Day 1: Concentric

I decided to keep it simple with concentric circles and put a tape border down but decided not to completely fill although I did go up to the edges in some places. I really enjoyed creating this with the mindful intention and, as with this whole project, I created without listening to anything (music, podcasts, audiobooks, ect) and found it really rewarding to really in the moment and lost in the drawing. I found that listening to the sound of the pen on the paper really helpful for staying focused and not letting my mind wonder too much. 14 Days of Mindful Pattern Drawing - image 1 - student project

Day 2: Random Fill

I started this prompt again with a tape border and quite large triangle shapes. That was completed fairly quickly so I decided that I wanted to continue so chose a corner of each triangle and drew lines coming out from there to make more triangles! There are a couple of little mistakes and messy parts in this but I’m trying to let go of perfectionism and again I really enjoyed drawing this which is the main thing for me with this project.
14 Days of Mindful Pattern Drawing - image 2 - student project (Process photo)

Day 3: Uniform Fill

For a mindful practice with this pattern drawing I counted to 4 with each little line I drew that makes up the square shape. Again, I’m embracing the wonkiness and letting go of perfectionism as the columns aren’t totally aligned but I still think it looks good overall and I enjoyed the simplicity of the mark making with only using short lines.

14 Days of Mindful Pattern Drawing - image 4 - student project

Day 4: Shape Fill

I made a circle stencil for this prompt and decided to fill it with little rectangles to contrast the circle shape. I still wanted some movement though so drew the rectangles with slightly varying heights and put the rows a bit of a wavy line. Keeping the edges neat while using the stencil and thinking about the height of the rectangles and keeping the wave meant that this was very mindful for me and kept my brain super engaged in the drawing!

14 Days of Mindful Pattern Drawing - image 5 - student project

Day 5: Stripe

I loved this prompt and how it turned out! Started with some lines, added the U shaped scallops, then added another one inside of those and finally went in and blacked out the background parts. So much fun!!

14 Days of Mindful Pattern Drawing - image 6 - student project

Day 6: Grid

Oof, this one was a tricky one for me! I’ve included a few process photos to try and show the whole process a bit more. I was completely winging this one and just making it up as I went along. It was going okay (embracing the wonky) until I added the lines in the background. It just looked too messy and I really wasn’t liking how it was looking. 14 Days of Mindful Pattern Drawing - image 7 - student project So I decided to take a break and come back to it the next day. I thought the top half was past saving so I blacked out the background and started designing some more fill bit on the bottom half of the grid. And here is the final piece! I filled in quite a lot of this one which was very time consuming but I like how it looks and has given me the confidence that sometimes filling lots in really works! Lots of deep breaths and lessons in letting go- I’m overall fairly happy with how the bottom part ended up and I’m proud of myself for sticking with it and not giving up.
14 Days of Mindful Pattern Drawing - image 9 - student project

Day 7: Straight Lines

After the grid ordeal the day before I decided to keep this one simple and I really enjoyed it! Drew with a pencil a simple grid and filled each square with diagonal straight line and joined them up creating this lovely pattern. Super relaxing and meditative to create!

14 Days of Mindful Pattern Drawing - image 10 - student project

Day 8: Curved Line

I combines a few previous prompts for this one- concentric and shape fill. I drew the biggest circle first with the stencil and then free hand drew the inside concentric circles. The with a thinner pen I did the curved lines the gaps. I wasn’t sure if I would alternate the direction of the curved lines but I decided to do them all in the same direction and I love how it turned out- almost like a fossil or shell! I found the short curved lines and having to constantly move the paper as I worked around the circle really helped me stay mindful and in the moment.

14 Days of Mindful Pattern Drawing - image 11 - student project

Day 9: Radiate

Again using the circle stencil for this prompt I used short lines radiating out. I think I’m quite drawn to making smaller marks/lines and the slightly quicker repetitive movements are very mindful for me. After I completed my main centre circle I decided I wasn’t finished so folded my stencil in half and did the same pattern at the top and the bottom. The perfectionism/ inner critic in me could be frustrated that the centre circle is slightly off centre so is almost touching the bottom semicircle whereas there’s some space between the top one but I loved the process so am choosing to let go of that!

14 Days of Mindful Pattern Drawing - image 12 - student project

Day 10: Overlap

I’ve been enjoying circles a lot in the previous prompts so used them again in this one. I dug out a plastic stencil I have with lots of circles to use, played around with a few different thicknesses of pens and was inspired by previous prompts for the fill patterns. I love the wobbly lines here, especially with the thicker pen! 14 Days of Mindful Pattern Drawing - image 13 - student project

Day 11: Organic

I enjoyed using the thicker pen for the overlap prompt so used it for this one too as well as my usual thinner pen. I started with a wavy line down the centre and then added flowy, wavy lines from that. I loved watching it grow as I added to it- I almost felt like it had a life of its own as I drew and that kept me so engaged throughout the process. At some points it looked like smoke rising from a candle, other times like hair flowing down. In the end it reminds me most of a gnarled, old tree trunk!

14 Days of Mindful Pattern Drawing - image 14 - student project

Day 12: Coloured Lines

I chose this bluey-green coloured pen as I find the colour very calming and it reminds me of the sea. In that same vein I chose to revisit the curved line prompt to get a bit of that wavey, ocean feel.

14 Days of Mindful Pattern Drawing - image 15 - student project

Day 13: Coloured Background

The only piece of non white paper I had on hand at the time was black so went with that and this metallic green showed up best on it so it was a very practical way of choosing the colours, haha! I do love the green colour though and think it’s very striking on the black background. I revisited the grid prompt, this time a lot more simply though, and used rotation instead of mirroring. I love how this one looks and had a great time creating it too.

14 Days of Mindful Pattern Drawing - image 16 - student project

Day 14: Colour and Shape

Just a yellow post it note stuck down on an angle and using the same coloured pen as before (I really love how the colour goes more green on the yellow!) and my circle stencil following along with the draw-along. I enjoyed reflecting on the class and all the things I’m grateful for while drawing all the lines. I’m particularly grateful that with my chronic illness I’ve been well enough to spent some time at my desk each day these past weeks to do these drawings. It was so lovely to have this to look forward to every day! And thank you Mel for this wonderful class!! I really enjoyed it so much :)

14 Days of Mindful Pattern Drawing - image 17 - student project And finally, here’s my scrap piece of paper with my shape library and pen tests:

14 Days of Mindful Pattern Drawing - image 18 - student project

Julia Hartsoe

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