Sarah Buckett is a freelance artist who works making paper collage art and illustration, as well as running various workshops and events - she is also the founder & co-ordinator of 'Can’t Draw Club'. This is her second year taking part in The Big Draw Festival as an individual organiser, and with the successes of last year's workshops under her belt she has returned with even more creative and fun Big Draw events to celebrate this year's theme 'Drawn To Life: Creativity & Wellbeing'.

In June, Sarah was welcomed to St Gregory's Catholic Primary in Chorley to run a series of Big Draw workshops with both staff and pupils. After an incredible week spent drawing, collaging and encouraging everyone to dismiss their fears of mistakes and failure, Sarah was inspired to share her story...

This is my second year as a Big Draw Co-Creator, and I made an early start on my events for the 2019 'Drawn to Life' Festival. At the end of Summer term in June, St Gregory’s Catholic Primary in Chorley welcomed me into their school for a full week. They grabbed the opportunity to sign up to the Festival themselves for the first time this year and so we split the week between drawing for wellbeing and paper collage (which is simply drawing with scissors as far as I’m concerned!) The week was centred around four principles that underpin their new curriculum; Curiosity, Reflection, Responsibility and Resilience.

This was a great brief to work with as those same principles are - to me - the very backbone of creative exploration and development, especially drawing.

You must be curious about where your lines will go when you start to draw, and you must embrace where they end up. If you can’t, then it’s important to reflect on why.

In my mind, resilience in drawing is quieting those inner (and sadly, sometimes well-meaning outer) critical voices. It is reminding ourselves that we can already draw in a way that is unique to each of us but that if what appears on our paper doesn’t match up with what we desire it to look like then we can take responsibility, try techniques to refine the way we draw and hopefully find our sweet spot. It is a process of acceptance; fundamentally accepting ourselves as we are but also being able to accept help to keep growing and developing.

Armed with all the fabulous Giotto drawing materials I won last year for my 2018 Big Draw Play T-Shirt design, I spent a half-day in every class throughout St Gregory’s with the aim of getting all the children (and staff) to make friends with drawing. We discussed how we all felt about our drawings and courageously shared feelings of self-consciousness and some negative perceptions of our own abilities. I talked about my own feelings about drawing and how I overcame my fear and shame to just enjoy the way I draw and not get hung up on things looking a certain way. Getting these feelings out in the open is always the first step to healing them, so each session was structured around reassurance and encouragement to set aside any worries. Everyone was able to draw in a safe space where mess, mistakes and imperfections were especially welcome.

We did blind and observational portraits, quickfire drawing games and lots of communal doodles where the kids were free to draw from their imagination.

These activities were all fun, but still held a serious message about the pervasive idea that there is a ‘right’ and a ‘wrong’ way to draw something.

This proved challenging at times because the children sought reassurance and guidance on what exactly to draw rather than simply drawing instinctively.  It was really gratifying to be able to work through this and help them let go of their anxieties to take control and ownership of their artwork. It was also a great way to illustrate that nobody interprets things in the same way and that the looser a drawing activity is, the bolder and more creative you can be. In turn, the bolder and more creative you are, the more your self-esteem and confidence develop. It’s a win-win situation!

My favourite part of the week-long event was being able to present drawing as something other than a skill the children could be judged or graded on. Everyone’s work was displayed together at the end of each session to celebrate their style diversity and reassure them that there was no true way to rank anyone’s drawings, single out the ‘best’ or critique anyone’s work. It was about effort, bravery and finding their creative voice.

Encouraging children to reclaim drawing as their own and empowering them to disregard aesthetic judgement is hugely valuable for their creative development and general wellbeing. 

For me, being able to use drawing as a tool for health and wellbeing relies heavily on how you feel about the way you draw. If you approach it with the attitude that you can get it wrong, or that the marks you make are somehow unacceptable then it will simply be another source of stress, another stick to beat yourself with. Getting to the root of it when kids are young is a privilege and that’s why drawing in schools and The Big Draw campaign is so important.

Spending a full week in a school was both exhausting and exhilarating. I learnt so much about myself and my creative journey, embracing my own mistakes, learning from them and not letting them throw me off course (too much!). What struck me the most was the joy and enthusiasm for free drawing across the whole school (staff included).

Curriculum pressures don’t always leave much room for drawing for fun. It is worth finding a place for drawing as a means of taking a creative breath, offering up the chance for children’s ideas to just be, rather than meet targets or success criteria. It is the creative equivalent of getting outside, having a run around and coming back refreshed and energised. Drawing simply for drawings sake releases tension, uses the brain in a different way and allows for individuality to shine.

I can’t recommend signing up to The Big Draw Festival enough, either as a school/organisation or an individual/freelance artist. It can seem daunting, and working with so many large groups certainly poses challenges, but it’s a special chance to make a difference in someone else’s life, planting a seed of self-acceptance and self-worth that will blossom in the future. 

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Sarah Buckett - freelance artist and Big Draw Festival organiser.