Traditionally, I have been far more inclined towards the needle arts than the graphic ones. I draw TERRIBLY. But I am drawn to color and shapes and patterns…and doodles!
I haven’t shared many of my crafts of late and that’s because this year I have been dealing with tendonitis. This means I have had to severely limit the time I spend knitting and spinning, knitting being my one truest love. In the interim, I have dabbled in some other needle crafts (embroidery and quilting) that don’t seem to aggravate my arm as much. I’ve started following an increased variety of crafters on Instagram and what the algorithm feeds me has been changing.
Suddenly I’ve been thrust into watercolors (gorgeous, but I wouldn’t know where to start) and doodling reels. Doodling – abstract shapes and colors that don’t have to look like anything in particular, well that has seemed to catch my attention. I suspect a lot of it is the popularity of Zentangle, but somehow I decided I might like to try. After all, I have fine liners and all kinds of pens (Sailor Ink Pens, those beloved Gelly Rolls, Marvy Le Pens, and more!) to use.
Despite having a MILLION notebooks, I did decided to invest in a new one so that I could purchase slightly thicker art paper in case I decide to add ink washes, alcohol markers or anything else. I opted for simple and purchased a Bee Creative Drawing Book ($16.19 at Dick Blick). This is an 8″ x 8″ book of 160lb (260gsm) white drawing paper. The book contains 35 acid free pages that I’m hoping to fill up.
So far, I’m doing what I think many new artists do: imitation. I’m working on the second of my doodled drawing and realizing how much time it takes to do small details! But I am enjoying it quite a bit, and my hope is that by the time I reach the end of the book, I’ll be doing less copying and more creating my own designs.
So, do you doodle?
Laura,
I have never been confident enough to do much doodling, but I recently joined Sugar Turtle’s journaling group and there will be a lot of creative expression beyond words on paper. Ask again in a few months.
But I like your pages. I’ll bet that’s how William Morris got started.
Ruth
For the life of me, I can’t find that exact drawing book ANYWHERE online!
I can find the 8×8 in the 90lb, but not the 160lb.
Sigh…
Enjoyed your doodles!
She purchased the sketchbook at Blick. Here’s a link to the product: https://www.dickblick.com/products/bee-creative-drawing-book/?fromSearch=%2Fsearch%2F%3Fsearchword%3Dbee%20creative%20draw
The same link from the article…showing the 90lb stock…
Sorry. I felt so sure I’d found the right link. Maybe Blick is only carrying the heavier weight versions in stores and not online?
I appreciate you checking Ana. I found similar specs on. Stillman Beta…probably checking that out
I love stillman and birn sketchbooks. They are excellent.
I’ve also had to cut back on my knitting and spinning because of tendinitis. No fun at all. But I’ve been playing with visual journaling and a little very basic sketching. It helps scratch my creative itch at least!
I doodle in my art journals, travel journals and in my pen pal letters.