We talked about how to learn how to draw from scratch in a previous post, but how to learn how to draw abstractions, how to draw intuitively how children do, we adults will have to learn, because children have the freedom of expression and create for the sake of the process, and when they grow up they forget what is creativity for the sake of creativity. Let me show you by my example how to relax and stop expecting from yourself an artistic masterpiece every time you sit down to paint. To begin with, it’s worth understanding a simple thing, drawing is a pleasure, not hard work. Like any business that you love, it should be easy and simple to be in the process of drawing. If this is not the case at the moment, this is normal. You are an adult who has already forgotten what it is like to just paint and paint without a goal, but just getting high from the colors and the very feeling that something is changing in this world from your actions. Tell yourself: “I want to enjoy drawing!”. To learn how to draw easily and freely, you need to create a proper atmosphere around you. Find a convenient place, lay out art supplies, leave more free space around to scatter everything around and not feel remorse during the drawing process. Take paper that you will not regret! Do not take the most expensive paper, but if you take it, then confidently tell yourself that you can spoil it, throw it away, tear it, do anything with it. You should not try and strain. But at the same time, you should not take the cheapest and not high-quality materials, because they are not at all fun to draw. If you take ordinary children’s colored pencils and compare the color palette and brightness with professional colored pencils, you will understand why many people in childhood lose interest in drawing very quickly. Even now I can’t get myself to paint with soft and non-professional materials, it’s just not pleasant and does not give pleasure. So take good paints, pencils, markers and normal paper. Your task is to completely relax and feel the material with which you will draw. I like to draw in free style first with ink, and add color after the line art. Take your favorite pen, isograph, brushpen, liner, or any other material that you like. Do not come up with a plot, do not think about the end result. Do not outline drafts and shapes. Just put a point anywhere in your sheet and start guiding your tool somewhere. Look at the line, feel how pleasant it is to lead the pen on paper. What a bright trace remains. The essence of free intuitive drawing is not to try to get a previously known result. The bottom line is in the process itself. I came up with such a drawing style for myself, to get rid of the art complexes, which I have a lot. The most important thing is the impostor complex, because I do not have a formal art education, and all adults know that the artist must study somewhere, otherwise you are not a real artist. And there is a fear that they will see that I really can’t draw. Fears constrain freedom of expression and creativity, it is very difficult to enjoy drawing when you are tense and focused on solving side, non-drawing problems. For example, you can try to draw in some kind of “right” style, you can try to draw “neatly”, you can try to draw “correctly”, you can try to save materials. But all these side tasks are not needed when drawing, they only interfere. Fears that your drawing “will not work out”, that people laugh at you, will not be taken seriously. All this is inherent in me. Try to draw your thoughts and ideas, but do it not analytically, but intuitively. Let the hand draw something itself, and you do not give it any instructions, except for “draw.” Do not tell your hand what you want to see. Do not say where to lead the line. Say just draw. And do not try to understand what kind of drawing you get. Draw while you draw. Do something that gives you joy and pleasure. Do whatever you want with your drawing, but just do not evaluate it and do not try to understand. When you finish, only then can you step back and rest. Add colors if you think the picture should be in color. Mix in any way. Try it, experiment. Make the most desperate strokes and strokes, show yourself, your temperament, character, state of mind, problem or its solution. Put in the line, shape and color your emotions, feelings. Just enjoy the drawing process as you enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning, cake, chatting with your loved one, sex, dancing, music. Get your sensual pleasure from painting.