Blobs, Beasts, and Big Laughs

Creativity knows no age limit

I went to my first Draw and Doodle event through Meetup. Not exactly knowing what it was all about, I thought we’d ease in with warm-up challenges, then work on our own art. Nope! The entire two hours were jam-packed with creative prompts. I had a blast!

Over 20 of us sat around a long table. Most of the participants were in their twenties and thirties, a few maybe in their forties. At almost 62, I was definitely the eldest. But age means nothing in art; my 5-year-old granddaughter loves when we paint together. No one blinked when “the old lady” showed up and joined in.

All three challenges were interactive and fun. First up: we drew three random shapes, shuffled the papers, then turned each other’s blobs into characters in three-minute sprints. We then passed around the creations with delighted laughter.

The second challenge was my favourite. We drew characters in thirds—head, front legs, back legs—on folded paper so you couldn’t see what the previous person had drawn. For the creature I initiated with a head we ended up with an awesome Jabberwocky-style creature.

I love how the pink spots were serendipitously continued on the body

For the final challenge, we broke into teams of three. My group got dinosaurs; our opponents got raccoons. We had to sketch a storyline of how our creatures would defeat theirs. Ours lured the trash bandits into a T-Rex trap with a trail of garbage.

my drawing was the luring in

Then came the curveball. We had to present our stories for the group to vote on. Most of the younger creatives were really uncomfortable with this. No surprise that I was in my element. “Old lady” confidence for the win. And yes, our dinosaur team won by a landslide.

I’ve done online art jams, and they’re fun, but nothing beats the energy of collective creating in person. I’ll definitely be back for more Draw and Doodle!

Creatively yours ~ Eliza

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