The Process Behind the Art: A closer look at how my drawings are given life

Name of Drawing: YOU

What were you thinking?

Did you know what to draw before drawing?

Do you have a sketch?

How do you know the patterns to draw?

Personally, drawing is such an intense moment where I just sit and connect to that white expanse of rough press paper. I cannot honestly say I am thinking of something in particular but what I know is that my drawings are from deep within my soul. I really hope you enjoy reading 'The Process behind the art' and it gives you some insight to my minds beautiful chaos.

The first thing I ALWAYS do is find the midpoint (or any point) to draw the grid. The grid here is just layers of concentric circles that are 1cm apart from each other and this is done with pencil. And then I just sit there staring at the paper asking "What should I draw? What shape should I start with? Circles, hmmmm...no triangles...no that won't be nice for start....dots? what about dots? hmmmmm no no no Ok circles....Alright what pen size should I use? 0.05? no too small....0.3? ugh too big...ok 0.1? no looks like 0.05....0.2? ugh looks like 0.3...ok so which pen should I use?"

L.O.L

I can be in this space for a day to a week and even more. In that waiting period, I have to see the paper. I would randomly walk to my station no matter what I am doing and stare at the white paper just laying down peacefully waiting for my ink to beautify it. I stare and go deeper in my soul and ask, "What should I draw?"

My drawing is stemmed from a mountain of emotions because whatever I am feeling feeds into my hands and onto the paper. So I try to make sure that before I sit down in my little corner to begin a stroke of ink, my mind is awake.

And it comes to me. Not as a whole but in layers.

I am a mandala artist. The circle signifies life and life is in layers. Layers comprises of everything; beauty, love, pain, sorrow, happiness and every emotion that exists. To be able to capture these raw emotions using patterns, circles, lines and curves, the door of my soul is activated by the awakening of my mind which leads my fingers to move.

When I started learning about Mandalas and how to draw them, I used to attempt to copy/replicate what I saw on Instagram and I never liked any of them. They just never sat as "original" to me. Until I was working on "The World Beyond". I had bought a black glitter paint that I was super excited to try and while painting I wasn't just satisfied with my brush strokes. I complained to my husband and he told me "Babe, stop overthinking it. You are not a robot or a computer." And that's all I needed to hear. I just let myself go.

My fingers drew the organised chaos in my mind and the calmness of my soul. It was like my mind had transcended of some sort and my drawings became even more beautiful. It wasn't about getting the perfect circle, or the straightest line, or the curviest curve. Rather it was about the beauty that resides in ugly; the light that exists in darkness; the good that exists in bad; the perfection that lies in imperfection; the yin that exists in yang.

That is how my drawings are developed.

Olayinka.