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 Make
a Mark
The goal? Have more ideas of how to move your hand across an empty
page.
Swoop and Fill
Take a marker and a blank sheet of paper and swirl, curl, and swoop
in overlappling curved lines. Do that until it feels good, and stop
when it gets boring. Now pick out three colors with which you will fill
all the white spaces. Make a game of it. Try not to use the same color
in adjacent spaces. You won’t be able to 100% of the time, but
if you try, the effort will keep your left brain busy. Help the process
by allowing half of your attention to be involved with something else—listening
to music, watching t.v., or listening to a conversation. Enjoy the colors
and simplicity of the activity.
Geometry
Doo dle
incrementally with geometry. Start with a blank page and a black pen.
Draw a single geometric figure. If nothing comes to you, default to
a small square or circle in the middle of the page. Now add one geometric
figure, paying attention to keeping a similar distance between each
figure and the next. Pretend these are individually cut tiles, and you
want to keep the grout line small and equal. Continue to add one figure
at a time, each time choosing a square, circle, triangle, rectangle,
half circle, pentagon, etc. When you feel like pausing, do so. When
you get curious about whether a shape is taking form, stand back and
look. Turn the page in circles, and see if you can see an image. If
you do, decide whether you want to fine-tune the image you see, or whether
you prefer to continue with no planned destinati on.
You’re done when either you get bored, you fall in love with the
picture as-is, or you run out of space on the page.
Block Figures
Do you remember the stick figures you drew as a kid? Well how about
block figures? These are similar to the geometric figures above in that
they are like puzzle pieces. But they expand beyone the evenly spaced
surfaces common to geometry. Come up with an assortment of symbols that
you feel comfortable with. Easy enough to do well, yet complex enough
to allow a greater range of impression than stick figures allow. Here
are some common shapes I use to represent shoulders, cheek bones, hips.
Note that it is only necessary to draw what is of interest to you. See
how recognizable abstract figures are, even when missing arms, hands,
kneecaps. The point is not in torturing yourself with details. The point
is to enjoy and communicate the essentials, as you see fit.
Write Over
In this example I wrote so mething:
"I'm nervous about Saturday. Will it work? Wil it turn out OK?"
Next I added lines and patterns between the letters, gradually erasing
the legibility of the sentence. Kind of like covering up a tattoo. I
stopped for this illustration just as I started to feel a figure emerge--
a wolf-like head, with slanty eyes and muzzle.
Remnants
Perhaps you have finished the swooping exercise above, and underneath
the lavishly colored design lies another piece of paper. Once blank,
it now is dyed with a random assortment of rough dots and blots of color.
Great. Pages like these are perfect starting points. Grab a pen and
pencil and go to work. First with the pen, draw lines encirclin g
your blots. Now start fattening some of the lines, wherever it feels
good. Perhaps a thin curve would like to look more sliver-moon shaped.
A long line across the page becomes rectangular or bow shaped. Combine
areas that seem to fit well together. Perhaps a pair of three lines
that are somewhat parallel become enclosed inside another line. Allow
your imagination to wander. What could the pieces become? Parallel lines
as keys on a piano, ribs in a chest, fingers in a hand, strands of hair.
Once you have some content to work with, start with your pencil. Tilt
it at 45 degrees to the page, and rapidly move it back and forth, filling
in large blocks of area with gray color. If you experience emotion and
want to get dark and moody, or light and airy, adjust your pressure
accordingly. If you like, use the geometry and block figures from above.
Is anything emerging? Turn it around, upside down. What about now?
Toolbox
Identify your current "toolbox" of symbols. Common symbols
include eyes, lips, hearts, waves, checkmarks and and exclamation marks.
Common symbols include:
Stretch, Repeat and Skew
Alter symbols by repeating them. Play with their size, and the relationship
of sizes. Take a family of symbols-- letters. Skew and stretch; Transform
them. Create new geometric shapes by adding incrementally. Keep a grid
pattern. Quickly draw symbols and worry less about an exact likeness.
Pick up your pace and get into a flow. Scribble down words as you doodle.
No need to separate image from thought.
 
 
 
Add New Symbols
Add new symbols. The point? What symbols can you draw on from your
daily world? They should be meaningful, recognizable and useful. Note
from my samples that your symbols need not be exact representations;
Inaccuracy lends well to the creative process.
What "world" do you come from? Each has its own vocabulary!
Electrical / Plumbing / Design / Teaching / Management / Skateboarding
/ ...
What do we have in common?
Relationships / History / Daily routine (eat, sleep, brush teeth...)
/ ...
More symbols:
Put it Together
Skew these symbols into new figures by stretching, elongating, thickening
lines. Use repetition, cluster and group. Mix unrelated symbols and
add new — nuts and bolts from the garage, spaghetti from the kitchen,
pie charts from the office.
Rhythm and Movement
Now add movement with lines. Put your pen to paper, and mimic a heart
beat, repeating, regular
Now try erratic, then scrolling, then choppy.
Transpose
We are like a giant computer in that we have inputs and outputs. The
exciting part is that we have the intelligence, imagination and free
will to choose our perspective and to some degree, control our inputs
and outputs. Use the artistic process as a vehicle to practice this
control. Mix your senses. You hear trickling water; Draw a dashed line
in tempo with the sound. You hear a grating noise; Carve a scratchy
line. You see a washing machine and know that there is water sloshing
inside; Paint blue. Push beyond the obvious.
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