Now, SEVEN have hosted a few creative workshops aimed at kids – from Metal Southend’s Village Green to Disco Doodling for the The Big Draw – but this November we wanted to share some of our art journalling tips with, yes, grown ups!
While it’s great to see kids cut and paste with wild abandon, SEVEN believe many adults are in dire need of creative adventure. So, we devised a jam-packed, fun-sized event where attendees could dip their toe into the world of creative art journaling and get lost in some of our favourite creative processes.
Our Inspiration Generating Menu
- Disco doodling – Yep, dancing and drawing to music works for kids and adults alike, it’s a great way to warm up and break the ice. Plus, if you do it collaboratively, as we did, you get to scribble on other people’s work – what’s not to like!?
- Play in your sketchbook – Kim’s handmade sketchbooks may have looked too good to ever make a mark in, but we encouraged participants to get over blank page block and just start sticking stuff (in this case, a small piece of the giant disco doodle) in. It’s all about progress NOT perfection!
- One minute sketches – Grab a magazine, open anywhere and draw what catches your eye. We did this ten times. For one minute. Cue a kind drawing frenzy. But, if you get over yourself and go with the flow you can make some beautiful lines and come away with some creative jumping off points…
- Miniature collages -A random word is used as the catalyst for a quick (20 minutes) playing card-sized collage. Remember: Boundaries can be everything!
These are a few photos from the evening:
Summary
The moral of this workshop story? Well, it was just a real pleasure to watch people relax, have fun, and become immersed in their creations. Coming together to create is, as SEVEN knows only too well, a powerful thing. Not only does the room take on a kind of artistic buzz as people beaver away, but when we share the results it helps to inspire and motivate others too.
Remember: If you’re feeling the creative urge but don’t know where to start, just do it! Dance, doodle, sketch really fast, anything which helps you take the first step. Then keep going. Check out our SEVEN manifesto for inspiration.