NATIONAL SOMETHING MONTH

The next 30 days are going to pass whether you like it or not, so why not think about something you have always wanted to try and give it a shot for the next 30 days?

- Matt Cutts

Recently I was reading about National Novel Writing Month which got me thinking that it is almost always National Something Month. For example, October is National Toilet Tank Repair Month. Wonder if Hallmark has a card for that? Anyway, since I’m going to need lots of ideas for experiments, I decided this might be an easy way to get a dozen experiments.  So I did some quick research and tried to grab at least one event for each month. Poor neglected August, I haven’t found anything appropriate during August yet.

January - National Hobby Month or International Creativity Month

February - National Boost-Your-Self-Esteem Month or Library Lovers Month

March - National Nutrition Month

April - Community Service Month or National Garden Month

May - National Physical Fitness and Sports Month or Better Sleep Month or Correct Posture Month

June - Audiobook Month

July - National Culinary Arts Month

August -

September - Self-Improvement Month

October – 30 Days of Lists

November – National Novel Writing Month

December - Read a New Book Month

So for January I’ve decided to go with National Hobby Month as I currently have no hobbies. Unless lying on the couch watching tv suddenly counts as a hobby. Didn’t think so.

The next step was to pick a hobby. I considered a few things – reading, cooking, gardening, playing piano, making balloon animals. Finally I decided to go with drawing. I drew a little as a kid, but never very well or often. I’ve had no lessons, which will be pretty obvious if I post a picture of whatever I draw at the beginning of the month. So there is a LOT of room for improvement.

Now that I have the general idea for the experiment I look online for some info on learning to draw in 30 days. So the first thing I run across is the book You Can Draw in30 Days: The Fun, Easy Way to Learn to Draw in One Month or Less by Mark Kistler. Only my local library doesn’t carry it and I’m trying to keep costs down. So I search some more and find a blog called Learn to Draw in 30 Days. Perfect! Then I see they never posted anything past the intro. Much less perfect! I actually found several copies of that blog all of which just contain an intro.

Finally I found the Art Graphica website which has some free drawing information. Yeah! I’m going to use it as a starting point and look for more information as needed. Since I don’t have a formal site/book telling me how much I need to do daily to learn to draw I’m going to devote an hour a day to drawing, which may or may not be enough to make me a great artist. Honestly no way would it be enough. In fact there is no where near enough time in a month, but I’m not expecting to come out of this as a great artist. I’m just hoping to learn some discipline and develop some self-confidence.