Doodle Your Day Away

I love to doodle. I have always doodled. Whenever there is a pen and scrap piece of paper I am doodling. It's just who I am. 

So when my friend was asking me about how to doodle I wasn't exactly sure what to say. How do you explain something that is just part of who you are?

She started asking questions about what pens or markers I use and how I know what to doodle. I decided that I would do a livestream on my Facebook Page all about doodling. Go on over there and check it out. 

Of course once I started that doodle I couldn't stop so I spent the rest of the afternoon finishing it. I paid attention to some of the things I was doing and thought I could go into a little more detail here. 

If you look at the top image you can see the very beginning stages of my leaf doodle. I was using some different colors in the background and it looks a bit messy. In the bottom photo I added a third color that kind of blended the two and added some depth and then added some little dashes all around to make the background look very deliberate. It feels a bit more cohesive to me even with all the crazy little detail.

Speaking of detail. If you look at the leaves themselves, you will notice that the bottom image has a lot more detail. I added dots, dashes and lines in a silver pen that really makes them pop.

You will also notice that the outline of the leaves is far from perfect. Making that outline a bit off center really gives it a casual look. I could have upped this even more by varying the size of that line. 

When you can manipulate the negative space and create shapes with the white paper you can get an interesting look. Add some lines and dots and everything pops and looks fun. 

Using different sized lines can really add interest to the page too. You can see the lines in the purple ripple starting very thick and getting thinner and thinner as they move up. There is also a variance in line thickness in the yellow section as well. 

This is a good spot to point out that there is no need for perfection in doodles. Wonky lines and imperfect circles add to the fun of the it. Leaving spots of white shining through can give it a fun, three dimensional feel instead of just being boring and flat so let go of any desire to be perfect and just have fun!

Using several colors in the same family will add a lot of depth to your doodles. In the leafy stem section there are at least 3 different shades of green mixed together to give it a nice feel. 

The truth is, you cannot go wrong with your doodles. Grab some markers and just start having a little fun. Experiment and play with different color combinations. You might just surprise yourself. 

It's a Middle School Wrap

The first Middle School Open House was a such big hit! We had a great time together and what a gift it was to be able to spend so much time together in creative play! 

We started off with some fun drawing. We taped up paper onto the wall put on some fun music and let loose with oil pastels. The girls were encouraged to pick a color they loved and just scribble and get their energy onto the page. Whatever felt good was what we did. 

We had a little fun mixing it up. They got to use their non dominant hand for a while, experiment with mixing by using a white oil pastel and they even got brave and added a color they thought was "ugly." It was fun to try out new things and just be surprised at what happened. 

After a quick snack break we brought out the paints. They got to use juicy tempera paints on big sheets of poster board taped up on the wall. Anything goes in Freedom Art and the girls had fun playing with all the different brushes and rollers and we even had fun with some stencils. 

I always like to add a little positivity to the creative process so we sat down and made some mind maps. The girls put their names in the middle and started writing all their positive qualities around. the center.  They helped each other think of things they were good at or things they liked about each other. Then we thought of some people we admired and their qualities that we aspired for ourselves and added that in. 

Once their mind maps were done I let them loose on some magazines and had them tear out any pictures that reminded them of themselves or their traits they wrote on the paper and they got busy gluing them onto the page. It was so fun and everyone's was unique. 

It was an amazing way to spend my Saturday. The girls had so much fun and said they wanted to come back tomorrow. One of the girls said she wished my studio was her bedroom because it felt so great in there. 

 I loved  it too. It was so fun to just let loose and have fun. We danced, we played, we laughed and we joked around. They uplifted me and left me feeling energized.  I can't wait for the next one!

How to Have an Awesome Art Party

What a great night! I could not be happier about the outcome of my first open house at The Creative Healing Studio! So many great people came out and had fun doodling, painting, and drawing. 

 Food was set out and drinks were prepared. 

Everyone had a chance to create a collaboration on a big piece of paper. 

I was so happy to have a great group of kids too.

Hours of doodling and painting left some fantastic art and gave the studio so much great energy.

The doodle table was a favorite of many.

In fact, the fun continued after midnight!

 And I even got some men in on the fun. 

Thank you to everyone who came out. My first Freedom Art Class is this Thursday and I am offering a 50% discount to all first timers who have signed up for my newsletter. You can sign up here and you get my free ebook, Take Back Your Life with Freedom Art™.

5 Ways You Can Use Freedom Art to Release Emotions

Growing up I learned very young how to stuff my emotions. I used all kinds of things to accomplish this task…cigarettes, alcohol, food, and depression. I didn’t really even know that’s what I was doing. I was just going along, living my life and stuffing everything down. 

But once I found myself in the hospital for a few days with no real answers to what was wrong with me I began the long journey to figure my shit out. What I discovered is the world of emotional release which is being with your emotions in the moment no matter what they are and letting them flow through you.

My emotion of choice has always been anger. I hold onto that one for dear life until it blows like a catastrophic volcano. The first time I sat with it and really let it out it felt like my whole body was literally on fire. It was raging through me with incredible power. I felt like one of this old cartoons where the character turned red with smoke blowing out of their ears. Whew!

It felt amazing to get it out. I felt like I lost 50 pounds that day. But emotions are not a one time thing. They come and they go everyday. They like to hide out in the body so sometimes you don’t even know what is going on until it gets so big you can’t ignore it. 

My greatest discovery was understanding how Freedom Art™ can be used to release emotions. Regular time in front of your journal, canvas or even a poster board taped to the wall is one of the greatest ways I have found to get in touch with emotions and just allow them to be. 

It’s like a playdate with all those little emotions hiding out inside you. Have you seen that movie Inside Out? I love that movie. It really gives a concrete example of what is going on in there. And the moral of that story is that every emotion has its place and shouldn’t be ignored. 

Here are 5 ways you can use art to release your emotions:

1. Work in your journal- Your journal is a safe place to let all of your emotions out. You can close the pages and no one has to see what you've done. You can scribble and swear and create the ugliest things you've ever seen and it is only for you. 

2. Choose your materials wisely- Different materials can evoke different feelings. Water colors are fluid and can connect you to your watery emotions like sadness, grief, and love. Crayons and oil pastels can really help you gain access to anger, jealousy and fear. Everyone will have different connections to the materials so tap into how you are feeling and which material will best express that feeling and don't be afraid to switch it up in the middle. 

3. Choose colors without judgement- Each color can represent an emotion and once again, everyone will have different associations with colors. One person might associate green with health and vibrancy and another might think of sickness. It only matters what color you are being nudged to use. Don't ask why, just go with it and see where it leads you. 

4. Use gestures that represent how you feel- Do you feel like moving in long, sweeping vertical lines or are you feeling hard, frantic scribbles? Perhaps you want to move slowly in a horizontal direction or in short stabbing dots. Allow your movement to match your emotions and pay attention to when you feel like changing. 

5. Spend some time in reflection- When you finish your art piece spend some time writing about it. How did it feel to create it? How does it make you feel when you look at it? What messages does it have for you. 

I will be sharing my most recent emotional journey using Freedom Art™ in my next post to give you a greater idea of how it works. Stay tuned!

The Gift

I have not always been very good at dealing with my emotions. After years of ignoring them and shutting them down sometimes I still have a difficult time even fully recognizing how I am feeling in the moment. 

Process art has become a doorway to allow me to tap in, recognize, and then release bound up emotions. 

On this particular day, I was feeling out of sorts. Emotions were swirling around and I didn't know what to do with them. I decided scribbling was the answer. 

I taped a large poster board to the wall and grabbed two graphite pencils, one for each hand. I approached the paper and simply placed my forehead on the middle of the page and began to scribble with both hands. 

I scribbled and scribbled with varying degrees of fury. I scribbled through tears and I scribbled through fears. Anger raised its head and sorrow lowered it. Every ounce of emotion that I was holding onto traveled through my hands, into those pencils and onto the paper. 

When I felt complete I lifted my head from the wall and stepped back and I was shocked and amazed to see a heart so clearly left where my head had rested. 

When I started I had no intention to paint. I simply wanted to scribble with pencil and now here I was, standing in front of this pencil sketch and I KNEW it needed to be painted. 

As always, I followed my intuitive urge and chose the paint color. I was a little surprised to want white but I honored what I was feeling and let go. 

It wasn't long before the cool colors were calling my name. I played with one of my favorite colors, Prussian Blue and livened it up with sky blue and a cool shade of purple. 

I just kept playing and adding colors. Allowing fun lines to appear. 

Pink is my go to color when I am feeling love. The heart was ready to be painted and what better color to use than pink?

And then it was as if fireworks were going off. Every color was alive and dancing on the page. it had energy and was expressing exactly how I was feeling in the moment...alive and grateful. 

There is typically a point in my creation process where I get lost in the moment and forget to take pictures. This was that point. 

I continued to paint and add what the painting was asking for and in the end I was left with this soft, garden of love. 

When you lose yourself in the process of intuitive creation, you fall in love with your art. It holds a very special place in your heart. You almost feel like a mother loving your creation and this painting evoked these feelings in me,. It was the culmination of a powerful emotional journey that I was fortunate enough to be part of. 

Without going through every phase of this process and allowing myself to fully feel all of the constricting emotions, this painting doesn't have the same power. It is surrendering to the truth of the moment that fuels the process and allows something unique and sacred to emerge. 

What a gift!