El niño dibuja cada día

Posted on by dannygregory

My French, Latin, Urdu and Hebrew are rusty and dim but I kinda have an itch to learn a new language. So I downloaded a free app called Duolingo.

Each day it emails me to remind me to do my lesson. The email has a picture of a little green owl who says, “Hi Danny, keep the owl happy! Learning a language requires practice every day.”

I diligently open my app and spend a few minutes going through my lessons. I might be waiting for the kettle to boil, waiting for the F train, waiting for the elevator, and I fill the pause by repeating “naranja, naranja“. When I am done, the app goes bing-bong and rewards me with some pointless points. It’s painless and fun and soon I am sure I will be able to order a burrito from the food truck on the corner.

Now we just need a genius to come up with a drawing app that’ll do the same thing. Bing-bong! Time to draw a bagel. Ding-dong! Sketch your shoe. Ting-tong! Get out your gouache. Five or ten minutes a day of gentle prodding to keep me in tiptop drawing shape.

Any coders out there?¡vámonos!

26 thoughts on “El niño dibuja cada día”

  2. I have been learning French and my Hebrew is long forgotten. During my day, I try to sing The Beatles in French. It attaches an emotional sense of well-being and is silly fun!

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  4. Ooh, an Everyday Matters app would be great! Just a little reminder of “hey this is today’s challenge” and you get points when you draw it.

    There are loads of reminder apps but nothing this specific.

    Liked by 2 people

  5. You could set up your own daily repeating calendar event but it wouldn’t have the random suggestions – it would just be “draw something”. App would be nice.

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  6. I think the App is your blog. So post more often, as I get these “reminders” in my email now. A Danny Gregory blog post is a reminder to draw. You in turn could subscribe to my blog, however I only post once a week, but there are at least 15 or more drawings there a week, so seeing what Lynn Cohen is doing/drawing should be inspiration enough to remind you to get off your butt or sit on your butt to draw something. We would then be trading inspiration!

    I’m brushing up on my Hebrew, thinking in Hebrew, as we are planning a trip there for next year. I wonder how you say “fish taco” in Evrit?

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  7. I’ve told ya before Danny how I use your posts as my morning “Open your sketchbook and draw” motivators. And if I ever cave and get an iphone I’ll get your app. Or maybe I’ll have to get a phone because you have apps. Cheers-Darlene

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  12. Yep, coder and sketcher here. ^^ If you put together (or help crowdsource?) the loooooooong list of prompts, I can set up an app or something that randomly emails you one/day, no prob.

    Liked by 1 person

  13. Cool app. My oldest is learning Spanish so maybe I should try this to learn alongside him and stand a chance of helping him with his homework.

    If you or anyone else ever develops that art app then please do let me know. My lifestyle right now definitely means I need a prompt and a prod.

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  14. I’ve had two years of Spanish in high school and two years of French in college. Forgotten almost every bit I learned. Now I live in Texas where English is becoming a second language. So I spend some time re-learning Spanish-Latino style. To maintain what you’ve learned you have to live where that language is spoken all the time. Thus I spend a lot of time at Walmart.

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  15. El parrajo espanol has currently stopped talking to me because I’ve failed to give him any points for over 7 days. :o(

    The thing is, whilst there are Danny Gregory’s books and blogs in the world, me thinks we have no need of such an app.

    You instill within us that which any app of that kind would do. And better yet, we get to carry it around with us, and will do forever and ever and ever and…

    No mobile or tablet required.

    Tú entiendes?

    New version of Sunscreen Song….

    Enjoy the power and beauty [that you instill in us]. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty [that you spread to the world, despite your enabling many to spread their wings and flyyyyyyy]. But trust me, in 20 years, you’ll look back at [blogs and books and stuff you’ve created] and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility [you lay before us] and how fabulous you really [were]. You are not as fat as you imagine.

    :oD

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  16. I put the Duolingo app on my phone about a year ago and haven’t used it yet. You just motivated me to start it! I need to brush up on my Espanol. I like the drawing app idea!

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  17. Btw, I reeeally believe that drawing whilst listening to Spanish, or whatever it is we’re learning, does excellent things for opening up the brain’s learning ability. :o)

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  19. It’s all about making it a habit. I draw every day whether 5 min or 5 hrs. I leave my sketchbook where I can see it with the message on the front…a sketch a day. It is my prompt and because I constantly see it, I feel guilty if I ignore it.

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  21. For an app you could contact https://crew.co/ they pair you up with a good developer. I’m not affiliated with them.. I just like them because they publish unsplash royalty free photographs that are really good. Plus they’re in my hometown, Montreal.

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  23. Si! Si! I’ll buy it!
    I’m always greatly inspired by your posts and books: but a constant little “Danny” in a dot? Now THAT would give me the daily push I need!! BRING IT ON!

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  24. That’s brilliant, Danny! Why shouldn’t we have an app that gently reminded us to draw…whatever? Let’s do it!

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  25. I am using the app too for learning Spanish and its fun even if useless when I went to Spain I could say ‘the elephant drinks milk’ but that wasn’t much good for talkng with the family! and drawing would be much more fun to do!

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