What is an Energy Sketch?

Have you ever just scribbled a little something without thinking too much about how it might come out?  Have you ever used stick figure drawings to illustrate something?  Have you ever had a felt sense or strong association to the energy or movement that a simple line or piece of abstract art was expressing?

An energy sketch is a quick and often simple set of marks on paper that reflects the attitude or feeling of a moment. Here are some examples of energy sketches.

Some inner work exercises suggest you make an energy sketch to capture a quality, feeling or atmosphere.  Energy sketches can help express experiences that may be hard to put into words or they may help you go farther with an experience you are already thinking or talking about. When you draw or doodle or even just make marks on a page, a different part of yourself comes into play.

Here are some suggestions for making an energy sketch:

1. Don’t think too much about it.
2. Try making your energy sketch in the air with your finger.
3. Let your hand be moved.
4. Pick up your pen, pencil or marker and put it to paper and see what happens.
5. Energy sketches don’t have to look like anything. If your energy sketch starts to become “something”, that’s ok. But it also just fine if it does not look like or resemble any particular object or thing.
6. Trust that your energy sketch is just right.

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