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All of these are in ink pen in my 5×7″ sketchbook. Most are from life, some are from photos I took, and one is from a photo by someone else. I was walking through the lovely Warehouse District of Minneapolis after the march on January 23, wondering how I was going to hail a ride given how much the -20 F weather had drained my phone battery, but too high from the company of marchers to really fret. I looked up and saw a beautiful, pink, spiral fire escape, and (since I wasn’t going to stand there and draw) dug out my phone to snap it for later, but remembered that my phone wasn’t up for a text, much less a photo. I found a spot in the warm, my phone recovered, I got my ride, and once back in my friend’s home I looked up the fire escape. It was so noticeable that I was not surprised to find several photos. Gratitude to Kelly Schnell, who posted an excellent one in her Flickr account.
All ink pen on 5″ x 7″ or 17 x 17 cm sketchbook paper.
My practice: go outside and draw something I see every day. I’m not being purist; if it’s pouring, or I wait too long and it’s dark, I draw inside, and in a pinch, from a photo I’ve taken. It has been a very rainy start to the year, and once I sat in our enclosed entryway while the rain fell on the poppy leaves just outside.
After the first day, I have drawn with a gel ink pen. I might return to graphite pencil at some point, but right now, given my tendency to get fiddly, I’m enjoying the constraint of having only black to work with. These are all 5″×8″ or smaller, the size of my current sketchbook.
Several years ago, inspired by my friend Janet and her daily butterfly practice, I drew a leaf of a California tree every day for the entire year, mostly from photos. I really enjoyed it and stuck with it, which is rare for me for a daily practice. So I am doing something similar this year, combining two spiritual practices: I will go outside and draw something I see there.
I’m not going to be a purist about it; if it’s pouring rain, I’ll draw indoors (ideally, drawing something outside from indoors). I thought I might have to do that today, but the rain let up and I went out to our back garden and drew a fern there. I’ll post my drawings now and then with the tag, “Drawing outside every day.”
Getting outdoors and making art are also both good for my mental health, even if I only do them for a few minutes. I’m prone to anxiety, and various studies show that spending time outdoors and drawing both reduce anxiety–certainly for people like me, who enjoy them. I don’t need to go to a big natural expanse, though I am very much looking forward to pulling over now and then on my commute through Marin and Sonoma Counties and drawing some of the more scenic stretches. Even spending attentive time with a weed growing through a crack in the sidewalk is an experience of awe and beauty.
Sermons in Stones 
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