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| Experience by Aleada Siragusa |
Art for the artistically challenged and the rest of us
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| My Name Doodle |
Why I am Blogging this:
I was surprised how people react to the idea that they can create art. I feel sorry that art was considered only for the exceptionally talented. Can you imagine people being told they could not sing? We would have some quiet churches on Sunday if this was the case.
Please remember to make Art a fun play time and not a lesson with pressure to achieve, people grow and learn in their own time.
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| Insight Mandala by Aleada Siragusa |
You don’t have to be an expert:
OK you may never be a Rembrandt or God Forbid a Picasso but you can train your hand to draw if you simplify the steps one stroke at a time and walk, don’t run.
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| Grasping the Light by Aleada Siragusa |
Do it for your brain:
Creating art is a good thing to do for your brain, it stimulates the right side of the brain, your creative side and when both sides are more balanced you are making the most of your brains functions. You are developing small motor skills. The concentration it takes when you are in the creative process helps you focus much like meditation.
As I mentioned in my last Blog Temple Grandin said she is concerned with the lack of drawing skills and hands on work being done by her students and this holds them back in their conceptual work in animal behavior and these skills seem to be on the decline.
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| Everything Good By Aleada Siragusa |
Make it play:
So not only will you sharpen your own brain but you can share these skills with other people. Make it play much like doing a puzzle, have fun with it. While you are having fun you are developing your fine motor skills.
You can get your paper and pencil out any time and your ready to play, what a nice way to entertain a wiggly child.
You learned to write your name, didn’t you? Well if you can do that, you can do this and have fun doing it, so let’s get started -
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| Through The Universe By Aleada Siragusa |
Basic Doodling
I was taught basic doodling by a girl in grade school. My Mother taught me this miracle of spirals and how they recede and come forward; you can add these to your doodles to make them more interesting.
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| Just follow these steps and play with it |
1. Draw a zig zag line
2. Do more of the same lines
3. Change the direction and shape of the lins
4. Add spirals
5. Add some connecting lines between the first lines
6. Add some dots
7. Seek out more shapes from the website I have listed below or my doodles
8. Add color if you wish
9. Have Fun!
Below are a few more of my own doodles:
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| Lightening Bolt by Aleada Siragusa |
Please feel free to take ideas from these doodled drawings
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Experience by Aleada Siragusa
The words on the last two doodles have words from a Sounds True Catalog.
Please let me know what you think and show me what you doodle and thanks for stopping by- Aleada Siragusa |
Look for images for your doodles here there and everywhere:
For some ideas in doodling look around at folk art such as pysanky egg decorating, Pennsylvania Dutch Hex Signs, embroidery patterns and just about everywhere else you can find these simple lovely images.
Important internet sites to take your doodling to the next level:
Great websites to get images and ideas for doodling:
{“doodling isn't just an individual activity. When you doodle together as friends, family, or even fellow employees, it can make your doodles more meaningful while having an enjoyable time creating them.”}
This site even has a page with activities for the whole family.
Dover Publications:
Great resource for clip art and also free samples of art, very useful to a doodler or for images to doodle around.
Pysanky Egg Designs:
Also look at some of the pages of for images to doodle and spiritual meanings behind simple forms that can give so much more meaning too your art.
Ed Emberly’s Simple Shapes, Drawing for Everyone:
Ed Emberly’s How to Draw book series gives a beginning artist a good start. These books brake down the shape into simple geometric forms, you can do a search on where to buy them and many libraries have them.
If you have trouble drawing Paysanky Egg Symbols start with Ed and you’ll catch on real quick.
Ed Emberly teaches using the most basic of shapes to make objects, this you can do, I promise and the funny thing about it is these art doodles have such a charm about them just because they are so basic now you can draw that frog and that dog and go ahead put it in that doodle and on that egg or card.
Here's what some educators are saying about Ed Emberly’s books:
Family Fun website has several samples of his drawings:
“Look over Ed's drawing alphabet, then pull out some markers and paper and dive right in. After your kids give his projects a try, encourage them to change the shapes and colors to make them their own. These are just starting points: The drawing alphabet and their own imaginations will let them head off on other creative adventures.”
From the Website: International Children’s Education
“Ed Emberley is a Caldecott Medal artist whose how-to books are the kind adults buy for children and then use themselves. On the dedication page of his animal drawing book there is a picture of the author as a little boy with the inscription, “For the boy I was, the book I could not find.”
On the website: Art Makes Kids Smart
“Emberley's books show a step-by-step for each of his drawings. If you've never used his techniques before, I can tell you that in my experience, it's a hit with the kids. Most young children can draw simple shapes and lines and putting them together is easy for most. Older students who struggle with more advanced concepts can easily draw most of Emberly's characters.”
To advance in your representational drawing skills:
Still geared for children but great lessons in art, when you are ready for more advanced work I would recommend Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad for creative work in basic perspective drawing, now you are ready to create your own world.
Here is another thorough review of the book:
