Prompt #62 - Take Up Space

Stop editing yourself

Hi, I‘m Lorena and welcome to The Stress Less Pencil. Together, we create art to make us feel good, not to make it look good. All weekly prompts are designed for total beginners and experienced artists alike, so come join us.

Photo by Ryan Moreno on Unsplash

This week, my three year old daughter got her first blinky shoes. You know the kind, they have lights in the sole that light up like an 80s disco when you step on them.

She loved them. So did I. However, my initial enthusiasm was quickly followed by wondering whether you could turn off the blink for when she went to preschool. Somehow I felt embarrassed by the idea of her drawing too much attention to herself. Like that's not something she should be doing.

What the hell?

I had to reflect on why I would feel this way. It makes no sense. She’s a kid, kids wear blinky shoes. It’s a non-issue. I’m still not 100% sure, I guess I learned somewhere along the way that you shouldn’t be too flashy. Literally, in this case.

That got me thinking about the many ways in which we learn to edit ourselves, to tune ourselves down. We’ve been told not to be too loud, not to be too confrontational, not to stick out too much, not to break the rules.

So today, we’re going to put on our blinky shoes, and we’re going to imagine what an uncensored version of ourselves would look like.

The Activity - Sketch yourself without any limits

Step 1 - What do you want?

What are the things you always wanted to do? The things you never did, because they weren’t age or sex appropriate, or that weren’t professional enough? What are the things you always liked doing, but you never leaned into it because none of your friends had the same passion? A hobby you were always curious about, but wrote off because you felt you weren’t good enough?

Step 2 - Unlimited you

Draw a little sketch of yourself that incorporates the things from the previous step. It’s fine if this is a stick figure. We want to see what this version of you could look like, the one that didn’t limit themselves.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Step 3 - Let yourself

Look at your free, uncensored, unlimited self. They are pretty awesome, right? What’s standing in your way of being that person? Is it actual reasons, or just stuff you made up, or that you were taught by society? Think about it!

My Example

Oh where to start, without any outside pressure (imaginary or not), I would:

• have brightly coloured hair. some sort of oil-spill-paint-job situation of greens and blues and purples.

• have a full sleeve tattoo, ideally from this artist I love.

• own rainbow sparkle roller-skates, with blinky wheels of course, that I’d either take to the skatepark, to roller disco or maybe even to roller derby (my roller derby name would be Hairy Kelly)

• have leaned into my love for comics a lot earlier. I’m only really going at it, in the unlimited fashion, now. I wonder if I had gotten into it earlier, if I had just ridden the wave of being obsessed with drawing Sailor Moon characters, how Hair Girl would look like now.

• also play baseball, despite the fact that I think I “throw like a girl”

Yes, definitely. Please hold while I get my hair coloured and arm inked.

See you next week!

Love, Lorena

BONUS - Good gawd, just look at these!!! 😍