How to draw a Good Enough wave

[blockquote source=”William Shatner”]I’m surfing the giant life wave.[/blockquote]

As a native Californian, I’ve always lived within an hour’s drive from the Pacific Ocean. Watching the waves and listening to the surf is like Nature working a magic eraser on my mind until there’s nothing left to dwell upon or worry about. Each wave soothes me into the here-and now.

Plus, nothing is quite like catching a wave!

Whether you’re catching a wave in your personal journey, or helping your business ride the current wave for as long as it can, you can draw up some surf of your very own! Here’s how:

Three Tips

Think of our breaking wave as a really funky, wide hand with the curves of the fingers gently reaching downward. Our eye likes the layout of odd-numbered items, so I go for five descending fingers in my wave crest (step 2).

The curve of the wave we draw in step 3 indicates the height of the wave to a certain extent. When the curve on the right is close to the curve on the left, then the body of the wave is narrow, and this implies a taller wave. The further apart the lines are, the shorter the wave appears. Our wave, with it’s second curve line two fingers in, implies a decent height…for surfing, of course!

Good Enough wave with a surfer girl | image from jeannelking.com

Our wave needs some coloring or shading to separate the body of the wave from its crest. Because we’re drawing in black and white right now, I used the side of my pencil to draw some lines in the body of the wave that echoed the curve of the wave. Then I blended those lines to fill in the body with some color. This allows the white crest of the wave to stand out against the body of the wave, and the blended lines suggest that there’s some motion to the wave as a bonus result!

Totally tubular, dude! Instant wave!

And that’s it! What does YOUR wave look like? Draw yours up, Tweet it out to @jeannelking #goodenough, and see who hangs ten!

I cannot wait to see what you draw forth,

P.S. Want to have fun drawing AND inspire others to pick up the pen at the same time? Got something you wish you could draw, but you’re not sure how to approach it? [highlights color=”ffea00″]Tweet your drawing or idea to @jeannelking and tag it with #goodenough: it could be featured in an upcoming “how to draw Good Enough” blog post![/highlights]

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