Okay, so I've been wanting to try my hand at some simple art stuff lately, and the idea of concentric circles just popped into my head. Seemed easy enough, right? Just circles inside circles. So, I figured, why not document how it went? Here’s my little journey into making some concentric circle art.
Getting Started - What I Grabbed
First things first, I rummaged around for supplies. Didn't want to get too fancy. I found:
- Some plain white paper – just regular printer paper, nothing special.
- A pencil, because I knew I'd make mistakes.
- An eraser, for the aforementioned mistakes.
- A basic school compass. You know, the metal pointy kind. Had to blow some dust off that thing.
- A few colored pens and markers I had lying around. I wasn't sure about colors yet, but good to have options.
That was it. My super professional setup, haha.
The First Shaky Attempts
So, I plopped down with my paper and compass. My first challenge: finding the center of the paper. I just eyeballed it, stuck the pointy end of the compass down, and tried to draw my first circle. It was… okay. A bit wobbly. Then I tried to make the next one bigger, adjusting the compass. This is where things got a bit messy. My hand wasn't super steady, and keeping the center point exactly the same while changing the compass width was harder than I thought. My circles weren't perfectly, well, concentric. Some looked a bit like ovals leaning on each other.
I also realized just pressing the compass down hard for the center point was making a big hole in the paper. Not ideal. After a few tries that looked pretty sad, I decided to take a small break and rethink.
Figuring Things Out - A Bit of a System
Okay, reset. I realized I needed to be a bit more methodical.
For the center point, instead of just guessing, I lightly folded the paper in half, then in half again, to find a more accurate center. Just a tiny crease, enough to see where to put the compass point. And I learned to be gentler with the compass point – less pressure, less hole.
Then, for the circles themselves, I decided to first draw them all lightly in pencil. This was a game-changer. I could erase and adjust if a circle looked way off. It’s much easier to fix a light pencil line than a marker line. I focused on keeping the compass arm steady and making smooth, single motions. For spacing, I didn’t measure precisely. I just kind of winged it, trying to make each circle a little bigger than the last, keeping the gaps sort of even. Sometimes I’d make a wider gap, sometimes narrower, just to see what it looked like.
Adding Some Color - The Fun Part
Once I had a set of pencil circles I was reasonably happy with, it was time for color. This is where it got more fun and less frustrating. I grabbed my colored pens and markers.
I started by outlining the pencil circles. I tried a few things:
- Using the same color for all outlines.
- Alternating colors for the outlines.
- Making some lines thicker with a marker, and some thinner with a pen.
I found that thicker lines made a bolder statement. I also tried filling in some of the bands between circles. Sometimes I’d fill one in solid, then leave the next one white, then fill another. I played around with color combinations. Some worked, some... not so much. But that's the cool part, just experimenting. There's no real "wrong" way to do it, I guess.
What I Ended Up With
So, after a bit of trial and error, I ended up with a few pieces. They’re definitely not perfect. Some circles are still a bit wonky if you look close, and the spacing isn't always mathematically precise. But you know what? I actually quite liked them. They have a handmade, sort of organic feel. One of them, where I used blues and greens, turned out pretty calming to look at. Another one, with brighter, clashing colors, is more energetic.
The whole process was pretty relaxing once I got into a rhythm. Just drawing circles and coloring. It’s a simple thing, but quite satisfying to see it come together. I spent maybe an hour or so, just doodling these circles. Definitely a nice way to switch off the brain for a bit.
So yeah, that was my adventure into concentric circles art. Nothing groundbreaking, but it was fun to try, and I actually made something I don’t mind looking at. Maybe I’ll try it with paint next time, who knows!
