DOODLE DAY MAY - DAY 1

Welcome to DOODLE DAY MAY!

If you have no idea what I am writing about, click HERE to learn about this new NO STRESS challenge for the month of May.

Grab a pencil, pen, colored pencil, crayon, marker, chalk, craypas, or even a bottle of chocolate syrup and start doodling! If you don't have a sketchbook or a computer program with a tablet, use a notebook, post-it note, scrap paper, the back of your child's homework from last week, copy paper or whatever you can get your hands on.

Your doodle each day can take you 2 minutes (or less) or up to an hour or more. Honestly, though, if you are spending more than an hour on a doodle, you are trying too hard and worrying too much. That is a drawing, an illustration, a masterpiece - this challenge is simply asking for a doodle.

If you are looking at your blank piece of paper and thinking, Oh no! What are I supposed to draw? or you even thinking I can't draw. I can't even draw a straight line with a ruler! Well, the good thing is, there is no ruler required for this challenge - no straight lines necessary.

For those who want to learn something new (although you might be familiar with this style) or need a little inspiration, here we go...

Drawing Prompt/Lesson #1. Zentangles

I challenge you to create a Zentangle of your name. If you have never heard of a Zentangle, and you are thinking, What is she talking about?? Help! Don't worry. Here are two different examples and I will share the step by step directions to creating something really great - anyone can do it.

 

 

This style of drawing is called Zentangle. It is a method of creating images from repetitive patterns. When I was little, I was taught that "there are no mistakes in art." For example: If you sneeze while drawing a sun in the corner of your drawing and the line gets all wobbly, change it into a cloud and add a sun to the other side of the page. Go with the flow. Try drawing with a pen - without using a pencil first. Just see where the lines take you.

 

Here are the step by step directions to creating a Zentangle of your name. First, write your name (or any other word you would like to use) in bubble letters, block letters, funky letters, or whatever kind of letters you can think up. Just make sure they are hollow so you can fill in some patterns in a few minutes.

 

In example #1 above for ERIN, I created BIG letters and used a single outline to join them all together after they were drawn. Then I filled each letter with a different pattern.

 

In example #2 above for ALISON, I made the letters small but still open for patterns inside and then I added wavy lines around the page to create sections that I could fill with more patterns.

 

I used a Sharpie Pen for these - once the pen hits the paper, there is no going back, no erasing, no fix. Just go with it. If you want to try a new pattern on a piece of scratch paper before adding it, go ahead but remember this is a DOODLE so don't worry about it.

 

Example of the Steps above:

 

 

Now, just keep filling in patterns. If you want to go with patterns around the word like example number 2 then add like to the drawing and fill them in with patterns:

 

Have fun! If you want to share, post your doodles on the DOODLE DAY MAY facebook page or post a comment with a link to your blog there or here so others can check out what you are doodling.

 

If you enjoy Zentangles (I find them very relaxing), you can Google it and see a ton of more pattrns and designs or take a class at Will Terry's FolioAcademy on Zentangles.