Art Lesson #10: Single Line Drawings

An exercise in mindfulness and art

This is a remarkably satisfying drawing exercise

A few weeks ago, we drew autumn leaves together and practiced a wonderful basic drawing exercise, contour drawing. If you haven’t already, go try that and notice how it makes your brain feel. This is the lovely and freeing experience of paying very close attention to something while you have a pen in your hand.

So today, in keeping with the spirit of the “draw anywhere” pocket sketchbook idea from the last two weeks (here and here), I’m going to show you an approach to drawing anything, anywhere, in a pocket sketchbook.

This single line drawing exercise has that same mindful, buzzy feeling as contour drawings. It’s also a bit of a game. Treat it like a game! You’re just playing.

Sit down in front of any random objects in your house, and get started. Here’s a view of my setup, and a preliminary (optional!) pencil sketch: