The Spark and the Slate

This working trains the mind’s eye gently, the way a child learns to draw: one line, then another, until a whole picture stays put. You begin with a single spark of light and end, some days, with a small world of shapes.

The working

1. Close your eyes and picture a bright point of light in the dark in front of you: a spark, a glowing bead, a tiny flame.
2. Move it slowly. Let it leave a trail behind it, like a sparkler on a summer night.
3. Draw a single line with it. Then another, and try to keep the first one from fading. At first even two lines are an achievement.
4. Draw simple shapes: a circle, a triangle, a square. Colour them in. Move them around, slide them together, change their shades.
5. When flat shapes feel steady, try solid ones: a cube, a sphere, a cone. Turn them, set them down, bounce one gently off another.
6. If the picture wobbles or dissolves, start again from the spark. It’s always there.

Closing

Let your shapes go out one by one, the spark last of all, and open your eyes slowly.