In this mindful circle shadow exercise, we’ll draw some circles and give them a nice patterned shadow.
Circles are shapes that have a very calming effect on our minds. We’ll combine circles with drawing patterns.
Because of the repetitive motion, patterns can have an almost meditative effect. So two calming factors in one exercise.
Try to focus on what you’re doing and go slowly. How does your marker feel on your paper? Does it make a sound?
It’s not about being perfect but about enjoying putting your pen or marker on paper and just drawing.
I hope you have fun with this exercise and you have some well-deserved me-time.
Please let me know if this mindful circle shadow exercise helped you relax and be in the moment, I’d love to know.
If you have any questions about this exercise, please leave a comment below and I’ll be glad to help you.
You can find a small video of this exercise on my Instagram @thecreativecooldown
Supplies used:
Mixed media paper (Strathmore), alcohol markers (ohuhu), fineliner 0.3, 1.0 (Copic), fineliner 0.05 (Winsor & Newton), pencil (Bruynzeel), kneadable eraser, and washi tape.
Alternative supply suggestions:
There is no specific material needed for this exercise. Just use what you have. A pen or pencil is good enough for your circles.
You can use colored pencils, watercolors, crayons, or whatever supplies you have to add color.
Instructions
Step 1
Before you start, slowly breathe in and out a few times to get more relaxed and focused. If you like to have a nice frame around your creation, put some washi tape around the edges of your paper. Choose a few colors. Ones that you like or calm you. Now grab your alcohol marker or whatever supply you use and fill your page with circles in different sizes and color them as well.
Step 2
Now we’ll add ‘shadows’ to our circles. Grab a pen or fineliner and give every circle a shadow. Draw a circle that overlaps your colored circle, but is slightly shifted a bit in a horizontal or vertical direction. We’re not going to draw a regular circle, but one that’s made of dots or lines or any other shapes you can think of. You can freehand this or first draw your ‘shadow’ circle in pencil and then fill it with your pattern and erase it later. I freehanded some of them but found out that sketching my circles in pencil first was a bit easier.
Step 3
Experiment with dots, lines, and whatever you can think of. Even a small change can create a completely different pattern. Try drawing the same pattern with thin and thick lines and notice how different they look. Continue until every circle has a ‘shadow’. Now you have finished the mindful circle shadow exercise. Well done!
If you liked this exercise, you might like my Mindful colors and lines exercise as well.