I’ve always longed to draw perfect circles and straight lines and to sketch folks who looked realistic. Whenever I’ve drawn along the margins of textbooks or on backs of grocery lists or on front of napkins, however, I’ve had oddball people appear.
Like a self-centered bore in a glaring suit…
A cherubic pink-cheeked fruit vendor and his wiggly yellow goatee.
A pink-haired tea-drinking woman with a deep-rooted love of all things Strawberry Shortcake.
A purple-haired opera singer.
But somewhere in these past few months, I decided to stop being bashful about my Schoolhouse Rock-like drawings. To heck with everything I was told counted as “real art” or “being a real artist.”
So, rather than continuing to be embarrassed by the wiggly-lined oddness of my doodles, I would embrace the funny folks showing up on my paper.
And in playing with colored pencils and Sharpies these last few months, I’ve learned a few things about creative expression.
- Creative freedom occurs when you embrace your style.
- The creative world is big enough to embrace all forms of art, even those forms that may not seem sophisticated or popular or money-making enough.
- Doodles are another form of art like mosaics or paintings or tapestries or pottery.
- The best creative moments are play.
- Some mistakes in art are acceptable… even welcomed sometimes.
- Some mistakes are not welcomed… and using an eraser is perfectly acceptable when needed.
- Stop wasting time trying to adjust to the label that someone placed on you long ago.
Most importantly, creating visual content is fun... especially when you’re telling a story that you want to share.
Yesterday, my infodoodle, “How to Tell Your Company’s Story,” was published at the Daily Fix. The questions come from a talk by Content Rules co-author and MarketingProfs chief content officer Ann Handley. I wanted to share her questions in a fun, engaging way, so I doodled this presentation…
The presentation was very well-received on the interwebs. The slide show even made the SlideShare presentation of the day!
The reason I’m sharing that is to show that creating visual content isn’t about perfection or straight lines or perfect circles.
Creating visual content is about sharing a good story through engaging pictures, whether they’re stunning photographs or detailed illustrations… and even colorful doodles.
Don’t let achieving the perfect circles and straight lines get you down. Embrace your style and have fun with it…
