After many years working in creative fields I got to a point in life when I realised I had come further away from my creative self than I wanted to, and decided to study for an MA in illustration, something I had always wanted to do. Once I was accepted I then immediately panicked, convinced I wouldn’t be skilled enough to cope with it, but read a piece about how daily drawing practice was a simple way to boost skills. The point is not what you draw, but that you draw at all. I looked into things further, and found that doodles – abstract or sem-abstract and cartoon-like drawings not only support your drawing practice simply by giving you something to draw each day, because they are doodles and so not representational. All of us have had the experience of some ‘helpful’ person looking at what we’ve draw and asking what it is, or saying ‘that’s a nice vow’ when it’s a dog. If we haven’t had a stranger say it, our inner critic is even worse. looking at what we’ve drawn and telling us it’s rubbish! But when it’s a doodle, when it’s an abstract or a pattern, your brain doesn’t know what it’s meant to look like, so it can’t complain. This means that instead of getting disheartened and giving up, so not practicing, we can instead keep going and practice skills such as shading, tone, adding highlights, creative illusions and building texture. I proved it to myself – the more I doodled the more I was able to draw with intention and have greater control and confidence in what I was drawing.

All the was happening just as Covid hit, and the Adult Education service I was working for needed courses they could run online, and so my doodle art draw alongs were bornn. Now that the council have decided to close all adult education classes, you can still access my courses here and enjoy some relaxing time improving your drawing with no stress, no fuss. Previous learners have not only found that their drawing improves, and they’ve been able to design bespoke cards, abstract art and gifts for friends and family, they find it a more successful way to enter a meditative state and practice mindfulness, and even help cope with chronic pain.