building blocks

drawing prompt to slow down

As you know, my week was not easy, and my energy level is quite low. But if I don’t draw, I get crazy, so I decided to do something slow and easy going, and it made me feel so good that I decided to share it with you.

I started taking an A4 paper and drawing a grid. I’m really bad at doing things perfectly, so even with the ruler, I have the messiest grid, but that’s ok.

In the first row, I did a warm-up: one circle, one rectangle, one square, and one triangle for each space. I was just trying to change the proportions, big, small, all the same size, a bit different arrangements, nothing fancy.

Now the key point: I used a calligraphy nib and black ink. It is messy and requires you to slow down. You have to breathe during a line, you have to take a little break to refill it. It gives you space to respond to what you draw and what you see. I don’t use it very often, but every time I do, I love it. So, this is also a reminder to myself to do this more often. And this is the cheapest/simplest nib that you can get, and I just tape it to a pencil — not pretty but effective.

After this little warm-up, I started creating little imaginary sculptures using these building blocks. The rules:

1) You can only use squares, circles, rectangles, and triangles (any size and as many as you want);

2) There is no gravity in our imaginary world, so the pieces don’t need to balance, just think that you are gluing them with super-mega-hyper-glue;

3) Keep a left-right symmetry (if you cross a line in the middle, the left side should mirror the right side).

Since I can’t sit for too long, I just left the paper on my table and I would sit there for a little time, slowly do a few, and get up. In this way, I tried to have some small doses of drawing and being present throughout my day.

And that’s the result:

Look cute, right? :) Which one is your favorite? Somehow, I really liked the one in row 3, column 5.

By the way, I was drawing and listening the Sophia Kennedy’s new album, and I have to say, it was a great vibe.

I’d love to see your drawings. If you try this, send me a pic <3

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