Shana P LohreyOil paint, ink, and conté crayon on paper, 2021
Where
Outdoors (your garden, balcony, view from a window), then, later, indoors
Materials
Black or dark-coloured paper and gouaches, pastels or coloured pencils
Steps
Prepare some paper with a dark ground — either a diluted wash of dark-coloured ink or watered-down acrylic paint — or use black or dark-toned paper.
Select a range of colours you’d like to work with and lay them out so you won’t need to think about your palette later. Set everything to one side.
Go into a quiet garden or look out from your window at dusk. Don’t draw yet — just sit and observe the rapidly changing colours, the sense of space, and the shifting tones. Above all, listen as night takes over from day. Allow at least twenty minutes of meditative acclimatisation, setting aside any distracting thoughts or plans about what you might draw.
Then, return to your studio or chosen workspace. Draw your experience of the entire encounter with the garden. Focus on your perceptions of space and sound, rather than on form or how things appeared visually.
Make considered marks to build up your surface. Work with economy rather than detail. This approach can help you draw with less self-consciousness and place less emphasis on the final outcome.
As the poet Rumi said: ‘Put your thoughts to sleep, do not let them cast a shadow over the moon of your heart. Let go of thinking.’
