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I wanted to start my year-long creative challenge with doodles even though I’ve talked about them before because it’s such an easy, basic way to be creative wherever you are and no matter how much time you have.
You can doodle at your desk, at the end of the day, in the margins of a notebook.
It doesn’t take long, there’s no expectation that it has to be good; it’s really just to play.
Which all adults need more of. And you can even do it at work and remind anyone who questions you that doodling is actually great for focus and attention.
How I Doodle
I have a little notepad on my desk with pages about 4 inches square that I like to use for doodles, but I also draw on whatever paper is handy whenever I need a moment away from my work.
Sometimes I feel like getting away from words for a minute helps me figure out what I want to say more easily than I would if I just struggled at the keyboard.
I happen to have lots of different kinds and colors of pens on my desk, but you can use whatever you have within arm’s reach wherever you are. It’s really an activity without rules.
Further Reading
If you want to try doodling but a blank page is too intimidating or you just don’t know where to start, check out books like Craft-a-Doodle, which offers prompts from artists for little drawings that will build confidence for developing different kinds of doodles.
Art, Doodle, Love is another fun book that is actually a workbook you draw and write in, adding things to pages that have been partially decorated with the aid of prompts.
There’s also the phenomenon of zentangles, a more structured method for drawing complicated-looking doodle patterns. I have the book One Zentangle a Day by Beckah Krahula, which is a six-week course that helps teach you the forms used in zentangles. It’s super dogmatic in terms of how you’re supposed to draw them and what tools you’re supposed to use, which is a turn off for me, but it’s worth it if you want to get some ideas. Here’s my first effort:
The actual drawing was fun but I’m not in love with how the techniques are usually presented.
Do you like to doodle? Make a doodle today and share it on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #ourdailycraft so I can see it.
And if you have any tools or methods you love for making doodles, I’d love to hear about them, too.
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