We want to help our students during lockdown and beyond with some skills and free learning. Your course is great but sometimes you want to learn something new, perhaps totally unrelated to your course.
And this isn’t just to fill time - learning a new skill is good for your brain! It can even help people stave off dementia. What???
Physically, learning a new skill increases the density of the white matter in your brain that improves performance, and the stimulation of the brain’s neurons with new skills form lots of clever neural pathways, which basically - helps your brain process everything faster.
So this isn’t just about learning a new hobby - it’s performance training too! You’re doing a mental workout!
However, we know that you have a few limitations. Dog training is out. Fire-eating is probably not a wise idea in your room. Trapezing is out too. You have a beautiful student residence but not a circus big top. So we are going to look at a few new skills that require very little space, minimal materials (or easy to get hold of materials) and that can be a quick dip-your-toe-in hobby, which of course may turn into a passion of yours, but without trying - who knows!?
This week we keep it super simple and look at - DRAWING!
Not just for kids, drawing, sketching, colouring and design are fantastic hobbies. Now, you might think you suck at drawing, but if so - have a listen to this TedX Talk first!
Ok, ready?
We are guessing that you already have paper and pencil in your room, even in lockdown, right? If not, you can get hold of the basics very easily so give this a go!
Here are some great free courses you might like to try:
SchaeferArt
We liked this one as it allows you to ‘not get good at drawing’, ie. you’re allowed to start off badly! It goes through the basics and then grows with your skills.
Christopher Hart
If you like the idea of cartoon-drawing but aren’t sure where to start, this is the free set of tutorials for you! Wouldn’t it be cool to draw cartoons of your friends?!
The Beginner Drawing
You can find this on both YouTube but also in a handy blog if you wanted to read through first
Read more
And if you decide that drawing isn’t your ‘thing’, try colouring, this has become a big growth area in the past few years as a mindfulness technique. There are colouring books for every taste, from designer patterns, to famous characters and even learning materials. We have tried it - it’s strangely relaxing (but don’t go over the lines!).
It’s not technically free as you’d need to buy the book (or print off templates) and the pens, but it’s super cheap!
Here are some great colouring books:
We hope that we have inspired you to get your art on!
Londonist would love to see your creations, tag us into your sketches @londonistdmc
Look out for our other blogs on learning new skills for free!
