How observational drawing helped me navigate my first year of motherhood

I didn’t sleep the first 24 hours after my son was born. I was too busy looking at his face, both entrancingly new and deeply familiar. At the smallness of his fingernails. Checking the steady rise and fall of his tiny chest.

A drawing of my son asleep on his Dad's knee, at one month old.

Almost a year on, and while I’ve slept a bit more since then I still catch myself marvelling at this person we made, watching him change every day like patterns in sand - the same but different, shifting and moving, always.

Drawing my son during his first year has helped me make some sense of these changes, and to record them as they happened. Drawing helped me mark the time-bending months of newborn blur with records of how he was, and how I was. Because of course, it isn’t only him who has undergone massive, non-reversible changes this year. While not drawn on the page, my shifting sense of self is there looking back at me from the drawings, too.

Observational drawing in my sketchbook helped me:

• Preserve memories of the early days with my son, helping me re-access full sensory recall when I look back at them

• Add some creativity into my days, which in the haze of feeding, changing and feeding again became a bit of a blur

• Keep my observational drawing skills fresh while I was unable to do much other illustration work

• Be in the moment and look after my mental health

I have shared a range of these drawings along with a full post over on my Substack. I'd love it if you joined me over there, and got my writing straight to your inbox.

Read the full post on Substack