Hi everyone! My name is Alex. I’m a full-time webmaster. And drawing is my favorite hobby. I’ve never studied art professionally — and you can probably tell that from my works. I don’t really remember how exactly I started. I have two versions: either I began with Mark Kistler’s book You Can Draw in 30 Days, or I started drawing with pastels, following tutorials I found on YouTube.
In any case, that was a moment of revelation. All my life I was convinced that drawing required talent and years of practice. And suddenly — bang! — I was creating drawings that seemed quite interesting, at least to me. I believed in myself. But the most important thing was the feeling I experienced while drawing. I remember starting around 11 in the evening, looking at the clock again only at 3 a.m., and finishing at 6 in the morning. That feeling of flow — I probably never experienced it in any other activity.
The psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has this wonderful idea: the flow state, when a person loses track of time while doing something they love. It’s essential for mental well-being. And I must say, drawing has become a very healing practice for me in this sense. Especially Kistler’s book. Every night I drew a new picture and left it in the kitchen for my wife and kids to see in the morning. It felt like something special. Something meaningful. Since then, drawing has become the one thing I always want to return to.
From the very beginning, I let go of all ambitions. I wasn’t going to study drawing seriously or make money from it. I didn’t do it every day — sometimes I just enjoyed having my sketchbook on the table, knowing I could draw today or tomorrow. I started experimenting with different styles and materials: pencil, liners, paints — watercolor, oil, acrylic. Now I almost always make a simple sketch — sometimes very quick, sometimes a bit more detailed — and then add watercolor. I love this simple process. Very often I do it to pleasant music.
How the idea of the website came about. One day I spent quite a while just choosing what to draw. I should explain: I don’t mind drawing from photos, or even copying other people’s artworks. If you let go of ambition, you can find joy in many more things. So, after sitting for half an hour trying to pick an image for a sketch, I thought it would be wonderful to have a website with suitable images collected in one place.
Of course, I realize everyone has different preferences: some draw buildings (my favorite subject), others animals, landscapes, or people (my dream is to learn to draw people, but I’m lazy, and it’s pretty difficult). That’s why my website has categories and tags. And since sketches are useful for almost everyone, I decided to add them alongside reference photos, even though I personally prefer making my own simpler sketches.
With more than 25 years of experience creating websites, I had always dreamed of building one just for the soul. That’s how ThingsToDraw.Today was born. I sincerely hope it doesn’t become routine for me. At first I planned to add my own sketches and final works to every photo, but I quickly realized that obligation could kill my hobby. So now I use AI to create sketches for the site, while keeping my own for some images — when I draw them myself. That way it feels both enjoyable and honest.
And to complete our acquaintance — here are some of my drawings.
