Squiggle Birds

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Demonstrate visual thinking and pattern recognition using simple line shapes.

Use it when: Use before sketching, diagramming, or visual mapping sessions to lower anxiety about drawing ability.

Skip it when: Skip when the upcoming work requires rigorous technical accuracy or when working with a strictly non-visual medium.

Group arrangement: Individual drawing with whole-room viewing

Timing: UWT suggested 10-minute sequence expanded from the 2 to 5 minute source exercise to include structured review and debrief

Materials and tools

• 1 sheet of plain paper per participant (in-person)
• 1 felt-tip pen or marker per participant (in-person)
• Digital whiteboard with pre-allocated blank rectangular frames per person (remote)

Before participants arrive

1. For in-person, distribute one plain sheet of paper and one marker to each participant.
2. For remote, create a shared digital board and label one distinct working box for each participant.

Say this to open

Most people believe they cannot draw, but our minds naturally look for patterns and turn basic marks into meaning. In this quick exercise, you will draw simple loops and turn them into birds using four basic shapes.

How to run it

1. Draw raw squiggles 2 minutes

   Say: 'Take thirty seconds to draw four or five random, looping squiggles on your paper or digital board. Do not try to draw anything recognizable yet. Keep them loose and separate from each other.' Signal time after 30 to 45 seconds.

2. Convert squiggles into birds 3 minutes

   Say: 'Now look at your squiggles. Each squiggle will become a bird. Add a small triangular beak, an eye, a tail feather, and two straight lines for feet. Notice which side looks like the front or back.' For example, a messy loop with a small sharp triangle on one side and two sticks on the bottom immediately reads as a bird. Allow two minutes for everyone to add features to all their squiggles.

3. Display and view 2 minutes

   Have in-person participants hold up their pages simultaneously. Remote participants look across the shared digital canvas. Invite everyone to spend one minute browsing the different expressions and poses people produced from random lines.

4. Reflect and transition 3 minutes

   Lead a brief whole-room reflection on visual communication. Ask the group the debrief questions and take two or three voluntary answers before shifting to the main visual agenda.

Debrief questions

• What minimal details were necessary to make a random loop look like a bird?
• How does this change your view of whether you need fine art skills to communicate an idea visually?

Finished output: A set of four to five converted bird sketches per participant, demonstrating minimal visual representation.

Remote

Set up a shared whiteboard (such as Miro or Mural). Create a grid of numbered squares, one per person. Participants use the pen tool or mouse scribble to make their squiggles, then draw on beaks and feet. Participants who struggle with digital drawing tools may sketch on physical paper and hold it to the webcam.

Hybrid

In-person participants draw on paper while remote participants use the digital canvas. A shared video camera displays the in-person gallery to remote participants, and a shared screen shows the digital canvas to the in-person room.

Access and participation choices

• Participants may choose not to share their drawing to the whole room.
• Participants with motor control difficulties can use standard geometric shape stamps (circles, triangles, lines) on digital whiteboards to assemble bird forms instead of freehand drawing.

If the session gets stuck

Participants agonize over drawing 'good' squiggles and take too long.

Remind the group that the worse or messier the initial loop is, the more interesting the bird becomes. Enforce the thirty-second limit strictly.

Participants on digital whiteboards struggle with mouse pen tools.

Invite them to sketch on scratch paper at their desk and hold it up to their webcam, or use basic shape tools (an oval, a triangle, and lines) on the screen.

Terms used here

• Squiggle: An irregular, random loop or line drawn without planning a specific image.