In this mindful circle pattern exercise, you’ll discover how you can create simple patterns. Drawing patterns may seem boring and repetitive at first glance. However, it can be a really mindful activity if you give it a fair chance.
I’ve always found it difficult to be in the moment when I’m doing something. My mind was already thinking about the thing I had to do next. That was so exhausting. You can never enjoy what you’re doing and always feel rushed, because you keep thinking about all the things on your list that you still have to do. It was as if I was on auto-pilot and just going through the motions.
My burnout was a real wake-up call. I couldn’t keep going like this. I had to learn to slow down and enjoy things.
Besides going on walks, I discovered that creativity really helped me with that. Especially when it’s something that needs concentration, such as creating patterns. That repetitive motion combined with your breathing can really help to get you in a nice relaxed, almost meditative flow. Try to breath in slowly through your nose and out through your mouth.
Another thing that can help is paying attention to all your senses; what do you smell, what do you hear, what do you feel, what do you see? Just try to focus on those small details to make the experience richer; the feeling of your brush when you’re painting, the tinkling sound you hear when you swirl your brush in your water jar or the way you see your paint mixing on your paper.
This circle pattern exercise is a great one to try out these things. Hope you’ll enjoy this one and it’ll stop all the nagging thoughts in your head for awhile and you can just be in the moment. Please let me know if this exercise helped with this.
This afternoon, you can find a small video of this exercise on my instagram @thecreativecooldown
Supplies used:
Circular watercolor paper (Paul Rubens), Alcohol markers (Ohuhu), Acrylic markers (Ohuhu), watercolor (Winsor & Newton), Silver gelly roll pen (Sakura), Gold pen (Faber-Castell PITT artist), helix circle maker, paintbrushes no. 2 and 8 (da Vinci), mechanical pencil (Pentel), Copic fineliners.
Alternative supply suggestions:
For this circle pattern exercises you can use whatever supplies you have: watercolor, colored pencils, markers, crayons, etc.
You don’t have to use circular watercolor paper for this exercise, especially since it is very hard to find. You can either cut a paper into a circle or just use a rectangular shape.
To create the circles, you can use something with a circular shape such as a small glass.
Instructions:
1. Put down your paper. If you’d like you can cut your paper into a circle, but this is totally optional. You can use a bowl or something similar for this if you do not have a circle maker.
2. Draw circles on your paper. Don’t forget to include some incomplete circles around the edges. You can use a helix circle maker, a glass or another circular item to create these.
3. Start filling in your circles with different patterns. Draw these with pencil first. The patterns can be really simple or very detailed. You can just fill them with dots, geometric shapes, lines, etc. Just put your pen on the paper and see what comes out. Don’t overthink it.
Don’t panic if nothing comes to you. If that happens, just pick 1 of the following: lines or dots. If you picked lines, try to think of patterns you can create with lines: horizontal lines, vertical lines, wavy lines, cross-hatching etc. You can do the same with dots, you can make them small or large, scatter them around in a random order or put them in a row, etc. That may give you a little more guidance and inspiration in creating these patterns.
4. Color all your circles with whatever material you have. It is fun to experiment and try different things. In my circle pattern, I used watercolor, alcohol markers and acrylic markers.
5. Draw in you patterns with fineliner, a gelly roll, some paint or colored pencils.
6. Now all the circles have a color and a pattern, it’s time to focus on the white space around the circles. I decided to fill it up with really small ovals, a bit like pebble stones. They are not all the same size and some are more squished together than others, but I like that, it gives it a playful vibe.
What do you like? Do you like the pebble stone pattern or would you rather have them all equally sized and spaced or would you like a completely different pattern? Create what fits your mood or taste, there is no right or wrong here. Just take your time in filling all the space around the circles. Focussing on your breathing in combination with the repetitive motion of drawing your pattern can really create an almost meditative feeling.
7. Make sure that everything is dry and you’re done!
If you liked this exercise, you might like my Taming the mane of the lion exercise as well.
