I bought a new book (at Anthropologie of all places) called the Confident Creative by Cat Bennett. Part “how-to” / part philosophy I hope to use this book to guide me into what has been a long-time dream of mine…. to draw.

Cat breaks the book into three sections: Making Marks, Drawing from Life, Drawing from Imagination. Like most new endeavors, the book recommends doing a little bit every day. And that’s the key. Doing it every day. Like brushing your teeth. Just showing up and making the commitment of time. There are a lot of things I wish I could just dedicate 15 minutes a to, but somehow I barely manage to put in the time for teeth brushing. So if I could choose just one other thing to do every day besides brushing my teeth, this would be it.

And so I’ve started, as the book does, with Making Marks. And I hope to dedicate 30 days to it.

Cat says, “When we were toddlers, we scribbled with crayons on paper or even on the walls. Once we had a crayon in hand we had to make marks! Kids seem to understand instinctively how exciting it is simply to see what emerges when we show up to draw without any plan. They’re undaunted, free from judgment, and filled with positive expectation.”

And so here are three mark making samples. The third one is by my toddler Max who I end up spending a lot of time making marks with. I bet you can see who has the most energy and excitement. Here’s hoping I match his enthusiasm soon.