Reason #2 to do more Doodling – To slow down

Do you feel like things are going too fast?! I have had that feeling the past week and I’ve been feeling rather overwhelmed by it. In my online art classes with the children we were drawing wolves. Wolves are a tough subject – some of my students were struggling to draw them, and so was I for that matter.

In my daily life I do a lot of drawing, but I don’t do enough doodling. So it got me thinking, perhaps I could doodling help me explore wolves? It turns out YES, but the real benefit I discovered was in relaxing my mind. The best reason to doodle is …

To SLOW DOWN

As I mentioned, I draw a lot! It’s a necessity as I teach eight online art classes each week to adults and children. In fact my Cartoon Club for Kids is quite a challenging class. I always want to deliver a great and inspiring class and so I feel the pressure to draw something really creative and high quality every time.

This week I found myself speeding up, sketching, drawing and moving too fast. I wasn’t feeling in my flow and I wasn’t producing the feeling I wanted in my work. Worst of all, I worry that I start to rush students through the cartoon narrative we create. Not the idea!

So I decided that I needed to switch this up and take some of my own advice. Time to SLOW DOWN. I’d bought myself a new blank journal to do some doodling and work on my Doodle Break platform. In the evenings I have started to do some SLOW doodles before bed. This week I tried it out with the wolves.

Normally, I sketch with pencil then draw when I’m doing characters like this. But I wondered what would happen if I just tried doodling them? They are complicated to draw right?! They need an outline and a plan right? Maybe not…

I SLOWED DOWN, just me and my pen, no plan and doodled. My wolf doodles were perhaps not stellar to begin with, but soon enough I was doodling quite nice, chilled, cartoon wolves and enjoying it! Why’s this?

When I only have a pen (no rubber, no pencil) I SLOW DOWN. I watch the line. I am focued and my mind SLOWS DOWN. It feels great. It’s a different experience to how I normally sketch and draw. I think that both have their place, but when I’m not producing what I think I can, it seems that SLOWING DOWN and just doodling is a major help!

I had a laugh when I looked back at my doodles and my favourite one was of this wolf chillin’ with his coffee. What was my mind needing? Clearly I needed to SLOW DOWN. Thank you Pen!

Online Art Classes

for Kids and Adults who love to Doodle!

Are you always doodling? Do you love to create cartoons? These are the art classes for you! I've created a small, friendly group that works together in our online art class. We’re open to anyone who likes to sit, doodle and dream up cartoons. There are drawing classes for kids (ages 8 - 12), young children (ages 6 - 7) and even adults.