Slow drawing - more double page spreads

I am still filling my slow drawing journal with patterns and here are some of the latest ones.  These are taken from the slow drawing lessons by Amy Maricle of Mindful Art Studio.  She usually has a lesson most Wednesdays from 6-7 pm in the UK (unless she is taking a break, in which case she leaves the most recent pattern available).  The videos are available for two days, unless you have a paid membership (which I don't).  The pattern above is called 'Bean' and I am considering whether to colour/paint in any of the shapes.

This is one of the most recent ones I have done (Botanical Watercolour for Beginners) and it was so relaxing - slow watercolouring, adding more water, then less water to the pigment as the shapes are layered up.

This one was inspired by one of Amy's patterns, 'Spirit',  but then I made it my own.  Cells? Tiny creatures? Seeds? 

Another one of Amy's called 'Grecian' but I started with one full circle and added the leaves/scales all around it. 

This pattern is called 'Prickers' and I love the complicated end result with the depth of the layers.  It was actually relatively simple to do and it built up quite quickly.  I still have a few single pages to go before the journal is full.

Slow Drawing journal - double page spreads

Following on from my previous blog post about slow drawing, I have been working on a journal to put some of my slow drawing pieces into for a little while now. It's one of those things that I do every now and again.  There are lots of interactive bits, like flaps, doors, pockets, windows etc, but I have a number of double page spreads that I would like to decorate without any of these, as the journal is getting quite chunky!  So I decided to use some of my favourite patterns.  Above is Poppy.

If I have the name of the pattern, I will add it in. This is Burst.  I really enjoy slow drawing as it uses minimal supplies (watercolour card, pen, ink, watercolours) and the whole point is to slow down and concentrate on what you are doing.

This doesn't have a name, just marks made with a paintbrush.  

Here is Blossom. I really enjoy patterns like this with lots of repetitive lines.

This is one of my own patterns, although no doubt influenced by other slow drawing patterns.

Here is Crowd, which took me about three or four sessions to complete as I needed to rest my eyes often.  It does look really good though.

This is Artichoke.  I enjoyed how this pattern seemed to move depending how I drew the shapes.

This was a Youtube video pattern and I am not sure what the name is.

Here is a bigger version of the Dot one I did for the Smallest Things challenge.

Finally, we have Holes, done with a nice fat Quill brush, which gave the thin and thicker lines.  It reminds me of water drops.

I still have another eight double pages to fill, so I shall keep going!

The Simplest Things challenge 2025

I have just finished this little challenge, run by Amy Maricle of Mindful Art Studio.  This little accordion/concertina journal is three inches x three inches (ish). Amy also does the Inchie Challenge, which I have taken part in before, but that is twelve days.

Amy sends an email with a prompt each day for five days and also an example of what she drew for the prompt.  The idea is to do a simple thing - a mark, a line, a dot etc. each of those five days and then continue to draw in a mindful way after the challenge ends. (To this end, Amy has a Slow Drawing lesson every Wednesday and I absolutely love Slow Drawing. Minimal materials and taking your time while drawing for an hour, including a short meditation to calm you down and help you to focus on the drawing.)

So, here's what I did.  These squares are watercolour card and I use a Lamy Safari fountain pen with an extra fine nib and De Attramentis document ink.   This is Closer.

Here's Squiggle, using a brush and watercolour.

Dots is my favourite - simple but effective, using a brush and watercolour again.

Branching using a pen and ink.

Smash, which was suggested by Chris. I was thinking along the lines of smashing watercolour onto a square or smashing the pieces together.  I like this idea better!  All these patterns are simple - just lines or dots. When you start to repeat the lines or dots, they become interesting patterns.

A really simple and fun little challenge.

Inchie Challenge 2025

I enjoyed taking part in the Inchie Challenge again this year.  Run by Amy Maricle of Mindful Art Studio, it is a prompt a day for twelve days, working on small pieces of paper/card, in my case, 2 inches x 2 inches watercolour card.  I made them into an accordion book, but took some photos of some of the individual pieces.

'Lift' had to be a piece that could be lifted and the front of the lifted piece can be seen on the left of the photo above.

'Rebel' was lots of patterns all together.

'Shrouded' has a piece of decorated tracing paper over the top.

'Stamen' was a fun shape to make - I think I had a plantain flower in my head when I thought of this one.

Here are 'Under', 'Galactic' and 'Braided'.

This is the piece which is underneath all the other pieces for 'Under' - I really enjoyed creating that one.

'Braided' includes a plait of embroidery thread - that was Chris' idea.

'Dots'. 'Doorway' and 'Contrast'.

I made the door so that it could be opened and added a trailing vine behind.

'Contrast' is just that.

'Three' is on the left, with three flowers and 'Chequered' was another fun pattern.

The challenge is a good one to join in with, as it doesn't last too long and is easily manageable, working on such small pieces each day.  I have ended up with a really sweet little accordion journal.

Inchie Challenge 2024

I have joined in with the Inchie challenge again this year, run by Amy Maricle from Mindful Art Studio. The idea is to illustrate a prompt on a small piece of paper/card every day for twelve days.  It is also to encourage creating every day, even if it is on a small scale.

There are Leaves, Patience, Love and Mountain.

Then there are Bristle, Circles, Stone and Inky.

Finally you can see Shell, Buds, Expansive and Landscape.

My favourites are 'Patience' because although the lines take a long time to draw, there is something very relaxing about drawing them and 'Expansive' (for the same reason, as well as this being my own pattern, rather than one of Amy's). 

I enjoyed making these little pieces and it is the size of them as well as minimum supplies (black waterproof pen (I use either a Uniball Eye Black pen in Fine or Micro, or my Lamy Safari Fountain pen with De Atramentis waterproof ink), watercolour and watercolour card 300 gsm) which makes this a lovely challenge to do. 

Last year's work can be seen here, should you be interested.

Slow Drawing and a new pen

I have been enjoying joining in with Slow Drawing with Amy Maricle at Mindful Art Studio since last summer.  I have mentioned her on my blog before, but wanted to focus on her for this post and share the joy! I thik she started the slow drawing classes during 2020 but I only found them last year.  She was an art therapist and has created lots of courses, as well as the weekly slow drawing class (in the UK, on a  Wednesday at 6 pm, but the videos are available until Friday).  She provides a prompt and an example each week,  (except for a break over Christmas) and I have been loving it.  There is a quiet meditation, just to help focus on the here and now and then the drawing for the remainder of the hour.  

I have been surprised just how much I like using simple media - a black waterproof pen, watercolour card and sometimes watercolours.  From next week, to get the link to the video, you will need to be on her mailing list, but it is free.  I have been using a Uniball Eye micro pen, which is really good and is my go to permanent black pen, but I decided to buy the pen Amy recommends, as she is trying to not use non-refillable pens.     

This is the Lamy Safari fountain pen with an extra fine nib.  It can be used with cartridges but I bought a converter so it can be refilled with ink. I tried it out last night and it was very good.

This was the pattern last night - the patterns are usually taken from nature - and I found the repetitive lines very relaxing to draw.  

Here is my index book with all the patterns I have drawn so far...page 1...

...and pages 2 and 3.  Initially, the patterns seem complicated, but they are broken down to make them easy to draw. 

I have taken a couple of her courses which I enjoyed, particularly 'Little Book of Wonder'.  I thoroughly recommend Amy's book too - Draw Yourself Calm.  I am looking forward to adding to my index book as well as to the little journals I made when taking her classes and using my new pen much more.

Working small and slowly and The Inchie Challenge 2023

The Inchie Challenge, run by Amy Maricle, at Mindful Art Studio is over for another year.  I discovered Amy back in June/July, through my art journaling course where she was the teacher for one lesson.  I mentioned her in a previous post about the art journaling course.  She used to be an art therapist and her work is about slowing down and also creating big pieces from small pieces.  

My page from the art journaling course

I loved creating the page slowly, using watercolour and a black pen and have since taken two of her courses, bought her book, Draw Yourself Calm, and join in with her weekly slow drawing on Youtube on a Wednesday at 6pm in the UK. 

The Inchie Challenge is twelve daily prompts to encourage a daily art practice.  On the top row, left to right are: Frothy, Woven, Bark and Magnolia. In the centre, left to right are: Spill, Knot, Touching, Boxes.  On the bottom row, left to right are: Fern, River, Art Poem and Moon. These squares are actually 2 x 2 inches in size, so are really twinchies, but she prefers the word inchies.

What has really surprised me is that I like working small using a black permanent pen and watercolours.  I have always thought I was a 'more is more' person, with my love of mixed media, but I am embracing the small format and few supplies this needs. I have lots of scraps of watercolour card from other projects and this is a great way to use them. I am finding it to be incredibly meditative, as repeating shapes and lines is a major element.    

I am now starting to work on two journals for her two courses and slowly starting to work through her book too.