“Sketching regularly requires you to pay close attention to the visual world around you. With practice, you begin to see things you never noticed before.” —Paul Laseau
One of my favorite creative activities is the Quickdraw Challenge. The idea is to set a timer for a specified amount of time, such as an hour, and practice in your medium of choice.
How to get started:
- Gather your supplies
- Create an intention
- Set your timer
- Now, go!
At the end of the hour, stop whether you feel you are finished or not. This exercise allows you to play and frees up your mind to flow and create without overthinking.
I like to put all my quickdraws together and revisit them at a later time. They are perfect for use as comps to stimulate ideas. You may choose to refine your creations and develop new works of art. Or, you may get lucky and find in the hour you created a piece you simply love.
Starting With a Scrap Image
There is nothing wrong with starting with an image or photograph you might find. Design is just redesigning. As long as the scrap is not recognizable and you have not violated copyrighted material, go for it.
Playing with Graphic Elements
In the Graphic Design Element Series, you can learn about all the fundamentals of design. Line, plane, tone, small, medium, large, circle, square, and triangle are the first of elements that are covered.
You’ll notice in the video below where I provide an example of this exercise I used simple lines to create the Field of Flowers painting. The experience of giving permission to spontaneously create if a form of healing therapy.
Video of a Recent Field of Flowers Quickdraw
This illustration only took about 45 minutes from start to finish. When you unleash your creative spirit so freely the result is provides instant gratification while helping you build confidence. I invite you to play, have fun, and explore different mediums.
You can incorporate colored pencils, and even add washes, or watercolors to your photo-enhanced artworks. The key is permitting a playful state. Playing is an act of self-love and who can argue with that?!
NOTE: I am currently working on companion lessons to help you build skill while absorbing the knowledge in the Graphic Design Element Series. Stay tuned!
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