It is a universal process for expressing what’s inside you. Everyone can create a Daily Doodle.
First, I clear a workspace and gather the tools and materials I’ll be working with, like pens, pencils, crayons, brushes, paints, and watercolor paper, or collage materials and glue if I’m working with collage. Before I delve into the project, even though the materials are calling to me, I sit quietly to center myself using the Three Precious Pills of Stillness, Silence, and Spaciousness. Often, I spend extra time just focused on stilling my body, quieting my chattering mind, and noticing how I’m feeling.
Then I stare at the blank paper, pick up a pen and make a mark, a line, followed by another mark or line. Sometimes the marks I’m making correspond with how I’m feeling, like I might make a jagged mark if I’m feeling edgy, or a wavy line if I’m feeling like I’m flowing. Often, I pause, look around the paper, and wait before making another mark. There is no right or wrong to the lines I draw on a page. It’s energy revealing itself. After I have drawn a bunch of lines in no particular order, I begin to connect the ends of the lines to other lines. By doing so, I create one big shape, or several smaller shapes. Within those larger shapes, I add lines and smaller shapes.
Essentially, I let the shapes emerge from these connections. It is a transformative process. Then I choose colors and begin to paint.
Are you willing to try a doodle drawing?