LITTLE IDEAS WITH LOTS OF HEART

DOODLE IS NOT A DIRTY WORD

"Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes shine to the stars. Enthusiasm is the sparkle in your eyes, the swing in your gait. The grip of your hand, the irresistible surge of will and energy to execute your ideas"
(Henry Ford)

I am a huge believer in the power of doodling. That is drawing with no other purpose other than for the feeling of drawing itself. You never know what might appear. My enthusiasm for this process is growing every day and every week. I love seeing people at train stations, or cafes or restaurants going through this process of mind alteration. Because I know that it has value.

Here is an interesting TED talk on the power of doodling: Sunni Brown: Doodlers, unite!

So I thought I would share the process of a doodle I did yesterday in class. The class was an interesting one. All about the advertising campaigns and strategies. So my intent of doodling was not to relieve boredom but to let creative ideas flow through. At the end of the class I had a meeting with a group of other students to discuss an assignment on promoting a product. By then my ideas were really starting to flow and I by the end of our meeting I had drawn up preliminary sketches for billboards for this new product.

I think the initial doodle that I did in class - which had nothing to do with the assignment, just put my creativity into first gear and allowed ideas to enter into my mind quicker. When I came back to the doodle later while on the train home, I decided to add in ink. I lost track of time and space drawing the hair at this point. I have to draw more hair! So much fun! I was pretty happy with this sketch by now. So much so that I decided to come home and add colour and an environment to this doodle.  Here is the process:

The pencil doodle:

And then the train doodle (adding ink and pencil shadows):

And then added colour:

I could have left it at that. I liked the pop of red against the cool green. But I decided to put her in an environment suited to her body pose.
Here she is:

I call her "Backstroke Maiden". I think she's rather lovely. Peaceful and going with the flow.