Yesterday evening I suddenly had a random idea*, could I draw a face with just vertical lines? I grabbed my iPad and Apple pencil and gave it a go to find out that I could indeed draw a face with just verticals lines.

I tried a few combinations and the decided I had gone as far as I could do I’d try horizontal lines to see the difference. I started drawing and again reached the end after about five variations. I was about to call it quits with a warm glow on my face when I suddenly realised. “Vertical lines can be hair!"

Suddenly a whole host of new options were open to me as hair, then beards and more facial hair became a possibility. Then I realised ears could be shown with vertical lines and even piercings. I had given up to easily and almost missed out on a whole world of extra possibilities by not spending more time thinking and experimenting.

Obviously drawing a face with just vertical lines isn’t exactly a revolution or really something any of us will need to do on a day to day basis but it was fun and the main lesson —to not give up easily and keep exploring an idea — is very useful for everyday life.

*I believe this idea was a synthesis of practicing faces based of Activities from @Rohdesign and Austin Kleon