Draw and Be Happy Art Exercises to Bring You Joy

January 11, 2022 Post a Comment

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liked it Average rating 3.00 ·

· 12 ratings · 2 reviews

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Feb 12, 2021 Susan rated it it was ok

Huh.
>Some of the ideas in this book overlap with other, commonly-found drawing prompts

>Some of the ideas in this book are too big or too complicated for everyday drawing prompts
-e.g. 'make your own postcards when you travel' (because, yeah, I travel all the time [eyeroll])

>Some of the ideas are problematic
-e.g. 'get energized by interacting with other humans'
-(said no introvert ever)

>Some of the ideas would take too much energy and effort on days when I am decidedly unhappy
-kind of the opposite

Huh.
>Some of the ideas in this book overlap with other, commonly-found drawing prompts

>Some of the ideas in this book are too big or too complicated for everyday drawing prompts
-e.g. 'make your own postcards when you travel' (because, yeah, I travel all the time [eyeroll])

>Some of the ideas are problematic
-e.g. 'get energized by interacting with other humans'
-(said no introvert ever)

>Some of the ideas would take too much energy and effort on days when I am decidedly unhappy
-kind of the opposite of the purpose of the book

>Several of the ideas instruct to 'carry a separate book for...'
-how many sketchbooks does Shaw think I ought to carry around?
-usually I do carry one small one with me, but I stopped counting at three or four from Shaw's lists

>A number of the ideas actually seem like quite good ones.

BUT the factor of whether all of the ideas, some of the ideas, or none of the ideas are good for me quickly became beside the point.

Where I really had a problem with in this book, and the reason I gave a generous two stars, rather than the three I might have thought about, is that this book is physically uncomfortable to read.

The creators of this book, for some bizarre reason, chose to use a teeny-tiny, sans serif font throughout, already difficult to read.

BUT then on top of that, they opted to make most of the backgrounds eye-stabbingly bright colours that fought with, and usually won against, the text printed on them. On the very few pages where the text was on white backgrounds, I actually could read it. On the rest, I mostly just gave up, sticking to the bold print parts and skipping over the rest.

The eye-stabbingly bright background colours made me feel as if the book were shouting at me, which was a very unpleasant experience. These backgrounds, combined with the 'interesting' illustrations made it seem like everyone was just trying too hard. To me, it seemed like the book was screaming - screeching - at me 'BE HAPPY! BE HAPPY NOW!! JUST BE HAPPY!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!! HAPPINESS!!!!!!! HAPPY!!!! HAPPY!!!! HAPPY!!!!'.

I have to say. I don't enjoy being screamed at by a book. I am happy that I can return this one to the library and move on to other things.

...more

Oct 06, 2020 Lily rated it liked it

These exercises are pretty cute and it did inspire me to draw more. My favorite ones centered on imagination or drawing the miniscule, like the patterns in a wall or the lines in your hands. The design of the book is cheerful and bright, the color scheme is bold. I approve of anything about inspiring creativity I guess!