Learning to draw in the natural world brings joy – especially in lockdown

You don’t have to be good at art to enjoy the mood-enhancing benefits of nature sketching, as our writer finds out on an artist-guided session in London’s Epping Forest

Hands up, who’s rubbish at drawing? Ha! Bet you’re not as bad as me.

For years this rarely bothered me but, like so many of us in the first lockdown, I gloried in previously familiar green city spaces, and longed to record the joy they brought. A quick snap on my phone – destined to join hundreds not looked at again – never quite captured the moment. So I was intrigued to see that Walthamstow-based artist Sharon Drew was running “green sketching” sessions in Epping Forest, on the edge of north London, near her home and mine.