A doodle a day

Hello. It is often said that if you want to be a writer, you should write every day. That makes sense to me because the more you practice something the better you become at it. This can be true of almost everything. Want to sculpture your body, go to the gym and pump iron every day. Want to create beautiful bridal gowns, sew every day. Want to create award winning cakes, bake every day. Want to make great art, practice every day. 

A lot of artists make journals, or sketches, or scrapbooks, with snippets of their work, which they refer back to for ideas. I have got a doodle notebook. Something comes into my head and I sit and doodle the idea for ten minutes or so. Sometimes I doodle just for the sake of it, even though I have no idea what I am looking for. I use felt tip pens, which most people now call sharpies for some reason. 

I draw straight lines with a ruler, and fill in the spaces. 

I use a template with lots of small circles.

Sometimes silly things come into my head, I make it up.

Use a plastic template, then add fillers of different colours. Squiggly lines to join up the squares.

Circles of different sizes can be filled in.

I have sparkly glitter pens which I like playing with.

Random shapes, colour them in and add detail.

I will probably go back to this one, it needs more colour and detail.

I saw some Mandala painting videos, I like the idea of lots of dots. 

Some of my templates, for basic shapes which then can be doodled on.

You might think this is all a bit juvenile, but it's surprising how the creative juices flow when you let your mind wander. Play with colours, see how they go together, mix up circles, straight lines, and squiggly shapes. Look at your creation as it is growing, work out which direction you want to go in.

When making a picture there are lots of techniques you can use. You can paint with oils, water colour, acrylics, add texture, collage, spray paint. Outline with crayons, felt tip pens, pencils. Paint with fingers, sponge, plastic cards. Use rubber stamps, glue fabric to the picture, doodle and scribble on it. There are lots of yoootoooob videos about making art with every medium you can think of. Nothing is off limits. People say to me, I don't know where you get your ideas from. Looking at other people's art gives me ideas, also reading craft and sewing books and magazines. One of my favourite web sites is Cassie Stevens. She is an art teacher, her link is on the sidebar.

I am going to carry on doodling and see where it takes me. something will click, there will be bits of it which I can use in future projects. A bit like keeping a notebook if you are writing a novel. If you want to make art, give doodling a go. Take a blank piece of paper, draw a shape, circle, square, or whatever, then fill it in. Draw lots of circles and link them together. Put them in a box. Colour them in. Scribble a few words on them. See where you end up. Happy doodling.

Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip