I recently finished Keep Going by Austin Kleon. An amazing book part of a trilogy which I absolutely recommend to all creatives out there. One concept that I picked up from the book was Slow Art day. It is a practice started by Art Critic Peter Clothier where the community comes together and spends one hour per painting in Art Galleries. This is summarized in their ethos as “When people look slowly . . . they make discoveries.” This is such an interesting thought. As I reflected upon this, I did see a pattern myself. 

I joined Instagram back about a year ago to look at the works of SketchNoters. The idea was to learn and adapt the practices into my own SketchNote Creative process. But I soon fell for the same trap that everyone does. I did have access to a wide range of SketchNotes and amazing creations, but I was just looking at them. The concept of Slow Looking made me realize that I should not be merely looking and liking the post. I should be Observing it closely. This inspired me to start a habit that instead of the doom scroll, pick up a SketchNote from the feed and observe it closely. Ask questions while observing it. What layout was used, what is the message, what was the color palette that was used and so on. 

You may not need to observe the SketchNote for the full hour like the Slow looking community does but even looking at it for 10 mins can add so much value.

Do give it a try. This concept can be applied to basically anything beyond Paintings and SketchNotes. Appreciate the finer details, try to understand what is so good about it. Anyone can criticize but it takes a lot to find the good aspects of creative Art.