DOODLE DAY MAY - Day 13

Welcome to Day 13 of the Doodle Day May Challenge. When my 5 year old suggested that we invite friends to do a daily doodle with us, I had no idea that it would blossom into such an incredible community of supportive artists, writers, teachers, parents, and friends. Thank you.

If you are visiting my blog for the first time or a friend sent you here to check out this super cool and very relaxing month long drawing challenge, welcome. Click on this link to see our Facebook Group page or the links below to see the first 12 days of Doodle Day posts.

Day 1 - Zentangles
Day 2 - Monsters
Day 3 - Think outside the circle
Day 4 - Make a face
Day 5 - Flower
Day 6 - Hat
Day 7 - Dog
Day 8 - Tree
Day 9 - Critters
Day 10 - One Continuous Line
Day 11 - Give Me a Hand
Day 12 - Mothers


"A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books."-Walt Witman

"A house without books is like a room without windows.” -Horace Mann

 “I discovered windows one afternoon and after that, nothing was ever the same.” -Anne Spollen, The Shape of Water

“Set wide the window. Let me drink the day.” -Edith Wharton, Artemis to Actaeon and Other Verses

When I draw, I am often sitting at my drafting table or on my favorite chair in my screened in porch where I feel like I am in a tree house high up above the forest floor. This is where I ponder what to draw, what to create, what to write.

Today's Doodle Prompt is Through the Window.

What do you see? Select any window, anywhere and create a doodle of the window and/or what is beyond it. This is a classic concept for mural artists. You can draw what you actually see or what you would like to see or whatever else you can imagine that you see.

Maybe you see your backyard, front yard, neighbor, children, a beach, the woods, animals, a farm, a mountain, a playset, a nice stretch of grass, an alien planet, into someone else's house or apartment, a billboard, ...

Remember, a doodle does not need to take a lot of time. 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes. It does not need to be shaded or have any color. It does not need a lot of detail. The idea is to create a quick sketch without a lot thinking involved. Spend as little or as much time as you want to. Enjoy the relaxing feeling of the process. Put your pencil to the paper and see where your arm takes you.

Here are some reference images:

 

Enjoy!

DOODLE DAY MAY - Day 12

Welcome to Day 12 of the Doodle Day May challenge where artists, writers, parents, teachers, children of all ages, friends, and friends of friends have put a pencil to the page and let their creativity shine. If you are new to this challenge and want to join, leave a comment or go to our Facebook Group page and start doodling. If you have no idea what this challenge is about, you can read the first blog post HERE. In summary, here are the first 11 days of drawing prompts with a link to the blog posts and references:

Day 1 - Zentangles
Day 2 - Monsters
Day 3 - Think outside the circle
Day 4 - Make a face
Day 5 - Flower
Day 6 - Hat
Day 7 - Dog
Day 8 - Tree
Day 9 - Critters
Day 10 - One Continuous Line
Day 11 - Give Me a Hand

This challenge about taking 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes or even up to an hour to create a drawing. If you spend more than an hour on your drawing, you are not creating a doodle, it is a masterpiece and you are trying too hard. Don't overthink it. This is a stress free doodle zone. You do not have to follow the prompts posted each day. I create them for those who feel anxiety when they look at a blank page and for those who want to try something different each day of the challenge. I provide reference images for most prompts so that you don't have to spend additional time looking for those images. I know your lives are busy - but taking a few minutes each day to casually draw helps reduce stress while building hand-eye coordination and improving drawing skills.

It will come as no surprise that in honor of Mother's Day, today's doodle prompt is MOTHERS.

Draw Mom or Grandmother or a child with a mom or grandmother or anything that reminds you of your mom or your grandmother. Draw a picture for your mom or with your mom or with your children. Write "Mom" or "Mum" or "Mother" or something related in a funky font. You can also doodle a thank you card for your mom (take a pic before you give it to her) or make a collage of words about mom.

This one is very open. If you are a mom and your day is full of your children making you breakfast and doing special things with you, or you are doing something special with your own mom, squeeze in time if you can but if you are too busy, we will all understand. It's your day.

Enjoy.

DOODLE DAY MAY - Day 11

Welcome do Doodle Day May's 11th day of drawing fun! If you are new to the group, check us out on Facebook HERE. If you want to learn more about this Doodle Challenge for the month of May - click on the original post HERE.

In honor of this weekend being spring, gardening, cleaning, organizing, and Mother's Day.

Today's prompt is Give Me a Hand.

Draw One Hand.

You can draw a child's hand, an adult hand, or even an animal paw. Any hand. You can have it holding something or doing something. I know ASL so I enjoy drawing hands that are saying something. Your hand can be attached to a person but it does not need to be. Don't overthink it. Don't worry about perfection. Go with a Michelangelo loose style or trace your hand or your child's hand or try for a tighter line. Draw a cartoon style hand or a hand with a glove on it. You can trace your hand and turn it into something or fill it with Zentangles. This prompt has no limit. Have fun with it.

Things to think about when drawing hands:
Proportions
Position
Knuckles
Nails
Children's fingers are much shorter than adult fingers compared to the size of the palm

Here is some of my favorite hand reference info:

 

 

Okay?

 

Have fun!

 

DOODLE DAY MAY - Day 10

Welcome to the Doodle Day May Challenge day 10! So far, we have done the following topics:
Day 1 - Zentangles
Day 2 - Monsters
Day 3 - Think Outside the Circle
Day 4 - Make a Face
Day 5 - Flower
Day 6 - Hat
Day 7 - Dog
Day 8 - Tree
Day 9 - Critters

If you are interested in joining this challenge, leave a comment or join the Facebook Group page. If you want to see the introduction post about this New Challenge. Click HERE.

The challengers have been doodling everything from shapes to people to animals to trees and flowers. For today, I want to take you all back to the basics - the definition of a doodle is to absentmindedly create a drawing. Just go with it.

Today's prompt is the essential, basic LINE.

Draw One-Continuous-Line

Your line can be straight, curvy, zig-zag, thick or thin. Your line can create an abstract picture or form something recognizable. This is truly a let your arm go type of drawing so I don't want anyone stressing about it. Below are examples of Abstract and Recognizable continuous line drawings. There is no right or wrong here - your line can cross itself or not. How challenging you make this is up to you. When I gave this type of task to my students, part of it was that they could not cross their own line - it took hand-eye coordination to control the line. They crumbled up many sheets of drawing paper. This doodling challenge is stress free so you do not have to undertake that element of the continuous line prompt.

Here are examples of Abstract Continuous Line Drawings:

 

Here are examples of Recognizable Continuous Line Drawings:

 

 

Have fun with this and see where the line takes you.

 

DOODLE DAY MAY - Day 9

Welcome to Doodle Day May's 9th day! Congratulations to all of you who have been doodling every day. If you are new to this challenge, you can learn about it on the first post HERE. If you would like to join the Doodling Challenge - the Facebook Group page is HERE. I post a daily prompt but you never have to follow it. These prompts are just to provide an idea for those getting anxiety when they see a blank page or those wanting to try something new. A doodle can take 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes or even up to an hour. If you are spending more than an hour, it is not a doodle - it is a masterpiece and you are trying too hard. Don't worry about it. Just put your pencil to the page and see where it takes you. This is a stress free doodle zone.

I had so much fun doodling a Dwarf Hamster that I saw at the petstore yesterday that I want to continue the fun and see what all of you creative doodlers come up with so...

Today's prompt is Critter.

Draw one small furry animal.

This means any small and furry creature - such as mice, gerbils, hamsters, bunnies, ferrets, groundhogs, ... I'm talking smaller than a bread box but I'm not a stickler so go big and furry if you really want to.

Think about: ears, snouts, whiskers, tails, how long is the fur/hair, teeth, feet, ...
Does it stand on 2 legs or 4

Come up with your own furry critter if you want to explore a bit.

Here are some furry little critters for reference:

 

Have fun!

 

If you want to check out the DOODLE DAY MAY doodle prompts for Days 1-8, here are the links:

Doodle Day May - New Challenge

Day 1 - Zentangle

Day 2 - Monster

Day 3 - Think Outside the Circle

Day 4 - Make a Face

Day 5 - Flower

Day 6 - Hat

Day 7 - Dog

Day 8 - Tree