Leaves Festival

Here's some photos of the Monster Doodle form The Leaves Festival last Friday. The Monster Doodle is now hanging in Abbeyleix Library. 

Jim Henson's Red Notebook

Any of you who know and love Jim Henson will be thrilled to go have a look inside his Red Book. There really are some wonderful sketches and photographs archived there.

Coca-Cola and The Dyslexia Association and me....

I will be holding a reading and drawing workshop in Millview House, M1 Retail Park, Drogheda from 3-4pm this Thursday as part of the Live Positively Programme.
My workshop is open to all children aged 3-7 years, I will have books for sale and I'm happy to sign and doodle on them if you come along.
You must book in advance at niamhsharkey@gmail.com as places are very limited.
See you there!

Alice learns how to draw a Hugglewug!

As some of you may know, I often run workshops with children on How to draw a Hugglewug with easy step by step instructions. Last Friday I met Deirdre my book publisher and Alice head of PR for Walker Books and over lunch in The Winding Stairs, I showed Alice how to draw a Hugglewug. She had real fears that she wouldn't be able to draw one, but as you can see her Lola Hugglewug is marvelous!

Me on Kazoo!

Click here for the link to RTE Player showing Kazoo from yesterday. Hope you enjoy it... get doodling!

Making Doodling Cool!

We all were so comfortable drawing with crayons, markers when we were toddlers and young children and then most of us give up. We just stop, older kids and adults say, ‘I can’t draw a straight line…’  I say who cares if it’s straight, the wobblier the better. This is what makes your doodle great.

Mo Williams is a cartoonist, book writer, and doodler and he has a lot to say about getting adults doodling here on NPR.

One of the biggest reasons children stop drawing is that they see that adults don't do it, Willems says. When he goes into classrooms, teachers often ask him to get the kids to draw. But when he does, many of the teachers don't participate. 

“Well, now the kids realize that this is just a baby activity,’  He reminds us that parents are actually cool in kid’s eyes- for a while- and kids want to imitate what they do. 

‘If your kid comes home from school and you say, ‘I’ll be right with you: I’m just finishing a doodle,’ the kid’s going to think ‘Dude, I want to do that, too!’

When I am doing workshops I try to include the adults and teachers,  they are often very reluctant but then they just LOVE it in the end! 

Now I have to say a lot of doodling goes on in our house. My eldest Megan has a huge white board in her bedroom and we all have to do a daily doodle on it, one that can be added to by every member in the family. Mo also suggests a family draw. His family gets a large piece of paper, picks a theme and then everyone draws. Or how about a dinner party where wine and crayons are provided. 

So the big draw can start here today...do a doodle of a monster waiting at a bus stop, or your favourite stufffed toy from when you were a kid, or a elephant on roller skates, or a rhino is your teacher, or your boss in a funny situation... just doodle! 

Electric Picnic

This weekend I will be going to Electric Picnic Music Festival. We are bringing our daughter Megan who is seven. Can't wait. I will bring my notebook to make doodles of the shenanigans!