Doodling with character

Bugs, rabbits and a chicken

Drawing simple shapes repeatedly, aka doodling, can be soothing, meditative even. Which is why I do it so often in my morning sketchbook pages. I like to start my days with calmness. I breathe in as my pen moves one direction. I breathe out as my pen moves another way…

Sometimes, as you saw in my last post, I let the doodle stand on it's own in my sketchbook but most often as I doodle I ask myself “who is doing this drawing?” and then I create a character in the act of making the doodles.

I often have doodlebug character drawing.

Our friends Deb and

E.R. Flynn

gave me and

J. L. Sullens

some flowers so of course two doodlebugs drew them. There are many repeated shapes in flowers…

Sometimes one rabbit character doodles a number of organic shapes.

Sometimes a number of rabbits doodle one organic shape. (And yes, the shape does sortof resemble one of the gifted flowers! 😉)

Sometimes it's a chicken who does the scratching.

Doodling in the relaxed, meditative, not-trying-to-make-art sense is such an important activity to me that I'm in the process of making a 3d sculpture of a doodlebug for my next fine art exhibit at the Caplan Art Designs Gallery in October. My sculpture is 10 inches around and 9 inches tall and handmade using found objects as well as handmarbled and handmade paper.

Here, for my subscribers, is an early peek at “Doodle Bug". (Click the photo and enlarge it to see details. )

And here's a video look all the way around it… (and on YouTube here)

Here are some links about doodling that I enjoy:

About doodling in general by

Jillian Hess

(some of former President Obama's drawings are included!)

In Praise of Doodles

Science/medical based reasons to draw: drawing improves memory, stress relief https://www.invaluable.com/blog/sketch-drawing/

A regular pencil or any kind of pen can be used to doodle and so can colored pencils or markers! 👇

Because Creativity - colouring outside the lines, with Meaghan McIsaac

Here's a printed book Drawing Calm by Amy Maricle that I find inspiring too. Perhaps you can find it in your public library or via this link?

Besides the calming aspects of drawing doodles, nonsensical mark making, is just a fun thing to do.

I hope your weekend is both calming and fun!

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