Overview and Excuse
Doodling is a personal, perhaps more accurately an intrapersonal activity. It can happen when you are thinking of something else entirely. You might come back to a doodle sometime later and not even remember doing it. You might also have a visceral felt sense of something that may have been working in you at the time of the doodle.
Doodling can feel very special, creative and soothing. There are theories about the reasons for this from different disciplines: brain research, emotional and psychological connections and art therapy.
It is a semi-magical way we can speak to ourselves in a language only we know and only we can read. Though others may interpret and see things that we don't. If you are speaking of someone else's drawing/doodle try to remember you are not actually telling the person what it means. It is more alomg the lines of what you see. What it means to you.
Soothing: there are many ways we can take care of ourselves as we navigate an often stressful world. Wiggling a pencil or pen around on paper seems to be one of them. We can look to the eye-hand-head-heart connection to see how doodling can blend the physical, the psychological, the mystical and the playful aspects of our humanness visually into the world.
Sensual: the feeling of the pencil or pen clasped in our fingers, the amazing dexterity of our digits to make shapes (letters an amazing example), the sound of graphite dragging on paper, the continual dulling of the pencil point and subsequent softening and widening of lines and then, if you are lucky and have a sharpener near by, the brand new experience of a sharp distinct line.
The images and shapes that show up on our paper and the images that repeat themselves across time are food for self-discovery and self-reflection.
Creativity vs the Creative Process: Creativity is usually defined as something that is unique and useful. Doodles are unique, but are they useful? And do we need or want them to be useful? Will that inhibit how we doodle? In this workshop our only use for doodles will be to free us from our habitual minds, allow us to turn into our mysterious selves and simply have fun.
The creative process is something else that is easy to grasp using Theresa Amabile's break down of the ingredients of the process:
In the first workshop we are going to explore our perosnal relationships with doodling? We can think about what sorts of shapes, lines, figures show up. When do you doodle? Are you often doing something else? Do you notice when you are doodling? Do some images capture something you were feeling?
Do you prefer pencil, pen or whatever is at hand? Do you find yourself intrigued when you see a doodle later, yours or that of someone else? Do you ever want to do more with your doodles?
We'll assume you have an internal conversation going on that none of the rest of us are privy to, although we may have our own reactions and interpretations to your doodles that confirm your understanding or are a surprise to you. We are not going to try to change any of that. What we are going to do is give you more tools so you can enhance your conversation with yourself as you doodle.
It will be something like gaining new words to express emotions. When we are little we feel bad, sad, mad and glad. At some point we gain nuance into our feelings and more words to express them: excited, anxious, depressed, joyful, hopeful, hopeless, annoyed, etc.
To do this we will learn a little about the Elements of Art:
Line
Shape
Texture
Value
Form
Space
Color
Rhythm
Balance
We can gain access and practice new domain skills for Doodling to enhance our creative process. You will have more of a vocabulary of the tools that can help you play with and express what is coming up. And be able to read your doddles later for insight into those moments of doodling.
Doodling can feel very special, creative and soothing. There are theories about the reasons for this from different disciplines: brain research, emotional and psychological connections and art therapy.
It is a semi-magical way we can speak to ourselves in a language only we know and only we can read. Though others may interpret and see things that we don't. If you are speaking of someone else's drawing/doodle try to remember you are not actually telling the person what it means. It is more alomg the lines of what you see. What it means to you.
Soothing: there are many ways we can take care of ourselves as we navigate an often stressful world. Wiggling a pencil or pen around on paper seems to be one of them. We can look to the eye-hand-head-heart connection to see how doodling can blend the physical, the psychological, the mystical and the playful aspects of our humanness visually into the world.
Sensual: the feeling of the pencil or pen clasped in our fingers, the amazing dexterity of our digits to make shapes (letters an amazing example), the sound of graphite dragging on paper, the continual dulling of the pencil point and subsequent softening and widening of lines and then, if you are lucky and have a sharpener near by, the brand new experience of a sharp distinct line.
The images and shapes that show up on our paper and the images that repeat themselves across time are food for self-discovery and self-reflection.
Creativity vs the Creative Process: Creativity is usually defined as something that is unique and useful. Doodles are unique, but are they useful? And do we need or want them to be useful? Will that inhibit how we doodle? In this workshop our only use for doodles will be to free us from our habitual minds, allow us to turn into our mysterious selves and simply have fun.
The creative process is something else that is easy to grasp using Theresa Amabile's break down of the ingredients of the process:
In the first workshop we are going to explore our perosnal relationships with doodling? We can think about what sorts of shapes, lines, figures show up. When do you doodle? Are you often doing something else? Do you notice when you are doodling? Do some images capture something you were feeling?
Do you prefer pencil, pen or whatever is at hand? Do you find yourself intrigued when you see a doodle later, yours or that of someone else? Do you ever want to do more with your doodles?
We'll assume you have an internal conversation going on that none of the rest of us are privy to, although we may have our own reactions and interpretations to your doodles that confirm your understanding or are a surprise to you. We are not going to try to change any of that. What we are going to do is give you more tools so you can enhance your conversation with yourself as you doodle.
It will be something like gaining new words to express emotions. When we are little we feel bad, sad, mad and glad. At some point we gain nuance into our feelings and more words to express them: excited, anxious, depressed, joyful, hopeful, hopeless, annoyed, etc.
To do this we will learn a little about the Elements of Art:
Line
Shape
Texture
Value
Form
Space
Color
Rhythm
Balance
We can gain access and practice new domain skills for Doodling to enhance our creative process. You will have more of a vocabulary of the tools that can help you play with and express what is coming up. And be able to read your doddles later for insight into those moments of doodling.
INtroduction to Session One
Intro to session:
Virtual details: mute, screen view, etc.
Getting connected:
Breathe Arrive
Go-around- Check in. Intro
Lesson #1
Go-around- prompt #1
Lesson #2
Go-around- prompt #2
Cross shares: with permission
Closure:
Go around: What worked, what's new, what's next?
Next session overview.