Inspiration & Creativity - part 2

Imagination & creativity are so important to me, I rely on it all the time in order to fulfil my dreams of working as a full time artist. However I am only human & get road block, & have several times starred at a blank sheet of paper wondering what the hell to draw. I have several ways I tap into this & have been searching around to explore other methods.

Last week I talked about bring peaceful & being quiet. Learning to let go & just the mind be still & see where the imagination goes, which generally always leads me to some creative surge.

Doodle.
Definition; A doodle is an unfocused or unconscious drawing made while a person's attention is otherwise occupied. Doodles are simple drawings that can have concrete representational meaning or may just be abstract shapes.

It doesn't get much easier than this. Grab your self a blank sheet of paper, your art journal, notebook, or that book you keep your ideas in. I always start with simple shapes like circles, squares, triangles. I draw several of them & then add. What I mean by add is, I may add small dots, some stars, create some flowers out of the, flowing lines, even some curly scribble. The above doodle word is a perfect example. First I drew the word, & started adding shapes around the edges aimlessly. You can just go on & on, each line & shape or scribble leads to the next. Join them together & start to discover what magic can happen.

The wonderful thing about doodling is that you don't have to being an artistic genius, anyone can do it. It's such a relaxing activity, I still recall my mum (who is not creative at all), being an avid doodler. Long before the mobile phone, when she would sit on the phone talking to friends, if she had taken down some details on a scrap of paper, by the end of the conversation she had aimlessly drawn lines, triangles, squares & loads of geometric shapes. Without even realising she still does it today on magazine pages, diary pages, even her mail.

The best thing is doodling it's free, is appropriate for all ages, & for so many people with different interests. You don't have to buy anything to do it. You can use any pen, paper, or paint brush & a blank scrap of paper & you're ready.

If you would like fantastic prompts, or more info on doodling, I bought this book a while back & it is absolutely fantastic for discovering different styles. I highly recommend it.

After reading through the book I found my style quite similar to these two styles. Interesting. I love how your natural style can be similar to others, yet very different. I love softer rounded objects, a little floral, also a little cursive.

Have a play around & discover your natural style. I'd love to know what it's like, let me know.