CREATIVE SELF-EXPRESSION: Drawing without Fear [VIDEO SERIES ON THIS PAGE]
It’s as-yet unthinkable experience of creative self-expression for many …to draw without fear.
BUT NOT FOR YOU! NOT ANY MORE.
WELCOME TO DRAWING WITHOUT FEAR!
I’m Laura Volpintesta. I’ve been successfully guiding creatives and aspiring designers to DRAW without FEAR for almost 3 decades now.
You’re going to love these videos.
Can I be honest?
After decades of drawing, STILL before I start drawing there is usually an excitement, a thrill, an unknown, a “risky” and “I have no idea what’s going to happen” feeling in the pit of my gut. but still… it’s not FEAR per se.
Drawing is not a test. Drawing doesn’t trigger usually trauma, inner critic or perfectionist tyranny for me anymore. (And if it DOES bring up something difficult to be addressed, I have made a promise to myself to stop and listen with love- and gratitude for the opportunity to know myself more .)
But hundreds of students, and my own memory, show me how normal and natural it is to have old memories and beliefs come up in the throes of creative self-expression.
IT’S ALSO PROCRASTINATION’S BEST FRIEND. (but procrastination can become OUR friend, too, when we use it just so).
Here we work with the highest energy. It’s called LOVE. It’s called CURIOSITY. It’s called HEART’S DESIRE, it’s called IMAGINATION, it’s called INSPIRATION AND CREATIVE SELF-EXPRESSION,
IT’S PERSONAL, but it’s UNIVERSAL.
It’s a calling.
But in 25-+ years teaching fashion design and fashion illustration at Parsons School of Design (and having been a fashion student in NYC/ Paris at Parsons), and here on this platform, I have worked with HUNDREDS of students struggling to overcome an insidious inner critic. This inner voice clamps down on creative self-expression and makes us feel blocked.
The voice that lies to them and holds them apart from their own greatness, depth, compassion and tenderness!
Over the years I learned that my genius and greatest joy is to expose and address that sneaky voice within you (as I’ve developed this ongoing relationship with my own over the years), EMBRACING AND RELEASING the greatness that calls each of us to learn and engage in creative expression through art and design, making and drawing.
Check out this video lesson below (grab a soft pencil?, and then read on, there’s more below:
Drawing without Fear is FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
Drawing without fear is a completely different physical experience, a different emotional experience. A different psychology, a joyful spiritual experience!
I build this philosophy into all of my fashion and art programs, so you can surprise and amaze yourself. (Model Drawing Magic and Soulful Fashion Foundation for example, or Fashion Sketch Group where we meet and sketch together online every week!) When we can relax into flow without attacking the self, the effect is:
- EMOTIONAL: when we create a safe space for discovery, exploration, and new experience to happen, we are open accept ourselves be accepted and understood by our guides/ teachers/ peers. We know we are encouraged and that every stroke on the page is teaching us something loving. We know that the honesty of what we see and what expression comes through is what gives the value to our drawing. We know that the experience we have gets to have a quality that revitalizes and inspires us and that ripples outward. We know that we are always evolving and responding to what we see in the process of healing the part of us that used to lash out, judge, criticize, and cause us to freeze or give up.
- PHYSICAL -this emotional state and approach to drawing without fear relaxes our intellect, allowing a subconscious flow state to come to the fore, urging us to PHYSICALLY assume and move in a playful energy! I use MUSIC to support this multifaceted experience too (see MODEL MAGIC MODEL DRAWING DIGITAL COURSE for the experience) As you learn in today’s videos, involving your whole body into the drawing, allowing a natural flow into your process rather than going against the current, makes such a big difference!
- SPIRITUAL: drawing without fear doesn’t ‘push against the current” because we un-learn enough to REBUILD TRUST in ourself and our process of drawing. REBUILDING TRUST in our emotions, instincts, natural expression and inner guidance leads us to hone and revel in our personal style and expression in drawing. We operate from the knowing that we are naturally conductors of harmony, beauty, service and valuable creativity. This need not be forced, rather practiced and enjoyed throughout the process.
Read on below about PROCESS versus PERFECTION, experiential learning and pleasure!
Drawing without Fear: rever and embrace your PROCESS
OUR PROCESS is everything! When I had my “awakening”/ “healing” around what I now call drawing without fear, it was because I had an incredible teacher (Joe Haske) who changed my whole orientation towards drawing in one fell swoop!
From day one in his figure drawing/ life drawing classroom at Parsons, my concept of beauty changed
I started to see the beauty and depth in the PROCESS of creation, above all else!
I feel this way about music too. How beautiful is it when you see or hear art that TEACHES you while you experience it because you can see/hear visible traces of the human hand and mind that made it? When you can feel a liberation, a weight lifting within yourself, during the creative process unfolding naturally within you.
That you can actually feel your own wings unfurl?
I’m one of those people who learned to ditch the eraser and made that my motto -because finally, there is nothing to hide!
Each mark, blemish, and attempt in your drawing process is valuable and that approach to life in general is EXTREMELY HEALING, RICH and liberating.
THIS IS QUALITY.
Valuing Process over “PERFECTION” is the most beautiful and forgiving, gritty, softening, feminine-powered and expansive way to experience life, the world, and relationships.
And art.
I hope you enjoyed this page and keep scrolling because there are more videos and content below!!
Love,
Laura
OBSERVE, FEEL, CREATE, EXPRESS
Whether light or dark, cloudy or crisp, confident or wobbly, it’s all important. In fashion sketching and illustration, design, and beyond.
Contrasts, inclusion and raw HONESTY are what make your work accurate, interesting, compelling, and universal!
Not only that, but it increases your enjoyment of the experience itself IMMEASURABLY!!!
Feel into this with the video below.
The Drawing without Fear experience takes on Perfectionism
and exposes how it lies to you , restricts you and holds you back…..
But meeting Perfectionism face–to-face totally helps you heal it! that big, scary BEAST winds up being so flimsy, rigid and puffed up with illusion.
When we dismantle and deconstruct PERFECTIONISM through learning drawing without fear, we realize that what’s on the other side is SO UNDENIABLE, SO TRUE.
SO NATURALLY BEAUTIFUL and liberating that our new perception spills over into all areas of our life.
So enjoy this gift!!!
ART IS YOUR BIRTHRIGHT
I love you and your courage so much- even when you don’t feel courageous. the word COURAGE comes from COUER – heart. There is a vulnerability in it that is necessary, raw, and beautiful.
Love,
Laura
ARE YOU CURIOUS ABOUT YOUR PERFECTIONISM's GIFTS?
BONUS: EFT Tapping to soften the inner critic so you can create freely
TIP/REFRAME for the INNER CRITIC:
It helps to remind ourselves that the inner critic isn’t here to squash us. The voice was likely formed in an early childhood experience, and was taken on to protect us early in life. We can APPRECIATE its efforts, while having a real awareness that it isn’t always required anymore in our adult experience as humans. We can have a more open and conscious experience with it.
EFT/TAPPING on the inner critic for creatives:(video)
