A creative green dragon

playing imaginative games

I often collect quotes, with attribution, in my morning sketchbook because they're something I want to think about and remember. Adding a drawing to the page is just fun - which is the point of my morning sketchbook, to take 10 minutes or so to fiddle with my art supplies. (If my “fiddling" looks good it's because I've done daily drawings for more than a decade.) Here are two creative games I play, stretch and exercise my creative muscles regularly in my morning sketchbook. You're welcome to play too! The minimum game supplies necessary are a pencil and piece of paper. I use ink pens because I'm like that.

First game: I randomly draw some patterns using lines and shapes. Then I imagine, and draw, a character who would be drawing those lines. The process of doing these drawings often spans several different mornings

Second game: I look around for an ordinary object in real life (a noun). Then I think of an ordinary action (a verb or adverb). Then I think of a character who would be doing the acting on or with that object. Then I combine those three things: noun + verb + character. With those three game pieces I doodle with my pens and try to make myself smile or laugh.

For the example drawing below: the real life object I chose was one of my watersoluable crayons. For a verb I chose “holding" - which led to the question “holding what?”. For a character I chose a blue bird both because I saw a real life blue scrub jay in our yard at the time I was beginning this game session as well as the “blue bird of happiness” notion. This was the drawing that happened as a result.

Below is one of my favorite books about using imagination. It's a fun read with delightful artwork and good suggestions of creative exercises. More details about this book and it's playful approach to drawing here.

Now you know more about my morning sketchbook methods. My motive for keeping a sketchbook like this is to start my days in a playful and pleasant way that stretches and exercises my imagination. I hope you have a pleasant way that you start your days too!

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