored pens, some pencils, a compass and even my Spirograph kit and I just doodled. That's it. I just drew on paper and it's that simple.
Peter:I turned off the machines and you know, within about fifteen minutes, I'd completely forgotten about everything else and I was just relaxing at my desk at home drawing on paper and it is so so long since I have done that. And in particular, you know, I'm always fascinated with patterns and geometry. So, you know, I did some you know, I did some of the coloring book thing like a lot of people do and that's fantastic. I love doing that. That's nice and relaxing and I just wanted to take it to that next level and do things like, you know, I've always appreciated the the technical brilliance and artistry of things like mandalas and stuff like that.
Peter:And I thought, you know what, I'm gonna have a go at doing this. Yeah. I had not, you know, drawn with a pencil and paper in a very long time. I mean, I do the interface stuff all the time. Right?
Peter:But but just drawing something and letting it go where it goes is an entirely different mindset. And within no time at all, I mean, I spent hours doing this and just didn't even realize relaxing and yes, it was rough and I made a bunch of mistakes, but it really didn't matter because I just said to myself, keep going and you know, just you need to practice. You have not done this in years and you need to practice. And so things like drawing curves, freehand, yeah, they were, you know, pardon the pun, they were sketchy. I mean, they were rough.
Peter:But it really... I just let it go. Didn't let it bother me. Right? I didn't get obsessive about it happened to be, you know, what would essentially on a screen would be pixel perfect or anything like that.
Peter:And I just said, just keep going with it. It doesn't matter. And by the end of it, you know, of course, the more you practice these things, the better you get or the muscle memory comes back and it was just fabulous. And the results, like I say, they were better than I expected but not as good as I know that I can do. But it was a case of okay, you know what, we'll do this again.
Peter:And yeah, by the end of it, I was just like ready to do the next one. I was like, okay, you know what, I wanna do this again. But I forced myself, I stopped there and said, you know what, it was like crazy late at night. It's probably even early in the morning, I don't know. And I just said, you know what?
Peter:It's great that I'm super excited and want to do like the next one and go back and try and do it better and learn new techniques and practice my drawing and things like this. And I'm just sharing it with you all because it was wonderful to do something so very different than I normally would be sitting in front of a machine or or something like that. And just this beauty of it didn't matter that it wasn't perfect. And yeah, you know, you can erase the lines from a pencil and things like that, but it was more that you become so focused on what you're doing that it relaxes you because you forget about everything else. And yes, of course, I could have done this on a computer and I could have done it pixel perfect and all of that but that would have completely missed the point of the reason I was doing it which was to use my hands and to use those old analog skills that I have not touched in so long and just...
Peter:There's just something very different and magical, if you like, about the process of creating something manually, analog, however you wanna phrase it compared to just getting it perfect first time on a on a computer screen with software. It's just not the same. Anyway, that's it folks. Just wanted to put that out there because I hope that it gives you a reason to stop and think, yeah, what is something I used to do? Some kind of whatever, creative crafting skill, however you wanna phrase it, that you have not done in a very long time or at all and have always wanted to do it, give it a go.
Peter:You will be surprised at how much you get into it and focus on it and how it's just so much more exciting to wanna go back and improve it on the next one compared to just firing up that software software and getting it right first time. That's it folks, reach out to me, peterwitham.com, there's a contact form there, love to hear your thoughts on this. What are some of the things you know, you do every so often and go back? You know, you've heard me talk a lot about journaling but this is an entirely different mindset and an entirely different set of skills and I'm just super pumped to like sit down with a pad of paper and and do the next one. That's it.
Peter:See you.