This week is all about getting it all out, venting negativity to make room for positivity.

Exercises will include: Saint-styled self portrait, embodying your demons, and more.

Week 1: Exorcism

This week is about reminding ourselves to embrace imperfection by drawing under constraints.

Exercises will include: Blind contour, drawing in miniature, purposefully messing up pages, and more.

Week 2: Good Bad Art

This week is all about relaxing and taking things slow, stopping to smell the roses and making room for our minds to wander.

Exercises will include: Repetitive markmaking, drawing to music, drawings based on cute animal videos, and more.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to the US holiday on July 4, we will not meet the following week--we'll pick up the week after that.

Week 3: Soothing Mindfulness

(PLEASE NOTE: This class is NOT on July 4--we'll be skipping a week due to the holiday in the US.)

Remember when you were a kid, and you'd just draw whatever you wanted with no regard for quality or taste? This week is about bringing that mindset back.

Exercises will include: Doodling all the doodles you first learned to draw (e.g. The Cool S), drawing cartoons from memory, and more.

Week 4: Indulgence

This week is about getting some outside inspiration from art from another time and place.

Exercises will include: Exploring online museum or libraries collections, creating drawings based on those explorations, and more.

Week 5: Outside Inspiration

Restorative Drawing for Artists. Are you a visual artist who's been feeling blah about it lately? We'll rediscover the joy of it via playful drawing exercises and low-stakes sharing.

Anti-Burnout Artists Spa

Restorative Drawing for Artists. Are you a visual artist who's been feeling blah about it lately? We'll rediscover the joy of it via playful drawing exercises, randomized prompts, + light journaling.

This is a template for collecting the artifact resulting from this cohort — a final, publicly viewable summary of what participants learned or created during the course.

❗️**Important:** The contents of this post will appear on the cohort page, visible to everyone. Don't post anything you don't want to be publicly shared.

Please edit this topic with an artifact that makes sense for your course.

## [Artifact Title]

Replace with: summary description of what the cohort created or learned together.

This may be a final writeup, a summary of each participant's project, a link roundup to externally hosted  assignments — whatever makes sense for your course.

Note that participants can reply to this post, but only this initial post of the topic will be published to the cohort page as its public artifact.

Artifact

This is a template for an assignment you want to give participants in this cohort.

Please edit this topic with description, instructions, or anything else that makes sense for the assignment you'd like to share. The text below is just a starting point.

## [Assignment Title]

Replace with: summary description of the assignment. What are participants creating? What's the learning goal in the context of this course?

## Instructions

Replace with: details on the expected format or process for completing the assignment.

Example (for a final writeup):

- Please post a link to a Google Doc with 500 words on what you learned
- Make sure that sharing is turned on so others can comment

Example (for a photography workshop)

- Select your three favorite photos from the week's theme
- Upload them to a post here, each preceded with a one-paragraph description

Assignment

This is a template for details / discussion related to a specific event in your cohort.

Please edit this topic to include most or all of the elements listed below!

❗️**Important:** Please schedule each event from the main cohort page. This template is not the main way to create an event, but may be useful as a reminder, a way to share related details, or collaborate on event notes.

## [Event Title]

Replace with: short description of the event; any additional info beyond what you included in the event description on the cohort page.

## Details / Instructions

Replace with: further details about the event, if needed. How to join, anything participants need to do to prepare; etc.

Event

This is a template for outlining a few simple steps for how participants in this cohort should get started.

Please edit this topic to include most or all of the following elements — or anything else you like!

## Introductions

Replace with: brief note encouraging participants to introduce themselves in this topic. Something like:

Please post a brief intro below! Let everyone know who you are, why you signed up, and what you hope to learn. And say hello to other participants; let's get to know each other!

## Logistics

Replace with: notes about any logistical details participants need to know. 

Any other tools / services participants will need to sign up for or download (e.g. Google Drive, Zoom, etc.)? Materials to prepare? Be sure to let everyone know any preliminary action items.

This topic contains details for this particular cohort. Right now you're in our private forum just for members of this cohort.

## Start Learning!

Replace with: any day-one action items that participants should complete prior to your first meeting. First reading(s) or assignment(s)? Share those here.

Getting Started

This is a template for adding additional information specific to this particular cohort of the course. 

Please edit this topic to include most or all of the elements listed below!

❗️**Important:** The contents of this post will automatically get published on the cohort page. That means it'll be publicly available for ANYONE, not just learners in this cohort, to see. Don't post anything you wouldn't want everyone to know (like links to video conference calls).

All *other* posts in this forum category are private to participants in this cohort. Note that each course also has its own forum space, parent to this one, that is publicly visible.

## Schedule

Replace with: brief outline of your schedule for this particular cohort, with any important meetings or deadlines.

If your meetings are regularly scheduled (for example, every Monday for six weeks), be sure to list any days when the course will deviate from the norm (rescheduling around holidays, for example).

**Note:** You'll create a detailed schedule of all events on the cohort page, so this is best as a summary.

## Amendments

Replace with: anything changes to the curriculum specific to this cohort, that deviate from or override the main course description.

## Anything Else…

Replace with: anything else about this cohort that you think is essential for participants to know! For example any particular thematic focus or learning experiments you want to explore…

Feel free to rename this section or add additional ones as needed. Or if nothing comes to mind, simply remove this section.

Notes

This is a template for a prompt — a question or discussion topic you'd like participants to discuss or respond to.

Please edit this topic to include any details necessary to spark this discussion!

## [Prompt Title]

Replace with: the prompt itself, with as much detail as you need, and how you'd like participants to respond below.

Prompt

This is a template for your cohort to run a retrospective — collecting valuable feedback from participants that will help the course improve over time.

Please edit this topic to include most or all of the following elements — or anything else you like!

## Questions

Replace with: particular questions you'd like students to answer at the end of the cohort, aimed at helping your course improve.

The questions below are just examples. You'll get better feedback if you ask targeted questions about specific aspects of your course. Tweak these questions, or write your own!

- What did you expect to get out of this course? Were those expectations met? If not, how do you feel about the progress you made in this course (if any)?
- What specific things (moments, techniques, conversations) did you feel were most useful to learning in this course?
- What do you wish we'd spent more time on? Anything you felt we should add?
- What's one thing you'd suggest we change or remove?
- Please share anything else you'd like us to know!

Participants: you can quote some or all of these questions to structure your replies below.

## Sharing the Retro

Replace with: how the info from this retrospective will be used to improve the course. For example:

The maintainers of this course will review all feedback collected in this retrospective process. We'll think hard about how we can improve the course structure, specific processes, even particular assignments, questions, or readings.

We may follow up if we want to get more detail on anything mentioned below. 

Thanks so much for taking the time to help us improve this course — we really appreciate it!

Retrospective

## Course Goals
Restore joy and creativity via playful, low stakes, and soothing drawing exercises.

## Structure

We'll meet once a week for 5 weeks, 2 hours each session. 

Each class will roughly be composed of:
- Short check-in/journaling session
- Short lecture
- Individual exercises
- Collaborative exercises
- Shareouts

All class members will have access to our class Discord, where members of old and new cohorts can chat with each other. Optional homework assignments will be posted in the Discord.

## Syllabus / Schedule

#### Week 1: Exorcism
- This week is all about getting it all out, venting negativity to make room for positivity.
- Exercises: Introspective self portraits, embodying your demons, and more.

 #### Week 2: Good Bad Art
- This week is about reminding ourselves to embrace imperfection by drawing under constraints.
- Exercises: Blind contour, timed gesture drawing, purposefully messing up pages, and more.

#### Week 3: Soothing Mindfulness
- This week is all about relaxing and taking things slow, stopping to smell the roses and making room for our minds to wander.
- Exercises: Repetitive markmaking, tuning into music, drawings based on cute animal videos, and more.

#### Week 4: Indulgence
- Remember when you were a kid, and you'd just draw whatever you wanted with no regard for quality or taste? This week is about bringing that mindset back.
- Exercises: Doodling all the doodles you first learned to draw (e.g. The Cool S), drawing cartoons from memory, and more

#### Week 5: Outside Inspiration
- This week is about getting some outside inspiration from art from another time and place.
- Exercises: Exploring online museum or libraries collections, creating drawings based on those explorations, and more.

## Artifacts

A series of exercises done during class time.

## Who Should Sign Up

This class is open level! It's for anyone who's feeling burnt out and looking for some creative rejuvenation.
- Excellent for **beginner artists** who want to try something new in a low-pressure environment. 
- Perfect for **experienced artists** who feel like creating's become drudgery and want to restore the joy of it
- Great for people with **non-visual creative practices** who want to see how their creativity changes with some new mediums

If you're up for trying some drawing  in service of self-reflection, connection, relaxation, and goofing around,  you'll get a lot out of it.