Walking the Grid

My dot-gridded sketchbook, alongside a colored pencil tin.

Starting with momentum

There’s a story about Ernest Hemingway—he’d stop mid-flow, right when his writing was working, so the next day he had somewhere easy to start.

When there is no momentum from yesterday for me to pick up on, a “easy start” of creating is filling in a grid.

Paul Klee (at the celebrated Bauhaus school in Germany) said “A line is a dot that went for a walk.” Drawing is taking a line for a walk, and some days, those lines don’t want to move.

Walking a grid is a great way to warm up before a creative run.
Boxes. Repetition. No big idea required.
Fill one square, then the next.
Color, pattern, rhythm.

Meditative

Your brain quiets down because the rules are simple.
I think this is the equivalent of art yoga.
Or maybe box breathing, but with art supplies.

Material testing and technique building

This grid walking can end up being
• color palette testing
• getting used to new materials
• focusing on mark-making quality
• or seamless filing practice

When I was studying at Phipps Conservatory, to get smooth graphite transitions on my botanical illustration, this grid-filling process really helped me dial in on when a pencil was
• at a perfect edge
• or how to get smooth gradients by filling with very, very tiny circular motions
• floating pencil work over pencil work to refine graphite texture

Creative Block

You don’t chase inspiration. You build conditions where it can appear. Block in some color.