Impatient Sketching >> Nature’s Patterns with Jade Armstrong

What might you draw if you didn’t give yourself time to overthink it?

Join artist Jade Armstrong for a playful, pressure-free workshop designed to loosen your hand, quiet your inner critic and (re)discover the pleasure of drawing.

Impatient sketching uses speed, repetition and simple creative constraints to help you draw before your judging mind catches up. Through a series of quick exercises, you’ll experiment with timed sketches, continuous lines, unexpected prompts and intuitive mark-making.

Music will guide the pace of the workshop. You may draw in sync with changing rhythms, allowing tempo, sound and movement to influence the speed, pressure and direction of your marks. As the music shifts, will your drawings shift with it?

From there, we’ll move into automatic drawing inspired by patterns found throughout nature, including spirals, branches, roots, waves, cells, veins and repeating forms. You’ll explore how simple marks can grow, connect and evolve into intricate organic patterns.

The aim is not to draw perfectly. It is to become curious about what appears when you let go.

Jade’s artistic practice is informed by natural patterns, perception and neuroaesthetics. She will share ideas from her research while guiding you through experimentation, play and creative discovery.

No previous drawing experience is needed. This workshop is for >> people who love drawing >> people who believe they cannot draw >> everyone in between.

Workshop details:

• Friday 11 September 2026, 5.30-6.30 pm

• ArtUp at The Gladstone, Tower B, 15–85 Gladstone Street, South Melbourne

• This workshop is designed with adult participants in mind. Young creatives aged eight and above are also welcome (with the supervision of a parent or guardian).

• All drawing materials will be provided. You are also welcome to bring your favourites: sketchbook, pencils or pens.

Spaces are limited, so bookings are essential.

Come ready to draw quickly, think less and see what grows.

This event and the Bloom art exhibition are part of a Creative Residency program through FB IDEAs with Haiku Life (Greystar) at The Gladstone, South Melbourne.