How To Zen Doodle

How to Zen Doodle

Published in the June 2011 Issue

Written by Zoe Ford from Top Floor Treasures

Do you doodle while you’re on the phone? While you’re writing lists? When people ask me what I sell they look at me like I’m crazy. "How can you be selling doodles?" they ask. What they don’t realise straight away is that the doodles I sell are not like the doodles you might draw while on the phone. They are weird and wonderful works of art!

I used to doodle hearts and stars and boxes, but when I came across the concept of Zentangle™ http://www.zentangle.com/about-what-is--1.php my doodles morphed into something completely different.

I don’t draw all of my doodles in the prescribed Zentangle™ way. Some of them are inspired by Zentangle™ though, so we call them Zendoodles or Zentangle-Inspired-Art. People usually only see one of my completed Zendoodles, and they often comment that it looks very complex and must have taken a really long time. I’m here to show you that it doesn’t have to take a long time, and it’s not as complex as it might first appear.

Start with a blank piece of paper. I like to use watercolour paper or card, but the back of an envelope will do! I use professional-quality black fineliners in different nib-sizes but a felt tip is fine to start with if that’s all you have to hand. I sit and look at the paper for a while and think about how I’m going to start. How about a simple pattern to start off with:

Whilst repeating the pattern you may find yourself relaxing, almost in a Zen-like state. It clears the mind, just letting the pen go where it wants to go. Doodling in this way is a great stress-reliever!

Add in some finer details and expand upon the first pattern. Not sure what pattern to draw next? Try searching for doodle patterns or tangles on Flickr for some inspiration – there’s a whole world of doodlers out there!

Keep on adding patterns until you run out of space.

It really helps to give depth and form to your doodles if you shade them with a good pencil when you have finished doodling. Get the shading right and it can look really 3D.

And that’s it! Sometimes it’s good to have a shape to fill with doodles. You could draw around a series of round objects and fill in the spaces or perhaps draw the outline of a letter and fill that.

This one is standard trading card size (3.5 x 2.5 inches) but you can go as big or as small as you like! My smallest is a 1 x 1 inch square while my biggest Zendoodles so far are A3 (approx. 17 x 12 inches – huge!) I hope lots of people will have a go at Zendoodling; I’d love to see what you create.