Confessions or Tricks of the trade

I am the worst doodler, ever. I hate pencils and pens. They are extremely uncomfortable, not to mention untrustable. They never behave like I intend. This has been a problem for my entire life, and I was the first kid at school who was allowed to use a word processor for my essays (we’re talking very early 1990’s). The teacher could never read what I wrote, nor could I. Dyslexia some of you may think, but no, most certainly not. Dysgraphia then? No, I don’t think so. I just have very bad fine motoric skills. But you do embroidery, and lace making, and pearls and all those tiny things! That is true, but it is also very time consuming. What normal people finish of in half an hour would take me a full day.
 
Over the years I’ve learned a few tricks to get over it;

• Go digital. Illustrator is magnificent once you learn how to manage it.
• Work in a well-lit area and wear your glasses.
• Choose the right kind of pen for the right kind of paper. I tend to need soft felt tips, soft graphite pencils (4-6B), and very smooth paper. Pitt Artist Pen Brush from Faber-Castell is a favourite.
• Use a light board when tracing and refining sketches.
• Abandon pen and pencils and go for paper cuts, potato printing, collage etc. This is both fun and creative, and also adds roughness and simplicity to your creations.
• ​Save every doodle, no matter how horrible it looks to you at the moment. They might come to use and transform into something else.
  

As a special treat I decided to show you my worst doodles, and what became of them. Enjoy!