For many people, September can be looked at as a stressful and busy time of year.
From back to school to back to work, it can be hard to find time for yourself to decompress from the hecticness of life.
However, doing so has never been more important, and whether you can spare an hour or ten minutes, any amount of time you can manage to put aside for relaxation is a step in the right direction to taking care of yourself.
Art is an excellent way to meditate and release stress. Unleashing your creative side can help you release negative feelings built up throughout the day, all while doing something enjoyable. While there are many drawing exercises that already exist for the purpose of relaxation, many are time consuming.
For this reason, we have come up with a few quick and easy meditative art exercises on which you can spend as much or as little time as you please, and end up with a beautiful result no matter what!
The first exercise we will be doing is called the “patterned scribble”. This exercise is great if you only have a few minutes to spare, and will give you a lovely piece of work in no time!
To begin this exercise, start by doodling a random squiggle on your drawing surface with any medium that you please, ensuring that the lines overlap at some points. End your squiggle whenever it feels right. Here is how mine ended up looking:
Your squiggle will be the base of your drawing. Once you are done with it, take a look at the sectioned spaces which you have drawn; these will be the areas where lines overlap.
Your next step is to look at these sections, and draw different patterns within them. Be creative, and try different things, whether that be lines, zig zags, or anything your heart pleases! For my patterned scribble, I decided to use a variety of shapes, including checkers, circles, and a multitude of lines. Whatever you choose to add in your drawing, your final drawing may look something like this:
The end result is a beautiful piece of artwork that you can display anywhere in your home! Try this exercise as many time as you'd like, and see how many different versions you can come up with!
The next exercise is called “expression blobs”. This is a straightforward exercise requiring little time, and allowing you to be as creative as you please.
To do this exercise, you will need any type of coloured art supply, whether this be watercolour paint, markers, or anything in between. Then, using your medium of choice, create blobs of colour on your page. For the purpose of this tutorial, I have made my blobs digitally. Experimenting with sizes and shapes, the goal of this is to have a variety of different looking blobs, like so:
Once you have your blobs down, draw little faces on them, and be creative! Here is what I came up with:
Try this exercise with more complex blobs, and see what interesting characters you can come up with!
This last exercise is called “squared homes”, and is great if you have some more time on your hands, as it will allow you to get a more finished product.
To begin, start at the bottom of your page, and go upwards, drawing a variety of different sized rectangles, like so:
These different sized rectangles will be the body of your little “homes”. Once you have these down, start to draw little details, such as windows, balconies, plants, or vines. If you are feeling confused about where to start with this part of the exercise, taking inspiration from houses near you is a great way to begin your doodle. Get creative, and see what you come up with! Here is how mine turned out:
Feel free to add colour at this point of the exercise if you wish. This is a very versatile doodle, allowing you to do anything you please!
If you try out these art exercises, make sure to tag our Instagram and Facebook pages with pictures! We would love to see what you come up with!
Art is a great way to meditate, and whether you have lots of time to spare or not so much, there are lots of ways to invest in it as a hobby! With so many opportunities to let your creativity shine, there’s nothing left to say but sit back, relax, and draw!