Colour block buildings and the importance of simplicity

I remember reading somewhere that if you ever get stuck on writing something the best thing to do is to write the type of thing you’d like to read. Therefore (just as a little pre-warning), this is the approach I'm going for in this post.

At the moment I keep seeing posts on Instagram where the picture is typography of excerpts from books and articles written by small name authors. Although these are pretty hit and miss, I actually really enjoy reading them anyway. Whether or not you take anything from them you get the opportunity to read someone's thoughts/creations. Unlike bigger authors, they don't have as much of a pressure to keep up to a certain standard, and what they write often comes off a lot more raw and free-spirited which I always find refreshing.

So, if this was one of those "excerpts that I never wrote" type of posts, the question when writing it would be what would I say? And consequently, what would I like to read? 

Consider this a dear self, and dear whoever else wants to read type of post. Perhaps for in a few months time when fully emerged back into university or a situation where you’re either overwhelmed with things to do or tired of doing nothing. 

Being a student I appreciate that maybe I still really only have a half experience of having multiple responsibilities, yet sometimes I feel like that is enough. When being too busy you catch yourself thinking how nice it would be to lead a life of ultimate simplicity but too much of doing nothing leaves you feeling bored and wanting to be occupied. Leaving you with the reality that it would be both unsatisfying and unfeasible to choose one over the other. 

Productivity can range from a variety of things; social, academic or simply saying yes to too many things (yeah, same). This idea of
constantly having to have the ideal balance of working, socializing and being healthy, stemming from expectations set around us, can lead to overcomplexity. Although in many aspects balance is required, important or even just interesting,  it still remains important to sometimes remove yourself from its unrealistic requirement of consistency.

And so, ignoring the fact that this probably wouldn't be concise enough, maybe what I'd have written would go a little like this:


Perhaps the solution to the tiredness of a productive day is the same as the solution of finding motivation on a day that lacks any vibrancy. That includes engaging with the simplicities of the world like admiring the colours of the sky, going for a walk or just playing music loudly, as often as you need to. When you go back to doing whatever you were, you may just find that your priorities have been set straighter. Sometimes the answer might be to appreciate things rather than to investigate them, for all it could take is a little simplicity to show that nothing really matters as much as you initially think. 


The drawing for this post is one I digitally illustrated using Microsoft Sketchbook of colorful buildings I took photos of in Tenerife, all blended together in a simple looking colour block style. I'm still undecided how I feel about digital drawing as even though it is quicker than acrylic painting it can look a bit plain. 

(Note to self: I should probably stop writing drafts at 2 am to avoid sounding like some Tumblr account run by a 14-year-old. Totally aware of this right now, but going with it anyway).