Gather Materials:
- an artist’s journal, unlined notebook, or piece of paper
- pencil of your choice
a timer (I used my phone)
Today’s Exercise
Take a dot for a walk…
- Set the timer for 5 minutes
- Sit comfortably with your notebook in front of you
- Take a deep breath in and let it out, do this another two times
- When you feel relaxed and present, put your pencil randomly on the paper and make a dot.
- Keep the pencil on the paper and close your eyes. Now take that dot for a walk…
- Think about walking out the door of where you live or work. No need to picture a destination in your minds-eye, just wander around the neighbourhood. Move your pencil as you picture where you are walking. Don’t rush it, just stroll around the page until the timer sounds.
Reflections on the Exercise
- 5 minutes felt like a long time.
- Part way through I thought that this would be more fun if I was doing it on a panel with a piece of charcoal as a warmup to painting.
- I enjoyed the walk to the mailbox exercise more because I had a destination in mind. I didn’t like not knowing where I would end up and not preplanning to end up back home.
- There’s nothing very exciting about the line I drew.