November 23, 2021 | Categories: Hints & Tips

For this meditation practice, you can use any creative medium or approach that works best for you. If you are unsure where to begin, try writing words or drawing shapes. These are the core creative skills we all know how to use. See the explanation below for Automatic Drawing. It will help you understand the origin of this practice and give you a better sense for how to engage it.

If you are a performing artist, you can use free flow movements or some form of improvisation such as: vocalization, interaction with a musical instrument, or theatrical expression.

To realize the full benefits of this practice, free yourself from any expectations about making ‘art’. Instead, simply become aware of an energy inside you that is ‘moving’. Then, let it speak through your heart, soul, mind, and body, via your creative tools.

If you feel ‘stuck’, try your best to just do it anyway! Do something random. Make any kind of marks on a sheet of paper, or some words in a notebook, or make expressive body gestures. We are not trying to achieve ‘high’ art. Instead, we are accessing a boundless creative energy from the source of all creation. We are using this practice to ‘feed’ our creative soul.

Automatic Drawing

The technique known as Automatic Writing, or Psy­chography, can be traced back to the Spiritualists of the late 19th Century. They believed that a writer could suppress conscious control so that “a spirit” could physically take control of their body. This psychic ability allows a person, “to produce writ­ten words without consciously writing. The words purportedly arise from a subconscious, spiritual, or supernatural source”.

In the 20th Century, Surrealist artists, songwriters, and other creative practitioners experimented with this approach. Automatic Drawing emerged as a visual form of Automatic Writing and was described as early as 1913 in The Book of Pleasure, by Austin Osman Spare. The Surrealist artists, most notably Andre Mason, experimented with the technique. The Surrealist movement was very interested in creating art that would transcend the constraints of the ra­tional mind, and by extension, the rules of a society they saw as oppressive.

According to a post on the Museum of Modern Art website, the Surrealists believed that “creativity came from deep within a person’s subconscious and that it could be more powerful and authentic than any product of conscious thought.” This remarkable assertion was influenced also by the writings of psychologist Sigmund Freud on the conscious and subconscious aspects of the mind. Automatic Draw­ing is an attempt to capture and express the impres­sions of the subconscious.

With the technique of automatic drawing, the hand is allowed to move ‘randomly’ across the drawing surface without being guided by rational, conscious control. In some versions of the technique, the artist doesn’t even look at the page. The intent is to free the mind from a constrained and logical state so that an open and divergent thinking process can capture impulses and impressions from the inner creative mind.

In many versions of this technique, after the artist has made the initial marks on the page, the pat­tern-recognizing response of the mind is allowed to take over and add lines, shapes, forms, or words. The final form of the drawing can be used in differ­ent ways: as a springboard for more work, as output to be refined by more conscious manipulation, or as a disposable exercise with no further purpose.

While the technique is sometimes described as primitive, the results are often anything but. This is a technique that is available to anyone with any level of skill. No advance training or drawing skills are necessary. Success lies not in conscious effort, but in the individual’s ability to free the mind from logic and constraint.

What to Do

Paper: You’ll need one sheet of paper, canvas, or other surface for each session. Larger sizes are generally better, allowing the space to wield a looser stroke engaging the whole arm, rather than small, tight hand gestures. One economical choice is a sketch pad, either 11” X 17” or 18” X 24”.

Tools: Color markers or charcoals work best.

Space: Arrange a quiet place without interrup­tions. If you don’t have a dedicated studio space, you can use any convenient space free from distractions. Note that the use of charcoal or chalk generates a mess of dust: cover your work shape with a plastic tarp or painters’ cloth.

Preparation: Prepare for 3 to 15 minutes with an Entrainment method, such as the QiGong move­ment, Meditation, drumming, chanting, or Yoga. With practice, you’ll quickly shift your primary brain-wave pattern to a more creative state of consciousness.

Draw: Close your eyes for the entire first-phase of the exercise. Let your thoughts and feelings wander. Let your attention remain un-focused throughout. Keep drawing, guided by impres­sions and feelings until you feel ‘complete’.

Review: Study your output for insights, impres­sions, and patterns. If worth keeping, transcribe any insights into your journal. If you are drawn to notice patterns, shapes, or movements, work the drawing further with your eyes open. Or, put it aside and return to your images and themes later. Finally, it is not necessary to keep it at all: the experience may be enjoyed for its own sake.

Repeat: Use this technique when you are start­ing a new project to uncover relevant impulses from your subconscious, or, when you don’t know what to work on and feel stuck, or, when you would just enjoy the feeling of being free to create.

Note: you can use the same technique de­scribed here for Automatic Writing as well.

At its core, the technique of Automatic Drawing contains a powerful truth for all individuals who are born to be creators. Remember that most of our ideas have nothing to do with making a ‘final version’ of something. However, the ideas that flow within us have everything to do with leading us towards a final expression. Time spent in the vital practice of learning to capture this flow of ideas is never wasted time. It both gives us pleasure and feeds our creative process and artistic identity all along the way.