How are you Creative?
A few years ago, I was reminded about Doodling Fun. A close friend had received an adult coloring book as a gift. Looking at her work, I felt an urge to color again. As a young girl, I learned to doodle. Years passed, I continued to sketch images for many of my projects–when I quilted, made clothes, gardened, and other things. It gave me a visual of my mind’s eye. I had forgotten about the joy of simple coloring. Slowly, I retrieved my coloring pencils, found outlined pictures on the internet, and began to color.
Several months passed.
As Hobbit King, my husband, will tell you, I tend to leave my ongoing work lying around (much to his chagrin). Then, at the end of 2015, a dear friend passed away. Several of his nieces and nephews needed to come to our town to begin the process of dissolving his estate.
One of his nephew’s brought his wife and two daughters. They stayed at our home. While my friend’s nephew worked with his other family members, I enjoyed the company of his family. The older daughter saw one of my colorings on my desk. She was impressed to see I had taken up coloring. She loved to color. I was happy to see her reaction. She wanted to color. And color, we did. For two days. I printed out drawings for her and we experimented with different looks. It was a blast.
Doodling Fun Began
Not long after the coloring craze started with me, I began to doodle again. You know how it goes. Nothing really looks like much, but you enjoy the escapism all the same.
The early doodle image of the “Not Tried,” started out with open, big fat letters, no color, and very simple. I had planned to color in the shapes with basic colors. But then, something happened.
It was around April of 2016. I was in Michael’s (don’t you love that place?) when I came across some wonderful books. Besides the ten or twenty pens and coloring pencils I had placed in my basket, I stood looking at the bookshelf arguing with myself about whether I should buy a book. I couldn’t pull my eyes away. Did I really need to spend money on a coloring book? I’d been successful finding good pictures to color on the internet. What is this thing called Zentangle, anyway?
Zentangle
Yes. I bought the book. When I got home, I started reading, and wham! My desire to draw, doodle, create exploded. The fun thing was, it also happened while I was delving into the world of Austin Kleon (See earlier post here). Each step seemed to take me to a new level of experimentation when I started dabbling in Zentangle. Putting Austin’s suggestions to “Steal Like an Artist” into play, added to the fun. Doodling fun was becoming a most welcome distraction when my mind was overloaded with work expectations and my creative juices were blocked.
These two images show my progression. I’m still learning and practicing. But, you get the idea. Side note: These two drawings and the one labeled “Not Tried” above are going to be new covers for my recipe books (See an earlier post where I mentioned my recipe binders. I’m reorganizing them. More on that in a future post).
Where am I now?
This is all to say, my creative juices are moving. That is helping me to write. The Chronicles of Eldershire is being influenced by my creative flow. The first book, The Brooks Forest is now about 20,000 words, as of today. I have about 60,000 to go, and I’m having fun. And, isn’t that what it’s all about — Doodling Fun at its best!
Here’s a couple of my latest doodles:
So…what do you think? Do you like to doodle? What do you doodle about — things you see? things you’d like to do? Movies? Stories? Share your ideas in the comments. Tell me what inspires you to be creative. Have you struggled with finding your creativity? How do you move forward when your creative juices seem to stop? I’d love to hear your ideas so I can “Steal like an Artist”!
Till next time…write, draw, sing, read, dance, garden, but do something to help you create!
Write on with Cheers!
The post “Doodling Fun – How are You Creative?” first appeared on Pam’s Blog on January 08, 2017.