Is Repetition Boring?

I don’t know about you (well actually I think I do have a hunch), but drawing for me is a form of meditation. It gets me “out of my head” and it makes me feel good.

It doesn’t matter what I draw, really. I can go outside for a walk and a drawing, or treat myself to a cup of coffee at the coffee bar on the corner of the street and draw there.
But I also like giving myself some drawing time first thing in the morning. Along with a fresh cup of coffee, perhaps while I’m still in my pajamas, this is a really good start to the day for me. Like doing yoga in the morning, ik makes me feel balanced and ready for whatever will come my way that day. It’s like sketchbook yoga I suppose.

When last year our country (and most of the world) was in lockdown, we just needed to stay put.
For my drawing practice, it didn’t matter. I’ll draw anything and everything. Drawing the mundane is my forte so to say. That’s because everything becomes interesting as soon as you start drawing it. And you notice the beauty in small things.

One morning I saw the sunlight falling so beautifully on the wall in the living room. It made me decide to sit down in front of it to draw that corner of the room. 

It was such a wonderful moment and process in that spot, that the next morning I sat down again on the same footstool and drew the same corner, but this time using completely different drawing tools. I repeated that every morning for quite a few days in a row. Without thinking about it, I created a whole collection of different versions of the same subject. The collection kind of represents the feeling of how every day seemed to be repeating itself during lockdown. But it represents even more the appreciation I felt of having a warm and safe place to live in.

Below I added a gallery with a few of the drawings I did back then.

I still enjoy sitting sit down on that same footstool in the morning every so often, to draw this familiar corner, and it never gets boring. I did this drawing just this morning.

Drawing the same thing many times may sound boring, but it’s not. It can actually be a lot of fun. Each time it’s just a little bit different. The light falls differently, a color or shape suddenly catches your eye, and because you feel a little different each time yourself, you then view the scene through different eyes. If you also choose a different technique or material each time, drawing the same familiar subject over and over again can be a very interesting adventure.

One thing is for sure: even if your subject is the same, the result never is. 

I love that about my sketchbook: it’s a place for exploration and discovery in a totally safe but exciting way.