Drawing Autism - what do you like to create?

Recently one day I decided to cut up a shape from a plastic stationary folder. Then one other shape the following day. Then if I saw a shape I liked I would cut it out if the plastic folder.  Days followed, bit by bit the shapes accumulated. I picked out of the collection what I felt drawn to and slid them around on a cheap plastic tray. Experimental layout. All happened spontaneously.

I love to draw old historic  buildings but not diagnosis  as autistic but prefer pencil drawing and repetition  and detail

There is even a magic circle in knitting and crochet... no joke

I was never interested in art at school, But recently I have had a keen interest in it, So I think I will have a go at it. 

Used to have job where I spent lot of time on phone and doodled absentmindedly often from a random starting point like partial cup ring turning into bird of prey, couple marks to check open worked becoming bridge others from nothing and its geometric, hatching or stipples which work themselves into something so yes repetition. 

Like strong clean design lines in ordinary stuff - lines in iris, cut open orange as well as savagery in stuff like Gerald Scarfe and Ralph Steadman. 

Don't draw anymore but do bits of vehicle bodywork and enjoy processes, shining back flash rusted panel back to steel ready for etching, priming, building up filler, painting etc.

Appreciate age patina of lightly rusted metal alongside old paint but not rust holes...to dark, jagged and angry and know even with good weld let in they'll never be good as new. 

Think its both transformation and repetitive processes working towards a goal.

Sign of a good magician 

It is magic... that's all I'm saying 

Crumbs, yeah, how DO you knit a heel???

Frogger, yes I spent many happy hours (well  probably loading it via tape cassette took the majority of those hours) playing. I had an Atari in the mid 80’s, all of the games seemed to work on a short repetitive pattern, so it was very easy for me to rack up higher scores than my brother who couldn’t see the loop!

I do also love repetitive games. I would play frogger for hours and hours when I was younger. 

I am more of an intricate knitter in terms of needle size, but I prefer repetitive patterns than overly fiddly ones. I like making socks in particular (look at how you knit a heel, it is magical). 

I think bass is beautiful. I don't play much at all but I am sentimental about my guitars so I have kept them. I seem to have periods of a particular creative outlet and then I move on to something else. Bass is probably something I've adopted as a part of my identity more than some of my other interests though. 

Hey M, I can well understand why people find crocheting and knitting so relaxing and it certainly seems there’s been a resurgence (or possibly the popularity of TV shows that tap into different creative techniques) in the world of knitting. I know many people 18yrs-90 year olds who love it. I’m useless with any kind of needlework, or show me and then ask me to tie a particular knot, I just can’t get the pattern right in my head. Do you use those really (really) big needles or are you more of a delicate knitter?

Bass guitar eh? I think many people consider it as a background instrument, which is a shame because it requires just as much practice and talent than any other instrument (possibly not the triangle or a kazoo). Also the bass is so intrinsic, it sets the whole mood for a piece of music and has a very cool vibe about it. If you look at dance music the bass is what it’s all about (mostly not guitar based but the effect of). Do you play any more?

I’m not a gamer but can understand a game with a personalised element can be great, is it fair to say it allows interaction but without the real social situation? That is probably way off the mark but I’m still stuck in PAC-man era .

Keep creating!

I have been crocheting for 5 years and knitting for 3yrs. I love counting the stitches and it is extremely repetitive. I'm doing some blankets at the moment that involve counting to 10 over and over again. 

I used to love music and played bass guitar. Another hobby I did over and over again until I mastered the songs. My mum mustve been driven crazy by me repeating the same bits of songs repeatedly so I could play over it. I particularly loved intricate bass soloists and was in love with the idea of what is often a background instrument being the main and sole instrument of songs in its own right (Victor Wooton, Stuart Hamm for example). 

I also have always loved any kind of video game with a personalised element, whether that is something like the Sims or Theme Park, or role playing games like WoW, Star Wars Galaxies. Video games take over my life when I get hooked so I switch between animal crossing and knitting these days. 

I'm 32yrs old so not the typical knitting obsessive but hey ho. 

A big imagination is an amazing, your most of the way there! Imagination is creating in itself :) 

I’ll try that I have a very big imagination.

I do cross hatched doodling all the time.  I'll sometimes fill in the resultant boxes, if they aren't too small.  

Yes if I'm not happy with my freehand figures, I'll do regimented lines, so an 8 effectively becomes two squares.  If I'm drawing a regimented number 3, I'll agonise over whether it should be two dashes along the top and 3 down, or 1 dash along the top and 2 down, and whether the middle dash should equal the top and bottom in length etc.

I'll mess about with W's and N's as well, and am never happy with my angles, (mainly in my mind those).

I quite like upside down cones and cylinders, so I can complete the ends and create the sense that it's solid. 

Do you ever do cross hatched doodling or is that too many lines, crisscrossing at different angles?

I find that when I’m starting to get visually overloaded I see more angles and miss out on horizontals or verticals. 

I see what your saying about 8’s and ampersands and thinking back to my last reply (that I find ampersands difficult to write) I also find the number 8 difficult. I draw one circle on top of another. I can’t make it a fluid line so I can totally see why you find 8’s and &’s are more of a challenge and more satisfying.

Both.

I think 8's and  because they are harder and are more of a challenge to achieve one that satisfies. 5's because I say the rhyme; "down his neck, round his fat tummy and put a cap on."  So yes, I think it's their shapes.  

I do find repetition calming.  it's mainly doodle type drawing, so usually it's just a pen. I also do simple rows of lines next to each other, but at different angles, so at 90 degrees, some at 45 etc.

Could you scribble whilst listening to music?

Hey S1mon, I'm sure you're very creative, it's not about having a finished piece (I think I may be slightly contradicting myself) it's more of a journey or an outlet. Have you ever just scribbled on a bit of paper (I do this a lot with my eyes closed) and then had a look to see if an area interests you or perhaps filling some areas with a colour that you might associate with a feeling or a noise?

Hello Bob I’m awful at art my coordination is not very good.