I found this today, going through my emails. It is beautiful and wonderful. About five minutes…

Dan Nelson’s delightful Cross Hatching library teaching ink illustration

Does this take a lot of time? Duh! Is it satisfying? Yes. How does it compare to knitting, embroidery, painting, and all the rest? It’s just another opportunity to learn to get in touch with the things which matter in your life. It can be cathartic therapy, all the way to gentle rest. A cleansing of peace as you produce beauty.

On the other hand, it’s a practical skill you can use to produce dingbats, fonts, chapter headers, and many other things in your books. If it’s attractive to you at all, it’s a skill to train your eyes to see better—which is what graphic design and book production is all about: Helping your readers to see your vision more clearly.

You can use this to convert photos, for example. You will learn to see astonishing things in the photos you use. This is wonderful training for your mind. It will great help your eye training as you learn to make covers with real impact.