i've been messing around with this style for a while now and have been hesitant to share it just because it's nothing like what i usually make- and because it's something i haven't seen really before and know others can do way better. part of this post is letting this be seen, letting the idea run free if it wants to
way back in the day, a friend of mine was telling me about this way of making art- you start with your pen on the page, and you try to cover as much of the page as possible without taking your pen from the page, and without touching any other lines you've drawn previously. i think i tried it a couple times, but it didn't really stick.
earlier this year i tried to apply that idea in order to split-attention my way through some training videos or meetings at work. instead, i ran with a different concept: draw some lines, then draw more lines to fill up the page without touching the other lines you've done. naturally, when i'm trying to pay attention to multiple things, i tend to put a lot of thought and detail into what i do, and i was impressed with the look of the end result.
over time, i've iterated on it, tried different ways of filling the page with that same ruleset, tried even making some with images in them, differentiated by the lineweights like an old etching. it's very meditative to me, while also being somewhat of a black hole for attention. i look at the unfinished page and i am instantly pulled to draw another line. it's a very weird marriage of feelings, and i think it kinda makes its way onto the page
this one in particular is the first time i've done one of these using a full sheet of letter-sized paper- usually i just work on index cards. and it's the second iteration, because the first was folded slightly differently in a way that was too difficult to work with.
i'm anxious to share this, because i know my hand isn't the most steady, my eye isn't the best, and this is something truly anyone can do. (and also, i'm not going to pretend i made the technique or whatever, rather that i've adopted it from assorted cultural pieces pulled from osmosis) but i think it's time to show. i'm interested what people think of it
