simple practices
making small scribbles and lines
yancey towne’s art making is a weekly peek into the art studio to share learnings, current projects, and inspiration. Making art is what teaches us who we are, what we believe in, and what we can create… here’s to finding yours.
While on vacation with my family in 2017 I stumbled upon my sketchbook practice. I had a black and white composition notebook and one of my favorite black pens. I carried them often to write in, but I never took much time to draw or sketch. As we sat together one night, not in the mood to write, I let the pen glide across the page and allowed my hand to lead the way making small scribbles and lines. My brain rushed to keep up trying to make sense of the beautiful tangle while also trying to label it wrong.
I noticed how energized my hand felt moving in that manner and realized quickly that it was a practice I wanted to follow. It was simple, fun, and absolutely freeing since I had been striving for perfection in my drawings a good long while. Now, perfection came from listening and letting my hand flow in the moment, not a striving to be mistake-free.
I’ve worked through trying to control the scribble, to make it more contained, but when I do, the feeling of aliveness dissipates and my lines feel empty. Notebooks became full, pens became empty as I drew and drew. Years later I have been building on this practice through a handful of mediums. I’ve realized the scribble that I worked so hard to control in the beginning is now a core piece of my work. It’s what feels most familiar at the root. And the key learning was noticing how I felt in my body as I drew.
Making art can start on any level, it doesn’t have to be a giant fancy affair. Picking simple supplies is freeing because there’s no risk in messing something up and you can use more to practice over and over and over—think of the 10,000 hour idea. Who knows whether that 10,000 hour mark is some kind of magic finish line. I do know that with hours of practice I have personal experience to lean on that informs my path forward.
And the only way to gain that personal experience is to pick up some art supplies and get moving. It doesn’t matter what kind of art you make, just make something. Making something is what spurs new ideas and experiments. It’s kind of like Newton’s Law “an object in motion stays in motion, an object at rest stays at rest.”
Starting can be the hardest part. But if you allow yourself the space to play and be curious, a momentum will build around your practice and you will be drawn to it as new ideas percolate and lead you into new directions to explore… 💛