I was at Michaels yesterday and found this little book - “The Doodle Formula: A Step-by-step Guide to Creating the Perfect Doodle” by Adrienne Looman. You might want to take a look at the author's blog, too.
At first glance I scoffed – who needs instruction or even a formula for doodling? Since I had a few minutes to kill, I decided to look inside anyway. What a delightful surprise. The book is brilliantly simple, and quite engaging, although very slim. It is a jumping off point rather than a complete course. The author presents a very simple formula for developing your doodling skills, which I believe are innate. Everyone can do this.
This book is really a clever, sneaky ploy to teach, encourage, and build confidence in the dreaded drawing and sketching. You cannot look at this book and use the worn out excuses, “but I can’t draw” or "I'm no good at drawing", as you might with some formal tome or drawing class. I came home and tried her formula. She’s quite right – it’s easy, it’s addictive, and it’s fun! I highly recommend this book. I feel rather silly being so excited about this book, but there is something about doodling that generates great enthusiasm. You really can’t help smiling when you do it.
When looking for book reviews on the Internet, I found several other books on doodling (who knew?) including one that offered a free lesson from the book. “Doodling for Papercrafters” by Maelynn Cheung, the lesson is http://www.leisurearts.com/downloadfiles/9_07_basicswirls.pdf . Try it. I think you’ll like it.
Because this is so much fun, and good for me in lots of ways, I have resolved to doodle every day! It's sort of a doodle a day diet. I even started a new small sketchbook just for doodling. I beleive this exercise will really change my artwork in wonderful ways. For example, already in just the four pages I did above, I see patterns that will enhance my free motion quilting greatly.
And now, back to my sketchbook, or should I call it my doodle book?
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