One of my favorite little hobbies is to draw portraits without looking down at the paper. Sometimes I do it with care, really making an effort to make my hand t

One of my favorite little hobbies is to draw portraits without looking down at the paper. Sometimes I do it with care, really making an effort to make my hand trace the shapes I see... but often I do it about as quickly as I can, which induces a different kind of enjoyable flow. It's a well-known kind of drawing exercise, probably popularized by the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, and the idea is to cut off the rationally interpreting part of the mind and encourage you to see directly and just kind of directly connect your hand to your visual perception. Yeah, it does feel like a way to let go. It's very fun, and often turns out weirdly brilliant absurd portraits. Try it at parties! I've found that kids find it very fun too.