2016 Topic 10: Doodles Lori Marie Hi everyone, Darcy here with our newest topic. This time we will be exploring the world of doodles. This is something most of us have done all our lives, from being very small and 'scribbling' through to 'doodling' whenever bored. I am sure you doodled on school notebooks or on your pencil case, perhaps the names of 'crushes' in a love heart? perhaps cartoon doodles of friends and their names, maybe you were a flower power person and covered everything in sight with doodled blooms. Did you know that doodling can help you concentrate, it focuses that part of the brain that is easily distracted. It prevents daydreaming which is a huge drain on brain power, and so actually helps you recall information. It also relieves stress, and if used as a warm up exercise it can make you a better artist. Perhaps you scratched your doodles into your school desk, or into the walls of the bus stand - and while you thought this was art, or rebellion, the teachers had another word for it! Sushipot Did you even realise how creative you were being? In recent years doodling has become a commercially based thing, there is no need to doodle on your journal or pencil case or bag as they are mass produced with the doodling already there. Talk about taking the fun out of it! There are books on the subject and even workshops, who would have ever thought that we needed to be taught how to doodle? Before we dive deeper let's see who won the Topic 9: Mono Printing Challenge.. What a wonderful array of prints we have seen over the past 2 weeks from guests and challenge entries. Your gelli plates have been well used, perhaps for the first time? and you have produced so many diverse projects. The winner of mono Printing is: Chris from pearshapedcrafting Email Darcy to claim your prize. [email protected] So how did doodling start, is it something we all do instinctively? I guess it all depends how artistically you view the images. We now view cave drawings as wondrous examples of ancient art and expression, but what if to the cave man they were just doodles to pass the time between hunting sabre toothed tigers! I believe that everyone doodles, and as such everyone makes art, sure there are degrees of technical ability but when you come down to it, everything breaks down to the same basic shapes that we see in doodles. What exactly are doodles? “Doodles may be shapes, patterns, drawings or scribbles – anything we produce in an idle moment while the focus of our attention is elsewhere.” This is a little dismissive of doodling which is a shame, as doodling does not happen by itself. it requires some, and sometimes all, of our sensory skills. Stephanie Ackerman Once they become more deliberate, more effort is required to make them and more concentration is needed. They are then less doodles and more drawings. Neither is better than the other, just different and both still immensely interesting. The most interesting thing I find is that although nobody tells us what or how to doodle we often all end up creating the same shapes or images. How is this possible, are we one collective hive mind of doodlers? Doodles come in all shapes: Straight and curved lines, circles and spirals, suns, hearts flowers, loops , clouds,cursive letters, waves and trees. These are all quite linear and based on natural forms. C.A.Martin Then there are the more geometric images: squares, triangles, boxes, walls, towers, numbers, block letters. Jessica Hogarth There are also more energetic shapes, such as arrows, stars, zigzags, diamonds, crowns, things in motion. Christina People who study these images believe they can tell a lot about the doodler by what they have drawn.. do you think your flowers mean you are emotional? or that your squares mean you are down to earth, or that your stars mean that you are determined? When it comes to art everything needs balance. A piece that works really well will incorporate many things: size and shape and direction should be considered. Just like colours, shapes too can be harmonious or complimentary. Weight of lines and colour are other elements to think about, and a balanced mix can produce a visually stunning piece. Depending on how these elements are brought together the art can exude contrasting emotions: from bold lively excitement to more subdued and calmer feelings. Tracy Scott A recent phenomena is Zentangling, this is a registered name and refers to the more structured side of doodling, where the artist enters a 'zen' like state of relaxation and freedom: almost a form of meditation. There are courses and books available which teach the specifics of the many patterns. You do not have to buy into the Zentangle brand, any paper will do as will any pen. Use what you have, what you like, what you feel comfortable with. However if you would like to see how a Zentangle is drawn then this video will show you the basics of how to create a string, adding your pattern and finally some shading. In it's purest form doodling would be black and white, as in just pen or pencil and the substrate. But we have access to so many wonderful mediums for colouring that it follows that we would want to include colour in our patterns. these can range from a painted background with doodling over the top, to specific areas shaded with coloured markers or pencils. Here we have 2 different feathers, one black and white and one colour. I am sure you will agree they are both stunning. I find it very hard to choose which I prefer. Often text is incorporated into a doodled piece, sometimes as part of the pattern and other times the text is the focal point with the doodling acting as support. AJ Artjournal A brilliant way to start with doodles is to make an piece of art inspired by your initial. Note that this one isn't just doodled patterns, there is stencilling in here too. It's a great way to mix the two. Martha Lever Of course, patterned letters have been around for a long time. Check out the Book of Kells Another simple way to introduce doodles to your book is to use them as borders. This can be as easy as scribbling uneven lines around a word or a whole title or taking it further and surrounding your whole piece. Borders can be broken up with odd scribbles here and there, or make them look like faux stitching, or go all out and make patterned borders. Melissa Sansom ValerieSjodin Borders don't have to go all the way around, they can just be dangling from the top of a page like these by Joanne Fink. If you like these she has a book of Dangle Designs. Doodling need not be limited to flat projects such as cards or journals. How about doodling a t-shirt, like this one from Victoria ? or some shoes.. If working on fabric is your thing then fear not you don't have to doodle with a pen, you can use stitching, both hand and machine to create a doodled look. How adorable is this doodly type stitched figure from Leila Montero or these doodly flowers from Snapdragon's Garden How about a little home decor, perhaps you have an empty window ledge that could be home to a few doodled birdies. ... or why not go big, really big! I can see you all now off to doodle your craft room walls. I really want a wall like this. Jess Lambert At the other end of the scale we have the tiniest book I have ever seen, by Evan Lorenzen. If you don't fancy going quite that small then there is lots of doodling to be done in regular sized books, though they don't have to be a regular shape. Valerie Sjodin We love mixing things up, so why not combine traditional drawing of a face with doodled hair. Alisa Burke If drawing faces is scary, then use one from a magazine and doodle around that. Check out this link to magazine doodles from Ana Strumpf called Re.Cover this could be a really fun project to do with children, or for a page in your journal. I personally love creating doodled animals. Here are two that I have made,I started with an inked outline, filled this with colour using Promarkers and then added the patterning each one was then cut out and backed onto patterned paper. Darcy But what if you can't think of any doodles? Well the lovely Jessica Sporn has a video here showing you how to add doodles using your stamps and some tissue paper. I will finish with this gorgeous journal page, by far my favourite piece found while collecting photos for this intro. Check out Deb Weiers on instagram, her work is very organic. I found this piece first, but after seeing the rest I could have chosen a dozen more. Do you have pens in hand, ready to doodle the world? Ready, Set. Go... Remember doodles can be as simple as framing a card, or adding extra to a stamped image right through to mega doodles. whatever you do for this topic i guarantee you will get lost in the moment. Have fun. Don't forget to follow Darcy's and Leandra's pinterest boards if this topic pushes your buttons, you will see plenty more examples to whet your appetite there! I am really looking forward to seeing what you create over the next 2 weeks! Darcy Topic 10: DoodlesPaperArtsy Blog Challenge We'd love you to share your ideas and link up your creative response to our current blog topic, scribbles and Doodling. Take a minute to read the challenge guidelines below. All links go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Doodles link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, May 29th, winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00. 1. The challenge is a for you to show how you are inspired by the current blog topic. Your entry should contain: - a mention of which post inspired you and why, and - a link in your blog post to that original post on the PA blog. The whole concept of this challenge is 'play along with us'. You are encouraged to put your own twist on ideas you see on our blog, do your own thing - whatever grabs you! 2. The link you put on our linky page should lead directly to the specific post on your blog where you have explored the technique/ idea mentioned in point 1 above. Don't link to the home page of your blog, or no one can see your specific post. 3. We prefer your challenge blog post is created exclusive to our challenge, but if our topic fits perfectly with another challenge, then you may link to both if appropriate. 4. You are most welcome to use stamps/ products/ substrates you have to hand from a variety of companies, we do not expect you to exclusively use PA products - it's lovely when you do though! 6. You can enter as many times as you like. We don't want to restrict your creativity! NB. Link closes at 17:00 Sunday May 29th (London Time) 7. The winner of the random draw will receive a £50 credit voucher to be redeemed on the PaperArtsy Website. The credit voucher includes VAT and postage. We request that one of your purchases is an A5 rubber stamp. You can add any other items to your basket, but the final total should not exceed £50. 8. Each fortnight on Sunday, the winner will be announced at 19:00 (London time). In the same post, the link for the next fortnight will be posted. 9. It's your responsibility to claim your prize coupon from Darcy. email: [email protected] Good Luck! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!