Sketching with anticipation
“Remember, your sketch doesn’t have to look like any particular thing – it’s more important to focus on releasing anticipation”
1 OBSERVE
Think about a time when you anticipated an experience. You knew it was coming but you didn’t know what the outcome would be. Perhaps it was just before a performance, presentation, time of travel or life event.
Consider the way in which your body reacts to anticipation and compare it with anxiety. Notice how your body responded as you sketched:
● Did your heart beat faster at the thought of it?
● Did the pace of your breathing change or did you stop breathing altogether?
● Were you filled with hope or dread?
● Are you tense or giddy?
● Did you rehearse all the possible scenarios?
● Did your thoughts seem clear or scattered?
Consider engaging your body in the following sketching experience by allowing it to move in synchronicity with the motion and emotion of anticipation just as you did in the last sketching experience.
2 SKETCH
Using dots, lines, patterns or shapes, create a visual representation of your experience with anticipation and what it feels like to you.
Remember, it doesn’t have to look like any particular thing – it does not need to factually represent a person, place, feeling or object. It is more important to focus on releasing this anticipation and putting it on paper. Think of your pen as the mechanism for communicating and let it flow from one mark to the next.
3 REFLECT When you are done, reflect on what you have sketched:
● What patterns, themes or images arose?
● What emotion(s) did you feel during the sketch?
● How did your body respond? ● Did any memories, thoughts or insights surface?
● Did you observe any shifts in energy or perspective?
When an aeroplane hits turbulence, the pilot seeks a higher elevation to rise above it. How did you navigate both of these prompts? Reflecting on your sketches, consider your answers to the following questions:
● How are the sketches similar and different?
● How did the intensity of your grip impact you and the result on your paper?
● What did you spend the most time thinking about?
● In times of uncertainty, why is it difficult for you to have hope?
● As you look at the entire sketch, what does it reveal to you about your experience with anxiety and anticipation?
Sketching allows me to hope. It acknowledges fear as a rational, instinctual reaction and allows me to anticipate the sudden changes in my life with a form of acceptance. I can work with the wind instead of fighting against it. I can navigate it with curiosity rather than the sense of impending doom.