Circles

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The humble circle is one of those shapes that seems to appeal to us all. There are no harsh corners which might feel tense and no angles dissecting the flow. This is a shape which seems to grow as one continuous flowing motion that starts and returns to where it began. Circles feel natural and convey something that is inherently balanced in a way that is difficult to articulate but easy to recognise.

The circle is a shape which we encounter in the natural world around us: the sun and the moon, a ripple in the water, the cross section of a tree trunk or the iris of an eye. It feels timeless. It can represent a balance. A certain wholeness and completion. It can hint at deeper meaning or merely be a pleasing visual shape to look at. It holds an appeal across all ages, many cultures and even different artistic sensibilities.

These are the reasons why this website uses circles as its logo. The site’s name, the creative spot, is meant to represent a space for all topics about creativity. Admittedly, if taken literally, a spot could take various shapes. It could be a blob, an organic shape with many curves, or it could be a simple circle.

Circular doodling

The doodlers amongst us might find ourselves absentmindedly drawing circles in our note book during a meeting while listening to the conversations. We might have started this back in school. Doodling circles can both serve as a way to keep our hands busy while our mind is focused or to just relax.

There is no doubt that there is a meditative quality to a repetitive motion of drawing a circle. Our hand moves in a rhythm, our breathing might slow and our mind settles into a state between focused attention and wandering thought. The circle is a simple enough shape to not demand too much concentration and instead simply move the pen, let the line flow and return to the starting point. Completing the circle can be a satisfying feeling and even retracing the line over and over again can bring a sense of calm.

Many people mention how the sheer overload of media and demands on their attention add to their level of stress and can even cause anxiety. If this is true for you, the next time you feel nervous or stressed, try finding the calm in doodling circles. Grab whatever is nearby – this could be a pen, a marker, a pencil or even a stick in the sand, or your spoon stirring your cup of tea or coffee. Start drawing circles, one and the same repeatedly, or many different ones. You might find this a relaxing activity to ease your tension.

The impossible simplicity of the perfect circle

The beauty of the circle is in its perfection of the continuous endless line and the curved flow. Drawing a perfect circle freehand, however, can be quite a challenge. Go ahead and try it. It seems like a perfectly easy challenge, as it is one single line which does not have a start or an end. Yet trying to achieve an even curve all the way around is surprisingly difficult. Our hand might start to wobble, the line drift into different curvatures. And before we know it, we might look at an egg or an oddly shaped puddle. The perfect circle that was in our minds is quite difficult to execute by hand.

But who says a circle has to be perfect anyway? – It is a little bit of a creative challenge and can be fun to try. Here are a few tips that might help you with creating your circles.

• When drawing on paper, anchor your hand.
  You can use your palm or wrist as a natural compass point. Rest the side of your hand on the paper and pivot from the wrist to create the curved lines. You might draw in sections or merely draw smaller circles with your hand firmly rested on the surface.
• When drawing on a large surface, such as a whiteboard in the office or sand in nature, draw from your elbow or shoulder.
  Experiment with keeping your wrist straight and letting the elbow be your pivot point. Or for larger circles, keep both your wrist and your elbow straight and let the movement come from your shoulder.
• Speed up.
  This might feel counterintuitive to rush the line, but quite often a quick stroke means you don’t worry too much about the line. Hesitating can induce a wobble to your line. Therefore going faster, not slower, might result in a more round circle than a slow or careful approach.
• Draw in the air first, then on paper.
  Try hovering your pen just above the paper and draw a circle in the air a few times over. This is essentially a little practice run to let your muscles learn the motion before you actually draw your circle.
• Which direction?
  Most of us find either a clockwise or a counterclockwise direction more comfortable than the other. It can be fun to figure out which way works best for you. Or simply draw several circles, some in one way and some in the other, this will likely add some variation to your doodles.

The beauty of the imperfect circle

While it can be a fun challenge to try to draw the perfect circle, there is a lot to be said for a circle that is not perfect. There is plenty of compelling circular art which celebrates the happy accidents, the wobble and the drift of a line in a circular shape. An imperfect circle speaks of a moment in time, a trace of the person who created it.

The Ensō: a calligraphic circle with history

Think of the ensō in Zen calligraphy: a circle typically drawn in a one single brush stroke, sometimes two. It is not meant to be geometrically perfect. It is to capture a moment of free creation. Its beauty and expression lies precisely in the imperfection itself.

Ensō can be written in the air, drawn in the dirt, or, most typically, brushed on paper. The first Zen painting was almost certainly an ensō, brushed for a student who needed something concrete to contemplate, a visual expression of enlightenment. The earliest known example of an ensō painting is by the Chinese Zen Master Kyozan (814-890) as recorded in the Keitokudento-roku.

John Stevens: What is an Ensō?

For centuries, Zen Buddhist practitioners have been drawing ensō (円相). It drawn in one fluid movement, usually with ink and brush on paper. Once created, it is never corrected or adjusted. The circle may be open or closed. It may be strong and bold or fine and delicate. It may be perfectly round or whimsically lopsided. Each variation carries meaning. A closed ensō might symbolise wholeness, completion and calm or the endless cycle of existence. An open ensō can represent openness, movement, or the beauty of incompleteness.

What makes the ensō so compelling is that it is not about skill in the conventional sense. The point is not perfection. It is about the creative process, the presence of mind and free thought. The ensō reveals the state of mind of who drew it, which is why anyone can draw it and why every ensō is unique.

For further reading on the ensō tradition, see John Stevens’ article “What is an Ensō?” at Lion’s Roar, or explore Audrey Yoshiko Seo’s book “Ensō: Zen Circles of Enlightenment”.

Doodle ideas with circles

Not sure where to begin? Here are a few starting points. I have created an example for each – just in case you’d like a visual prompt. I’ve hidden them in case you’d rather start without any visual reference.

Ringed circles.

Begin by drawing one fairly large circle. Next, draw another slightly smaller circle inside of it. Continue this pattern, creating smaller and smaller and smaller circles towards the centre of the original. Don’t worry about different line widths or an even space, simply let the circles happen as you draw. Experiment with offsetting the centre, vary the line and allow each circle its own space and position within its outer circle.

{ ringed circles example view }

Concentric circles.

If you are fond of symmetry, repeat the scaled circle method and try keeping the center point in place for each of your differently sized circles. Experiment with the size and scaling by leaving smaller or larger gaps between each circle.

As an additional element, fill these bands with lines or very small dots, for example, to create a patterned circular visual. Vary the density or pressure to create patterns of different visual weight.

{ concentric circles example view #1 view #2 }

Pebble patch.

Enjoy creating wobbly and uneven circles and instead of drawing the outline only, fill in the space itself. Have fun with creating all sorts of different shapes and sizes of circles and cluster them together in different ways. Think of pebbles on the beach or bubbles in your bubble bath. Vary the spacing and even allow them to overlap. Enjoy the difference in sizing and shaping by merely drawing freely.

{ pebble patch example view }

Flowers.

Imagine the view of a flower from the very top, and draw circles to represent the petals around the center circle. Draw abstract flowers with perfectly round petals or group circles together to shape more elongated petals. Play around with the grouping of your smaller circles to create the different larger shapes to represent the leaves. Without outlining the shape, simply add to your collection of circles to let your doodle grow into your imaginary blossom.

{ flowers example view }

Play with textures.

Create a whole collection of differently sized circles by merely drawing the outline initially. As a second step, experiment with different fills for the inside of those circles. Draw waves in one circle, then straight diagonal lines inside another. Fill one with random scribbles, or draw tiny dots inside another. Have fun experimenting and see how the different textures change the look and feel of your circles.

{ texture play example view }

Digital circles

While there is nothing quite like working just with pen and paper, many of us are very happy using digital tools which can give the same sense of satisfaction when creating visuals. No matter whether you are using a mouse or a pen and a tablet, if you are comfortable in digital tools, doodling circles can have the same relaxing effect. And I’m not talking about using the ellipse tool here. Of course, it is very easy to grab this tool, hold down shift and produce a perfect circle very quickly. But where would be the joy in that?

The real sense of doodling comes when you treat your software like a sketchbook. Using only the drawing tools and merely selecting whether to use a pencil or a brush will allow you to freely draw as you would on paper. My advice would be not to shy away from the fine art applications, even if you feel you are not an artist. This is not about creating pieces of art, this is about doodling and the joy it brings. Even if you do not have an art application on your digital device yet, there’s no need to spend any money on buying such an app. Krita is my all time favorite application. It is free, open source, works on any operating system and is very easy to use, Especially if you don’t worry about any complex techniques. You download it, install it, open it up, pick up a pencil and doodle to your heart’s content.

Apps like Krita offer a wide range of different art materials – they feel like a bottomless box of drawing tools. You will find different pens, from ink pens and marker pens to felt tips. There are soft pencils that allow for nice shading. There’s charcoal with very gritty edges. There are brushes of different kinds: watercolour, oil, gouache. Best of all, if you really just want to doodle and draw circles, you can literally just pick any of them without knowing anything about the traditional technique and just enjoy the process. No need to be an artist or familiar with any particular technique. Just go ahead and try – experiment and see what happens. It will be fun ツ

And if you are already working with a graphics tabloid and a stylus for example, the pressure sensitivity will open up even more possibilities. Draw and taper your lines by using lighter or stronger pressure as you draw your curves to create your circle. A circle with a thin top curve and a heavier bottom line will add a sense of gravity to the circle. The opposite, with a heavier top and a s thinner bottom line, will change the sense of gravity to a sense of lightness and floating.

Here are a few of my pieces which started off as circular doodles and evolved into the final abstract image after more doodling and experimenting. Adding them here hoping they might inspire you ツ

On a personal note: One of my favourite parts of using digital tools for doodling is the fact that I am wasting no paper doing so. An added bonus is the fact that I can undo when I make a mistake or draw a line that would ruin my little doodle ツ

Circle gallery

As a final boost of inspiration, take a look at this little collection of circular artwork from the times when modern art began and evolved.

The mesmerising animations of Etienne Jacob

These wonderful animations were created with code – and I find them almost hypnotic and could not resist sharing them. I’ve added them as one of the inspiration posts and with these pieces using circles, I had to repeat them here ツ Featured with kind permission ©Etienne Jacob.
Hover/tap the static image to view the loops – and enjoy ツ

If you like these, do have a look at Etienne’s site. There are many more to see ツ
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