Creativity Exercise #4: Pointilism

Ever since Barb Loken, my high school art teacher, taught me about pointilism, I’ve been hooked. Pointilism is the practice of applying many dots to a picture to create patterns. Think Georges Seurat, who created the technique with his student Paul Signac. I loved these assignments. They soon led me to pen and ink, and specifically stippling. To stipple is to meditate. It takes considerable patience as you apply a ton of tiny dots to your picture.

I’d like to encourage some good mind wandering for today’s assignment, so I want you to put on your favorite relaxing album or artist to listen to. Find a comfortable seat, some good light, a piece of paper, and an inky pen or marker with a fine tip (no ball points).

Comfortable? Ok. To start, draw a spiral. Start with a dot in the center of your page, and create a spacious counter clock-wise circle around it (see image below). Next, begin making tiny dots near the center of your spiral. Concentrate them toward the center, then gradually space them out. Use different colors if you’ve got them. Because this is an abstract design, there’s not really an end goal here. Just enjoy the art of applying hundreds of tiny dots to paper while listening to music.

Spiral doodle!