Just to mix things up a little bit today I decided to use only my Sharpie marker pens to have a go at creating a new A4 zentangle doodle, colouring it in with whatever bright solid colours I had to hand.
My black Sharpie has completely run dry, so I used brown instead for outlining my design and went for an abstract botanical feel.
Overall I find the end result a bit overpowering, and a bit disappointing. I should maybe have left some clean white spaces somewhere to balance it all out a bit, but it was certainly worth experimenting with.
I think I’d prefer to try a similar design using thinner pens on my usual watercolour wash, adding more detailed embellishment – marker pens are just too much of a blunt instrument!
Still, I had fun colouring in a doodle design I’d made myself – doodling and colouring in may not be considered ‘real’ art but in my world all creativity counts 🙂
I love colouring in the complex designs in my adult colouring books, but right now I’m also really enjoying creating my own (much simpler) freehand doodle designs before adding colour.
But however I choose to colour in I always find as an activity it really calms me down, whether I use coloured pencils, gel pens, or as I have used here, bullet point marker pens 🙂
I’ve not been feeling much like painting lately, but I wanted to keep my creative juices flowing so yesterday and today I’ve done a couple of neurographic doodles and coloured them in.
I find it great fun to doodle this way, letting the outline pen (using your subconscious rather than conscious mind) create a series of relatively random (as in unplanned) overlapping squiggly lines across the page – there’s no right or wrong here, just wavy lines.
Working intuitively with what you’ve already created and building on what’s already drawn on the page means you can always add more lines where needed right up until you start colouring in, so the basic abstract composition is easily adjustable as you go along.
Then once you’re happy with the overall design, you simply go over it all smoothing and rounding off all the corners, and finally colour in the resulting shapes in whatever way you choose.
These were done with Sharpie marker pens on A4 watercolour paper, and although I’ve left some white on one both are chockablock full of colour and have definitely brought a smile to my face on yet another cold, snowy day! 🙂
I’ve been enjoying colouring in again – there’s no mess involved, it’s easy to pick up and put down across the course of the day, and I find it a really good way to help me cope when life gets a bit stressful or frustrating, or both.
I love the gentle rhythm of the movement of coloured pencils flowing smoothly across the page, somehow it never fails to soothe my jangled nerves, and when I’ve finished I usually feel like I’ve created something pleasing, which always makes me feel better too… 🙂
What about colouring in? I haven’t done any colouring in for ages, and that might be a good thing for me to do creatively at the moment, while I’m convalescing from my recent hip replacement – colouring in doesn’t take up much space, it doesn’t make any mess, it passes the time and it’s easy enough to pick up and put down again as the need arises.
Mind you this is a weird kind of convalescence – there’s no lying back lazily on a chaise longue in a pretty dressing gown being fed grapes and other tempting delicacies. Nope, none of that namby-pamby stuff for me.
Instead I’m on an ‘Enhanced Recovery After Surgery’ pathway, which basically means you do your own designated ‘pre-hab’ exercises beforehand to build your strength up before surgery, you get admitted to hospital on the day of your surgery, have your operation, then go home the following day after a brutal barrage of physio to get you up and moving as soon as possible and hitting the required exercise targets for discharge. Phew!
And then suddenly you’re back at home with a brand new hip and a 12-week program of strength-building exercises to follow on your own, wondering what the hell hit you. Your recovery, your rehabilitation, your responsibility. There is an arthroplasty helpline number to call if you need help or if something is worrying you, and in general there is written information provided but minimal medical intervention other then where absolutely necessary, like me having my staples taken out by a nurse the other day.
It’s a really good idea in theory – it empowers you, stops you feeling like a helpless patient and more like an adult person in charge of your own body. And as long as you’re fully committed to doing whatever is required to help yourself, you inevitably have the best chance of achieving a good outcome. In practice it’s still too early for me to judge as yet, the jury’s still out on that one – it’s bloody hard work at the beginning stages, I can tell you that, but I’ll only know exactly how beneficial it’s been at the end of it, and right now I’m not anywhere near the end… only time will tell.
So for now I’m still working out my own optimal daily balance of movement and rest, active and passive tasks, doing and being, taking each day as it comes. But I’m definitely getting stronger, making progress and managing more every day, so it does seem to be succeeding. Which is where the colouring in comes in – that’s one of the more restful but creative things I can do while keeping my mind active, so that’s got to be a good idea, doesn’t it? 🙂
It’s been ages since I did any colouring in, but yesterday I decided to complete something different from my usual mandala, so I chose a more complex stylised plant design – it was fun to do, but it took ages! 🙂
I’ve no idea if it constitutes ‘proper’ art but for now I’m finding myself truly enthralled by this particular abstract neurographic style – it’s the perfect combination for me of doodling, colouring in, and painting!
This fun abstract flower (inspired by a peony) was done this afternoon with gel pens and watercolours 🙂
Today’s neurographic, done mostly with sharpies and added glitter gel pens on a much bigger piece of paper than yesterday.
I think I might try one outlined in permanent marker and coloured in loosely with watercolour paints, just to get a bit more expressive ‘flow’ in my overall design 🙂
A friend has recently introduced me to the concept of neurographic art, so I thought I’d look into it and have a go.
From what I’ve read online, it was introduced in 2014 by a Russian Psychologist and Philosopher, Pavel Piskarev, who believes in using art and aesthetics to improve your psychological mindset.
It’s basically simple creativity through building up random squiggly lines on a page made by allowing your subconscious to take over – like doodling, but with multiple wandering lines intersecting, then softening and curving the corners and colouring in the resulting design.
Apparently neurographics can be used as a form of art therapy, working through problems by thinking of them as you are drawing your many Piskarev lines slowly but without conscious control, and letting your creativity flow to see what comes from it.
As someone who has to work hard to learn to paint with my heart (what I feel) rather than my head (what I think) and struggles a bit with creating abstract art, and as someone who loves both doodling and colouring in, I thought this would be a perfect experiment for me to try out.
These four little 6×8 neurographic drawings were done over this weekend with a pack of Sharpies – I really enjoyed the creative process, I certainly found the smoothing-off and curving of the intersections calming in a gently repetitive way, so will definitely be trying this again! 🙂
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