NNYs Interdisciplinary Workshop Series:

Signs & Symbols of Identity – Week 1

Lesson 1: Doodling
In this lesson, we went over different kinds of mark-making, how to change up your lines, shapes, and scribbles using changes in speed, grip, pressure, angle, and movement. We learned techniques like shading with a blending stump and with lines and dots as with cross-hatching and stippling (aka pointillism.) We also learned how we can make impressions with rubbing over texture (Frottage) and how to use an eraser as a drawing utensil with reductive drawing. We also went over different kinds of traditional and nontraditional drawing materials and how we could use common items like a white-out pen, post-its, and index cards to expand our idea of what we can draw with or on. Using things like post-its can help change our scale when we are used to drawing on a certain size paper, changing scale and base color can often prompt exciting and new ways of creating. We learned that rotating our non-objective doodle can help us find different compositions and orientations.

In the second half of our session, we let loose and drew to music! I chose all different genres and tempos of music including Classical, Jazz, Latin, Reggeton, Electronica, Pop, Oldies, and more. We learned that different lines and marks have different “vibes” that when your mood changes, so do your marks. They can be expressive or tight & controlled, they can be whimsical or chaotic, they can be all of those things and more even in the same drawing! Doodling to music can be extremely calming and is a great way to get a feel for lines, marks, and materials. The more you practice using different materials and making marks, the better your understanding of touch will be, and if you like to draw with more realism, this will help immensely.

As we made our drawings, we saw that doodles can actually be art on their own, there is a beauty in the marks themselves and also a beauty in the freedom of making them without fear because it’s just a doodle. I highly encourage you to continue making doodles, put your music on shuffle or find something that fits your mood and just let your creativity take over!

Homework for next week: take a few photos of your favorite doodles from this week. Also, take a photo of something meaningful to you from your house.

Text by Cristina Farrigno