Shake It Up!

July Weeds & Wildflowers Prompt

Ah, the sultry, languid days of summer. We have two daily patterns in Florida during the summer — hot, humid, and dry or hot, humid, and wet.

If you’ve been following my series, Our Dialysis Story, you know my days have also sunk into a sameness surrounding Ben’s dialysis treatments, cooking, walking Syau, and working.

No vacation. No days off. No variety.

So, I decided to, as The Cars sang, Shake It Up on Weeds & Wildflowers.

Rather than a writing prompt for July, let’s have a drawing challenge!

How did this idea come about?

First, I chose the lovely bird photo below by Christine Morris Ph.D. for our July banner. Thank you, Christine.

Next, I published a piece by Deepti Kannapan about drawing a bulb of garlic.

Lastly, I put the two together and reached out to Deepti to help with this challenge. Using Christine’s bird photo, Deepti created the charming drawing at the beginning of this newsletter.

Let me state that I am NOT an artist. I can’t draw or paint. That’s why I wanted to create this challenge — to challenge me to do something different, to carve time for something new, to shake it up. And I hope you will join me.

This isn’t about being a good artist or about getting it right — it’s about trying, stretching, failing, learning, and trying again.

Will you join me? Try to draw Christine’s bird. Take a photo of your drawing — whether trash-can-worthy or Metropolitan-Museum-of-Art-worthy — and share it on Weeds & Wildflowers. I will do the same.

Then, I challenge you to choose other photos published on W&W or from your personal photo library and draw them. My personal goal is a minimum of three drawings during the month of July. Since we can’t use someone else’s photo without permission, if you use a photo published on W&W as inspiration, please include a link to the piece containing the photo, along with your drawing.

No shame. No embarrassment.

Grab a pencil, pen or paintbrush, or use a computer program and give it a try.

I know I need a little help and inspiration; perhaps some of you do, too, so here are two pieces from Deepti about her drawing experiences:

10 Awesome Things That Happened When I Drew Plants for 10 Days in a Row

Flurries of Nature-Inspired and Fantasy Art

And I recommend you check out Deepti’s YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/dkannapan

For responses to this challenge, please use Writing Prompt Response as one of your tags/topics.

Let’s shake it up!

As always, thank you for being here and for the love and support you’ve shown Louise Peacock, Ben, and me. We are immensely grateful.

And thank you, Christine Morris Ph.D. and Deepti Kannapan, for providing inspiration for the July challenge.

© Dennett 2023