Learning to doodle. That's right....I said learning.

I have been looking on-line for mixed media and altered art projects to ewwww and ahhhhh over and I saw a lot of journal books. The journals that I saw were wonderful and the people that create them are quite artistic.  As I was mesmerized by the projects that I saw, I was also intimidated.  I could NEVER do that, I have zero artistic ability.  Seriously, you don't want me as your partner in Pictionary!  I have a hard time drawing stick figures.

Then yesterday I bought this wonderful book, "Journal Bliss" by Violette.  It says to quiet your inner critic and begin by "PRACTICING" doodling by making faces, drawing borders, drawing from nature and creating flourishes.  I thought, you either new how to draw or you didn't and I knew that I didn't!  So this made me think, what the hech, I might as well try it.  I don't have to show it to anyone and if it is an epic fail, well at least I tried. The first thing I did was get a piece of paper and a pencil.  Then I sat down all excited and ready to draw...something, but what?  I was at a total loss.  I don't doodle. I had no idea where to start.  So I Googled it.  That's right, I Googled "doodling", to see what people doodle.  I am always amazed at what you can find on the internet.  I finally saw some ideas and put pencil to paper and below are the first attempts that I made.

 I know ..... not real impressive, but I was excited.  I was at least doodling!  I made two attempts at drawing a squirrel from a tutorial that I found.  You can see from the drawing below that I did not do very well with either attempt.  I did get frustrated with myself and the inner critic was screaming, "see I told you that you couldn't draw".  So I set my pencil and paper aside and decided that was enough for a first try.  Geesh, just thinking of silly things to draw and let my juices flow took it out of me.

This is my second effort at doodling.  Again, it isn't anything impressive and my son and all my nieces and nephews that have super powers when it comes to art, would scoff at me.  But for someone who couldn't even think of WHAT to doodle, much less doodle it, I am very happy.  My next move will be to add some color to the mix.  I think I now have the confidence to try some journaling. This is going to be fun.