Drawing Your Life: Learn to See, Record, and Appreciate Life's Small Joys

Some people keep a written journal. Others collect photographs or create scrapbooks. Many post memories and ideas and random thoughts online. However, the truly intrepid will “draw” their lives.

Drawing Your Life is a unique guided journal that encourages you to discover the meaning and joy in the mundane. By creating a record of your days—one object or event at a time—you gain insight into your own life and come to understand how the ordinary becomes the extraordinary.

Equally fascinating is how you will learn to appreciate the immeasurable value of doing small things often—an approach to life and art that will result in a remarkable body of work created one simple act at a time.

Whether youre a self-described artist or an inveterate doodler, or even if you find it a challenge to draw a credible stick figure, Michael Nobbs surprisingly intuitive prompts, suggestions, and encouragements—along with his own charming illustrations—will inspire you to take a journey of self-discovery as you “draw your life.”

Observe. Record. Reflect. Create a visual record of your days. Informed by the author's personal philosophy of Sustainable Creativity, this guided journal encourages creative people-from doodlers and sketchers to fine artists and graphic designers-to develop their artistic impulses and discover their own inspirations through observing and recording-in pictures and words-the ordinary objects in their lives. The book comprises prompts and ideas for things to draw, books to read, items and ideas to collect, and adventures and encounters to pursue. Illustrated with the author's own colorful artwork and observations, Drawing Your Life provides plenty of space for readers to include their own drawings and ruminations so that it becomes not only a record of the reader's journey but also a means for each reader to gain true insight into their own lives and motivations.

Michael Nobbs is an artist and creator of the popular blog Sustainably Creative. Based on his philosophy of “doing little but often," he has written and illustrated several eBooks and downloadable pamphlets, including Start to Draw Your Life, 72 Ways to Draw More, Sustainable Creativity, and Getting Your Important Work Done. He also publishes the personal, hand-drawn journal The Beany. A graduate of the School of Art, Aberystwyth University (Wales), he conducts an online course, Get Sustainably Creative. He was a contributor to the Worlds Biggest Summit, an online health/wellness/creativity workshop alongside such luminaries as Julia Cameron and Patti (Life is a Verb) Digh. He lives in Wales.