Hello Lisa.

Welcome back to another edition of THE PENCIL CASE! As always, each issue focuses on a theme to encourage a fresh look at garden design and graphics. This week let's explore daily drawing prompts and how they can add goodness to your life.♥︎ 

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Quick note: 2025 enrollment for Garden Graphics Tool Kit closes tonight at midnight US central time. If this is the time to sharpen your drawing skills please join us. We only offer this course once a year.

BENEFITS OF DRAWING EVERY DAY

One of my students recently shared how one of her 2025 goals was to draw for 10-15 minutes each day. She asked if I had some drawing prompts to add to her list...oh yes! I'll share some of those with you later in this newsletter, but first, let's discuss how daily drawing can impact us in positive ways...whether you’re an artist, a designer, or simply someone looking to improve their creativity and observation skills. Drawing daily...

• Builds consistency to your creative routine (great for mastering any skill)
• Boosts creativity (even simple sketches can spark ideas)
• Enhances observation (this is awesome when learning plants...hint, hint...draw plants!)
• Reduces perfectionism (the more you draw, the more you feel free)
• Has therapeutic benefits (drawing is meditative)
• Shows growth (you can see how far you've come and its the best motivation to continue)

A DRAWING ROUTINE

As you establish a daily drawing routine consider the following:

• Set aside a specific time and place each day to draw. Maybe some days you can even visit a coffee shop or the park to make it extra special.
• Your time commitment doesn't have be grand. Even 5–10 minutes counts. 
• Use a sketchbook to store your creations. It's so satisfying to look back at all the drawings you added day after day. Date them too. It's fun to see how the time of year influences what you drew. The date can also provide important information like when something was blooming (if that was the daily subject).
• Focus on themes or challenges to keep it interesting. These can last for a week or a month. I'll list some ideas below. 

DRAWING THEMES

Rather than try to think of something new each day, consider themes to generate ideas for days at a time. When we narrow our focus, ironically we generate more ideas! The themes below can be used for a week, a month or an entire season. Mix it up the best way for you.

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Plants in winter (Draw just the stems, seeds, entire plant...or maybe even bark patterns)

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Flowers (These would be fun to include all season...and dating those drawings gives you a record of bloom time)

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Leaves (This is a great opportunity to learn about the leaf textures on your plant. You can just draw the leaf and/or draw the stem with the leaves so you can see how they are arranged)

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Garden furniture (Draw furniture in your garden, at an antique store, on Pinterest or even from an awesome online outdoor furniture store)

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Paving patterns (Explore brick and stone paving patterns in your area and online. See how many different ones you can find!)

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Garden tools (I love functional items like tools and they are fun to draw. This also gives you an opportunity to research additional ones)

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Wildlife (What lovely animals visit your garden? Consider everything from butterflies to bees to birds and squirrels...and so many more)

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Bird baths (or another sculptural element. I love researching things like this online and seeing how many different designs I can find)

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Fruits + vegetables (Start with the edible plants in your garden, then maybe explore those you can't grow in your region)

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What other themes would you add? 

LET'S DO THIS! 

I have at least two months of drawing prompts for you in GARDEN GRAPHICS TOOL KIT! This is my 8-week drawing course where we learn how to draw many garden elements from pavers to plants to fences to furniture and so much more. I only teach this course once a year and it's open for enrollment through the end of today, Thursday, January 16, 2025. If this is your time to sharpen your drawing skills, please join us.

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Perhaps you'd like to dive into another source of inspiration? Join us for 100 days of design tips with our 10x10 SERIES. These are perfect if you are just starting to tip toe into design.

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If you know someone that needs design inspiration, please feel free to share this newsletter. Anyone can subscribe right here. I also keep a VAULT of past issues in this secret location.

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Happy drawing, 

Lisa 

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PAPER GARDEN WORKSHOP

Thank you to Mandy Orgler for designing the lovely graphics in all these newsletters.