Monday, November 7, 2016

"Year of the Doodle" Art Journal

Hello Dear Ones!

I began a daily journey in January in a wonderful new book/journal/planner/tracker called "Year of the Doodle" by Author Dawn DeVries Sokol. The paper is wonderfully thick and takes all types of media quite well. A sort of collaged/mixed media background has already been subtly added by the talented author and the days are numbered. It works for any year since there are no days of the week associated with the numbers. It was less than $12 on Amazon at this link:

There's a great book review at this link that provides lots of details about the book:
https://isniffbooks.wordpress.com/2015/11/02/review-for-year-of-the-doodle/

This is a wonderful way to practice creating and/or tracking your time. The link on Amazon shows an amazing peek at the book but I've added a few photos here for reference. One of the photos gives an example of how the pages look (rather like they have been collaged using various papers) when you buy the book and the others are my art on top of it. I typically start out by drawing with a Sakura Micron Black Pen (or pencil if I'm concerned that I might mess up with pen). I then use watercolor pencils which allow you to color with pencils (rather haphazardly is my method) and then use an aquabrush to add water evenly to the colored areas. The addition of water transforms the colored pencils into watercolor! I like to add more lines and texture with my black Sakura Micron Pen and possibly a white Sharpie Pen to finish it off.

The prompts consist of verbiage geared to trigger your imagination (such as: "doodle like the artist Marc Chagall" or "doodle a roller coaster").  There's a Facebook page created by the author where I post my work.

The idea is that the background provides an unintimidating place to add one's art. The prompts provide sparks of inspiration! 

This is an excellent book for anyone who enjoys a little drawing or likes an interesting background for their planner or tracker. It provides excellent art therapy and exercises eye to hand coordination. I highly recommend the book to all who are interested as it will provide many hours of fun!