I have been teaching art for over 20 years and by combining this experience with training as a Life Coach have been able to collate a series of Creative Unblocking techniques which I use in both my private coaching and group workshops.
For my 10 min presentation to my BNI-Hammersmith group this month I decided to do a mini drawing workshop in order to show my fellow members how simple it is make good drawings and to demonstrate the power of dismanteling the limiting belief that many of us have that we 'can't draw'.
Negative statements are often instilled in us at a very young age by our teachers, parents, siblings, classmates or even friends and repeated until we believe it to be a 'fact' - so it can be very valuable to try and remember where such self-talk first came from and to explore the scource.
The exercise I chose was the continual line drawing technique that I use as an icebreaker at the beginning of the workshops. The brief is simply to 'switch off the brain and allow the eye to connect directly to the hand and draw the person opposite without lifting the pen. The task is completed in 1 minute and then repeated with the opposite hand and finally with eyes shut.
The results are simply astonishing! The squeals of discovery and quiet revelations that result in the space of less than 5 minutes never cease to delight me.
There is no substitute for the experience of participating and as we are essentially a marketing team it was also an excellent opportunity to show my fellow members what these workshops are about.
A workshop usually lasts 3 hours and the participants are given a set of drawing materials to keep as incentive to keep on drawing. I've done these workshops for groups of friends, corporate away days and in offices and board rooms but the best was in the Westminster Boating Base at Pimlico, warm and sheltered but right out on the river one sunny winter's day.
For more info. and examples of these drawings please see www.ArtActive.org.uk
