Looking back on 2019 – Part 1: Instagram Top 9
Every year the ‘Top 9’ make the rounds on Instagram.
YOU have chosen my top 9 posts on Instagram by adding tonnes of likes. All in all my posts got almost SIXTY THOUSAND likes!! That’s pretty crazy, I think. I’m happy that I could spread some joy, cause some smiles and maybe help some of you on their own sketching journey.
In this post I am using these Top 9 to reflect a bit on my 2019.
Ten K
In April, I reached 10.000 followers on Instagram. Yay! And now it’s almost 14.000 people already who share the love of sketching and visual thinking. Crazy. If you’re one of my followers: THANK YOU very much. And if you aren’t yet, why not change that right now ;)
Loving letters
This post was my post with the most likes in 2019. It’s an alphabet with the letterforms being inspired by the illustrations of @barbarawurszt. I have loved drawing letters since I was a child. They are the perfect combination of beauty and logic and give both the freedom of formal exploration and the boundaries of a clear system within I just love playing and exploring.
P-P-P-Patterns
Ahhh, patterns. Another example of the combination of free play and rigorous system. I’ve played a lot with drawing patterns this year as I find it a lovely way to relax and just draw for the pleasure of drawing and making something visually fun and pleasing. And of course, breaking the pattern is the best part of it ;)
Women-Power
Drawing little people doing stuff is another passion of mine. Usually my stick figures end up looking like or at least being read as men. This year, I experimented a lot to learn how simple changes in shapes and proportions can shift the perception of gender in sketched figures. For International Women’s Day I sketched lots of women and girls doing some of the many things that girls and women do.
Sanskrit words
This illustration combines two things I love. Languages and yoga. I created a set of illustrations showing the most important Sanskrit terms that help to understand the names of yoga postures. It is so much easier to understand and remember the asana names when you break them down into their parts and take it from there.
You can get the printable PDF here. There is also a German and a Spanish version.
Berlin Letters
Attending the first Berlin Letters Festivals was one of my personal highlights. I love letters, calligraphy and typography and it was fantastic to just indulge in the topic for 3 days and to listen, draw, chat and look at lot of beautiful shapes. My love of letters was truly re-ignited and inspired through the event and I am really looking forward to the 2020 edition already!
Yogi/ni Pins
These friendly little Yogi/nis are NOT biscuits (as some have thought after seeing the post… I wish they were though ;), but they are wooden pins that I made this year. I love how peaceful they look (especially when you lay out a whole sea of them in front of you to take a photograph), how nice the material feels to the touch and most of all that the wood is responsibly sourced from ethical suppliers and the production uses 20 times less energy than the production of enamel pins. You can buy the pins here.
Play a game!
This is a little drawing game I invented inspired by my improvisation practice. I love using random inputs to generate ideas, stories, concepts or just for plain fun. I love how following what is already there and building on all the small things you can notice makes my brain and hands come up with things I would have never thought of ‘on my own’. Yay for surprising myself by being in the moment!
See the full post for the complete instructions.
A different kind of Yoga Selfie
The last post is a little booklet I created for the participants of my Yoganotes Workshops. I taught 5 or 6 of these workshops in Germany and Switzerland this year and after some experimentation I settled on a nice 2 1/2 hour format that teaches all the basic principles you need to sketch out yoga sequences with simple stick figures. At the end we all have some fun drawing ourselves as a little mascot.
I have a few copies left in my shop.