I mentioned in a comment to a post how I didn’t draw for many years after high school. My world fell apart around me, starting in 2014, first with cancer, then being laid off in 2016 and not finding a job for a year and half and minimum wage and part time at that.
Art and writing, and personal studies got me through it. I went from just getting a pencil and pen back in my hand and drawing zentangles, to graduating up to drawing mandalas.
Mandalas are an interesting art form. They trigger both sides of the brain. I am highly logical but I am also creative. I used to think my creative side suffered due to my logical side until I studied how to draw mandalas. You can draw them freehand which is a huge challenge and challenges me in accepting the imperfections that come with freehand drawing, meaning you do not draw a grid prior to drawing the mandala. Drawing a grid helps to keep a mandala symmetrical. I draw the grid because it engages my logical side first which enables me to let go and then become creative with what I add over the grid. The grid eventually becomes erased, the parts that are not in use by the creative design.
The artists who draw every day, face the challenge of breaking through a barrier that can sometimes prevent them from drawing or painting or whatever their art form is. The good ones find a key. This key is something that enables them to break through this barrier.
For me, the key is in finding a way to engage my logical side first. I think once my logical side has had it’s time, it is then willing to relinquish control and allow my creative side to step up. Engaging my logical side, usually involves something mathematical. A grid is mathematical, so are geometric shapes. Faces if one is trying to draw a face symmetrical, or even lifelike, one can rely on either geometric shapes or a grid laying out facial proportions. By starting with the grid and facial proportions I am able to get past that barrier or block.
My goal going into next year, is to learn how to draw a face from different angles, and to also learn proper body proportions for drawing a full figure. I am excited about digging back into making art again.
So here is what I have been working on this week, I am in its inking stage:
This one you can see the grid behind the design. It is all done in pencil first, then I go over it in ink. I have not inked this one yet.
This is an example of one I did in my art journal, and I want to try and do something similar on canvas one day.
Mandalas helped me to gain confidence in my drawing, and enabled me to learn how to do this….
and this….
I had not drawn anything for a year or two, until recently partly because working a full time job left me little time with everything else I needed to do. So I am ending this year with picking up my pencil again and returning to drawing with pencil, pen and other mediums. It will be interesting to see what changes will come about as art has a tendency to reflect one’s life and my life has changed so much this year.
EDIT: Oh and I wanted to show you one that is almost completely made up of zentangles:
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