Tennis star Arthur Ashe famously said: “There is a syndrome in sports called ‘paralysis by analysis.’” The same is true for art. A study published in the Journal of Neuroscience found that the prefrontal cortex—which is housed in the cerebrum—is the part of the brain responsible for planning, executive function, and working memory. Further, the findings showed that overactivity in the prefrontal cortex can interfere with brain processes necessary to perform fluidly; simply put, this can cause people to “choke,” whether you are an athlete or an artist.

This fun and inspiring workshop is going to focus on how we “loosen up” and let go of Type-A-style planning so that our pages become beautiful in an organic way, enhanced by our science-oriented data—which is the most beautiful thing of all.

We’ll also have some fun with a few tools and tricks: a caliper to measure proportions (which happen to coincide with the “Golden Mean” . . . don’t worry we’ll cover that, too!) and a fun protractor for making perfect circles.

Length: 2 hours

Resources from the Workshop

Handout with images, tips and links: https://www.dropbox.com/s/swadhrq8gdms0mg/Organic%20Page%20Layout%20-%20Final%20PDF%20Roseann%20Hanson.pdf?dl=0

CHAT transcript — click > HERE <

Click to initiate download of a PDF of the workshop presentation (50mb file): https://www.dropbox.com/s/cwglitp4269b6n0/Organic%20Layout%2012-04-2021.pdf?dl=0

Links from the workshop:

Virtual Field Trip to Arctic Alaska: https://360exploring.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Arctic+Alaska/output/index.html

Helix Round Protractor:

From the Field Arts shop, in the Discovery Kit: https://www.exploringoverland.com/field-arts-shop

From Amazon, search for “Helix Round Protractor”