DIY Network

Doodle Art Show off those fun doodles! From "B. Original" episode DBOR-305

Let your inner artist come out to play.

Most of us like to doodle – after all, it’s a way you can B. Original even when you’re stuck on hold. But most of these tiny masterpieces get tossed out with the trash.

Michele Beschen shows how to capture these creative bursts and show them off by doodling on a large scale. Instead of drawing on the back of an envelope with a half-dead ballpoint pen, she primes a canvas and gathers an assortment of markers, inks and art pencils to create doodle art that’s worthy of a place on your wall.

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Doodle Art

Materials:
doodling surface: canvas, canvas paper, foam panels or heavy card stock
matte acrylic paint
paint brush
doodling tools: various pens, pencils, markers and ink
fixative spray

	Figure A
	Figure B

• Prime the doodling surface with a coat of matte acrylic paint – even if using a primed art canvas. Michele Beschen has found that drawings don’t straight on a primed canvas start to look gray and dingy; the prime coat keeps things bright. Be sure to prime the sides of the canvas as well as the front, and let the entire canvas dry completely.

• Start doodling! Keep designs loose and fun, and change doodling tools as you draw to add variety. Also, adjust the amount of pressure used when drawing to change the weight of the lines (figure A).

• If using charcoal pencil, be sure to blow off any dust so it doesn’t smear. If you want the smeared look, smudge the lines with a finger (figure B).

• If you want to add to the drawing after drawing with charcoal, spray the piece with fixative before doing so. This will help keep the later work from smearing the charcoal pencil. Fixative dries to the touch in 10 minutes and dries completely in an hour; fixative needs to be completely dry if you’re going to draw or paint over it.

• When you’re finished doodling, give the whole piece a final spray with fixative.

Here's how Michele Beschen uses some of her doodles:

A room divider screen...

A freestanding canvas...

And even a mini-gallery.