In 2002 I was happily trudging along as a psychiatric nurse working with street homeless people when I suddenly developed a bad case of Multiple Sclerosis. Shortly after (and with indecent haste in my opinion) the NHS retired me and I was left out on a limb. Being suddenly impoverished my family and I were uprooted from insanely expensive Oxford to merely expensive Shropshire. After a couple of years composting and grieving for my career I pulled myself together and went about retraining as an illustrator (which is what I wanted to do in the first place, long story…), finally graduating in 2008 and working as a freelance illustrator, teacher and general creative for hire ever since. Apart from a couple of glitches and a tory government I now seem to have more silver lining than cloud.

One of the glitches of MS which directly affect my work is that very often my hands will feel as if they are encased in gloves which are WAY too tight, making me stiff and fumble fingered. Not good when one is trying to draw! I developed a simple style of doodling as an exercise which helps me to limber up my hands before I start my “serious” work. It lets me start slowly and deliberately to begin mark making and, placebo or not, it doesn’t take long for me to feel less like I am drawing with my elbows.

Over the years I have often been asked when I am going to colour them in (I would rather stick pins in my eyes!!) and I have often been told that they would make a good colouring exercise. Interesting, the colouring advocates have always been women of a certain age. I am making no conclusions from this, merely an observation. However, in a recent article in the Telegraph it seems that French women are using colouring in as a short-cut to the zen like calm which most people find who draw or paint.

It has taken me three long years (even longer story…) but I have finally produced a self published book of my Extreme Doodles to cater for this apparent interest. If you are a volunteer in the VAN gallery in the Market Hall, Shrewsbury there are copies on sale and also a copy for volunteers to colour in in quiet moments.

Whilst looking immediately rather complex and detailed, even a few moments examination will show that the technique is very simple. I recognise everyone doodles differently, we all have a range of shapes and squiggles which turn up over and over again in the margins by the crossword or as evidence of a dull meeting, what I do is to pull my own together to develop a visual texture. Here then, in short, is the secret of Extreme Doodling (which is in no way extreme…)

Firstly I draw an outline using a thick marker pen. This is purely to be a container for the doodle and to make it a finite, encapsulated thing. I have taught seven year olds to do these doodles and we used thin paper to trace pictures of dinosaurs etc but it works equally well with a simple shaped blob or a ruled box. Here I am deconstruction one of my favourites, the Chameleon. Because chameleons are ace.

The next stage is to break up the main shape into smaller areas using a medium thickness pen. This allows you to approach the doodle in compartments, one bit at a time, rather than as one huge task. Originally this was simply because I would often keep one doodle going over several sessions but later, when I began to think of them as drawings in their own right, I found that I could use this stage to shape the drawing and add volume and definition.

The last stage is the most fun to a compulsive mark maker like me! All of us doodle and, as previously noted, we all have simple shapes or symbols that we unthinkingly draw. I simply take those shapes and meaningless, unformed marks and repeat them. Endlessly. As you can see in this detail of the finished Chameleon I have further broken the sections into strips and used them to make lines of swirls, triangles, hearts, flowers, whatever. Over time, as the marks fill the sections and spread across the whole of the outer shape, the doodle develops a visual texture. This texture relies, as many drawings do, on the multiplicity of marks made to draw the eye from one place to another. Because there is such a depth of visual texture, the eye never sees the inevitable (and when I do then, anyway, myriad) mistakes or wobbles or sudden changes of mind.

And that is it. Extreme Doodling relies on a series of simple tricks to develop a texturally complex image. Extreme Colouring, on the other hand, is an application of patience and observation and psychomotor skill of which I am completely incapable and I wish all such colourists the best of luck, they have my absolute regard!