✍️ Want to draw more? Might Could Draw Today is BACK! 🌟
An initiative to gently encourage you (and me!) to draw today.
Hallo, there!
I’ve got fun, big news today! We are relaunching Might Could Draw Today here in this Substack! Yay! If you’re new here, you may have three immediate questions:
What’s Might Could Draw Today?
Who is “we”?
How do I participate in MCDT?
1. What’s Might Could Draw Today?
Might Could Draw Today (MCDT) is an initiative aimed to gently encourage us to make time for drawing, within a supportive and uplifting environment of artists from around the world.
I started MCDT on Instagram in 2016 and through its many iterations and platforms and countless participating artists, we have created over 30,000 pieces of art with over 200 drawing prompts! And counting!
How is MCDT different from other art prompts/challenges?
Over the years 8 years since I started MCDT, I’ve gone through many shifts, evolutions, and life changes—as we all have! And just as my life has changed and evolved, my art practice has also changed and evolved. A baby complicates things a bit, you know. But having a child also made me focus and prioritize in a way I never had before.
The thing I love about MCDT is that it’s a goalless practice—we’re just drawing to draw. Here, in our sketchbooks, we’re not drawing for clients. We’re not drawing for class assignments. We’re not drawing to compete in a competition, be hung up in a gallery show, create a product to sell, or become a viral social media sensation.
MightCouldDrawToday is simply drawing for the sake of drawing. How thrilling that we can draw such random, pointless things like anthropomorphic bugs, raccoons playing banjos, and penguin parties for no reason other than BECAUSE I WANTED TO? When else in our lives do we get to be so free?
It’s been drilled into our brains that everything we do must be productive. That something is only worth doing if it will give us concrete results—if it will improve something. But the problem with this kind of goal-oriented activity is that it instills in us a sense that where we are right now is not good enough. That what is here right now is less desirable than what could be.
And that constantly striving mindset stops us from ever being satisfied with our art, ourselves, or our life.
If we always draw with a vague goal to “get better at drawing”, when will we ever feel that we have met that goal? When will we be better? When will we be good enough? That type of goal will forever be on the horizon, unattainable. If better is our goal, we will always feel like our art is not good enough.
When I started MightCouldDrawToday 8 years ago, I unknowingly began my journey to a goalless art practice. I had spent the previous two years grinding away, taking class after class, trying to “get better” at drawing (and seemingly getting nowhere). On that first day of MCDT, I gave up on getting better.
Instead, I decided to make a new goal: just draw more.
And that was the moment that I truly began to enjoy drawing. That was when I stopped struggling and striving and trying so hard, and I just started… drawing.
Drawing for the sake of it. Drawing whatever completely random thing that came into my head every Monday morning. These prompts have given my art practice a lightness, looseness, and sense of freedom. MCDT has taught me, over the course of 200+ weeks, that we don’t have to take drawing so dang seriously.
We can still have little goals for our art, like trying to draw 3 times a week. But we can keep those guidelines loose and self-compassionate. Sometimes we’ll meet them, sometimes we won’t. Either way, we can let them be and not get swept up in the achievement (or lack thereof).
As for our overall art practice, we can attempt to remain goalless. I no longer draw as a way of chasing after that elusive, unachievable goal: “to get better at drawing”. There is, of course, still a voice in my head, yapping away wishing for better skills, better technique, better whatever. But I’ve learned, over these 8 years, that I don’t have to listen to it.
And meanwhile, my hands can just keep drawing.
2. Who is “We”?
I’ve been blessed with an amazing group of artists who have drawn with me for years and years and inspired me and motivated me to keep going. They’ve encouraged me when I was down, celebrated with me when I was up, and been there in between. If it wasn’t for this core group of people, I would have thrown in the towel long ago, I’m sure. Some people have been drawing with us since Day 1 in 2016!
I’m happy and thrilled to announce that two of those dedicated, amazing artists will be joining us as MCDT Leaders!
Nikki Hemady
Substack handle: Donut By Day
Location: Sydney, Australia
Favorite medium: Digital
Many of you know Nikki/Donut By Day from our Studiomates and Sketchbook to Style days, and others may recognize her from the past few weeks as she’s kicked off our prompts in the Substack Chat! Nikki is an amazing artist who is constantly inspiring me with her brilliant linework, exploration of textures, and imaginative characters!
Nick Harbaugh
Substack handle: Nickharb
Location: Austin, Texas
Favorite medium: Pen and Ink
Nick is also a Studiomates and Sketchbook to Style alum, and will be joining us now to help lead MCDT! Nick is a fantastic artist and always blows me away with his ability to make such interesting and original characters out of simple blobby shapes! His linework is crisp and flowing, and he’s a master of walking the line of creepy/dark and warm/inviting.
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Nikki, Nick, and I will be rotating weeks as we take turns coming up with each weekly art prompt. I am forever thankful to these two spectacular people for teaming up with me to run MCDT and get us all back drawing in our sketchbooks more! ❤️
3. How Do I Participate in MCDT?
Every Monday, a new prompt will be posted in our Substack Chat by Nikki, Nick, or me. You can find the Substack Chat by this direct link, on the I Might Could Do That! webpage, or on the Substack app.
Once you’re in the Chat, look for the I Might Could Do That! thread in the list. There, you’ll see all our threads, and the most recent should be that week’s MCDT prompt from Nikki, Nick, or me! Here’s what that looks like on web:
Click the Reply button at the bottom of that thread to see the artwork that’s been shared with that prompt and upload your own! Then draw and share more, or come back next Monday for a new prompt!
Welp, I’m really excited myself, about drawing in my sketchbook more, and plan to take some time off other things to get back into the groove of drawing consistently. I doubt I’ll get back to my “draw every day” routine right away, but drawing some is better than drawing none! And drawing with others is better than drawing alone!
Hope to see you (and your art!) over in the MCDT Chat this week!
<3,
Christine
