Craft-a-doodle

In my quest to get those creative juices running again (and to push myself to draw by hand), I’ve been amassing stocking up on all sorts of books with drawing prompts and other creative exercises.

The stack has grown and I haven’t made a lot of headway through them, but my current favorite of the bunch is a book called “Craft-A-Doodle.”

“Craft-a-Doodle” by Jenny Doh compiles 75 exercises from 18 artists: Cori Dantini, Gemma Correll, Carla Sonheim, Flora Chang, Corinne Dean, Dawn Devries Sokol, Jessie Oleson Moore, Dinara Mirtalipova, Julie Armbruster, Stephanie Kubo, Cynthia Shaffer, Aimee Ray, Teresa McFayden, Hanna Andersson, Mafalda Laezza, Pamela Keravuori, Jennifer Taylor, and Teesha Moore.

I really like this book because it’s not intimidating.The book goes by the tagline “Where Drawing Meets Play,” and it gives you plenty of playful doodling ideas to start with, using basic materials: fine point pens, brush pens, markers, watercolor and ink. The prompts are easy enough to adjust to any age or skill level, whether you want to explore your artistic side or need a boost out of the creative rut.

The best thing about this book (which a lot of artist block-type books tend to overlook) is that the exercises can be done in ten to twenty minutes, great for small breaks throughout the workday, and encouraging you to do it regularly.

Here’s a look inside the book, and some of the doodles I’ve collected in the last few months:

 

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Craft-A-Doodle, softbound, 4.5/5 stars