Like what you see? Like to see how to doodle your words? Then look at my book on doing doodling. I’ve used this process with many students of all ages.
As I was doodling one day, I had an idea. Why not turn words into pictures? I imagined that a word could express itself without being in a sentence. Sounded like fun, so I tried it—and WordToons was born. I found it to be a lot of fun and doodled one or two a day for entertainment. Then it occurred to me that anyone can do this. Everybody doodles! It’s a simple idea to get a word to tell about itself—to show what it means. Or it can be funny. No special training necessary. And, since I like to teach, I imagined that I could teach anyone to do it for self entertainment. I did— to high schoolers, retirees, and jail inmates! None were artists, they certainly could doodle! And they did it in a couple of sessions. They understood that doodling is not done for a grade of for evaluation.
They are done for personal
And you can too.
Here’s how it works: Begin with a white sheet of paper and a pencil.
- Start by lettering the word, run, on the paper All caps will get you into expressing it better
- Now doodle it in outline large. Don’t worry about accuracy. Just doodle. Do it more than once. It’ll change as you go. that’s OK. Begin to see some action? We’ll keep going.
3. Now add action lines. Enlarge the letters again. You’ll see why.
4. Next let’s doodle the letters even larger and animate them with exaggeration. Add faces and hands and shoes! How fast are we going now?
5. If we want to go further, let’s add some sweat drops, hair, feet.
Notice how it always becomes more active. Every time you re-doodle it will change. When you review what you’ve done at any stage, you will see what you want to add next. Each version gives you new ideas to try. It happens as you go–a natural part of your process. Remember, you can add exaggeration each time!
6. And now, time to erase pencil lines and then ink in with black ballpoint. You’re ready to color for the finale. You can use colored pencils, watercolor markers–double ended for choice of coloring tip sizes. Keep your color on the light side. Dark color tends to darken the details.
For hands just doodle three fingers and a thumb for simplicity. Look at your own hands. The feet are simple quick outlines.
And all kinds of face expressions can give added meaning to your doodled WordToons. And also try looking in a mirror.
Now let’s doodle again. Start with a simple word like HA. Now we can really play. Begin with lining your word in italics, which is more action oriented.
Next do it in outline block letters. Yes, just doodle it!
Then, again, getting the size up so you have more room in the letters to add stuff like faces and action lines.
Each time you re-doodle, you’ll find you can get more character into the shape of your letters. And remind yourself to have fun with this. Keep getting your letters larger.
Now we go another step of exaggerating using faces and action lines. Double the size to get more opportunities for animation.
I don’t doodle in the arms. They would clutter and visually confuse things. Just hands are fine.
Now go for color. At the same time, double up.
As you can see, color adds much to your word’s expressiveness. Sometimes, after adding color, I want to go back in and strengthen the letter outlines to make sure each letter reads OK. It’s interesting to me how each doodling stage tells me what to do next.
So-0-0 what’s the big deal here? The idea here is that this doodling WordToons can change your life. Stop and think. What’s your “living” like these days? We’re all busy!
Each day a zillion things demand our attention and energy. It’s hectic. Fear we won’t get it all done–in time.
And things are getting more and more complex. You can be tense a lot. You get tired.
It’s time to slow down, to get away to calm and quiet.
That’s where WordToons comes in. See it as a special time just for YOU–not for anyone else. I doodle just for me. I’ve set aside a place for some uninterrupted moments–daily. And you can Toon! Create a time/place where you can get in touch with your inner thoughts, pleasant moments for your own ideas. Give yourself a gift. Think of it as your personal cloister.
You won’t be interrupted there–no phone or computer. A place which you can leave and come back to tomorrow. Quality time. Make your decision to make it happen. Then begin.
Now choose your word. Make it short–two or three letters and make it fun. Then imagine fun ways to see its meaning. Doodle them down. Try several ideas. Get a smile. No limits. This is pencil and paper with eraser stuff. Experiment with caps and lower case–and italics for action.
I’ve included a couple of pages of alphabet styles so you can check what your letter shapes look like as you work through versions of your word. Get wild! Exaggeration can make it more fun. And add faces! I’ve found there’s no one way to make your word “talk.” It’s up to you and your doodling.
Now choose one of your ideas to continue to the next stage. Pencil it on a new page. Next go over those lines with a black ball point pen. I like a Bic Grip Roller pen for good black lines that are water proof.
Then, if you like, come the colors: colored pencils, felt tip pens, watercolors. Your choice. It’s a good idea to test your chosen color on a scrap of paper or on your last pencil version before going to your inked letters. Then move on to your inked version.
After coloring, step back and look at your word. At this stage I find that the black lines may need inking in again to strengthen them. This will help my word be easily readable.
I’ve taken you through the WordToons process a couple of times now. The rest is up to your to set it up and do it. Still need convincing? OK, there’s a secret here. When we were discussing the frenzied lifestyle that we’re in , I’m guessing that you’d like some relief. The doodling process can serve you well when you feel that there’s “no time for Me.” Here’s an opportunity to get moments that are special. How are they special? They’re Yours!
Moments of interrupted Peace and Calm. While your’re having FUN doodling WordToons, your giving yourself a chance to hear from YOU. And that’s the point.
You’re not doing this for a grade of some kind of approval. They’re for YOU, and because of, YOU. This process, this personal commitment can be a kind of meditation time. Self realization you won’t get from lists and schedules. Those are never ending and frustrating. And they need to be done. But they won’t bring happiness. Only you can.
I believe it’s worth doing. It is for me. And I’ve taught others to do it. You may discover that you’re looking forward to your next doodle session. I see it as being like the white space on this page that serves to invite you to read the text and the toons.
And now I can hear you saying “What’s he talking about?” I’m saying you can find some HAPPINESS here. Yes, I’m talking about how this process can contribute to your personal contentment and peace.
Your response most likely is “Hey, I’ve got all kinds of ways of being HAPPY–lots of PLEASURE–with cell phones, games, pizzas, Facebook, e-mail, movies, etc.” I say Yes they do bring PLEASURE, but these don’t last. you’re always looking for more–and more. It’s always more.
And you’re thinking that PLEASURE and HAPPINESS are the same thing. They’re NOT. The people who produce all that FUN stuff have worked very hard to condition you to think that the two are the same. But all those PLEASURES never leave you feeling PEACEFUL. They’re short-lived. There’s always the need for MORE. You an become a PLEASURE JUNKIE.
HAPPINESS, on the other hand, is a rich feeling of PEACE that says, “I don’t need any more. This is enough.” That’s all the difference! Your doodling time is personal time. Time to find yourself and discover the PEACEFUL you. Doodling is a process waiting to be discovered. Ideas and messages can and do pop up as you devote your personal time to this process.
I like to say that this process can take you from STRESSED to DESSERTS. Got it?
I believe the YOU are more than schedules and lists. Wouldn’t you like to find out more about yourself? Open yourself up to new thoughts? Discover YOU.
And now let me encourage you to Breathe and Smile. This is something I’ve found to lighten my trip through life. Something I encourage you to do as another way to raise your spirits. Let’s say you’re on your way in the car. Check your expression. Is it grim, determined , serious? You can change that. Take a deep Breath, pause briefly, and slowly let it out while getting a big smile for yourself.
That’s right. Fill your chest gently with an in-breath. Then let it out with a big Smile. Do it again and see how your feel. You can change your life to a positive You whenever you want. Now that’s being in the NOW! And what a great intro to your Doodle Time.
Or any other time for that matter.
For further inspiration, page ahead to see what other doodlers have done. Lots of fun! Also there’s some pages of my doodling fun. And finally I’ve included two pages of alphabet letters to help you when you need to remember what a particular letter looks like. How considerate of me!
As a final thought let me introduce my personal statement of life that guides me. Perhaps it speaks to you. CHOOSE YES.
Here are some doodler’s delights. These are WordToons that high schoolers have have had fun with. Sometimes the exaggeration touches makes reading the chosen word a little difficult. But–who cares?
More fun. And no grades were given. Just fun.
And now, some of my doodles. I enjoy doing mine every day.
Here’s an example where I feel there is too much going on making it difficult to read SCARED easily. First the letters are too italic. Second there are too many faces. the first priority for me is grasping the word easily. Exaggeration begins from there.
Here’s another step-by-step idea for doodling a WordToon. Begin with your pencil, paper and soft eraser to rough out a word, in this case float. Try out some ideas to see how it might express itself. Do several. Each will tell you what to try next. In this case actually I ultimately tried changing the shape of the letters in the word to better express it –to make it float.
Here are your usual style of letters for doodling. They’re simple and good to work with.
These letters have a little more going on. Those little square ends added on give you a little more to work with.
It takes more creative effort and energy to cope positively with relentless CHANGE. Doodling time is Your opportunity to get in personal touch with yourself. You can be surprised as you find you are: sad? bored? scared? mad? Or you might find words to change your life: yes? me? fun? hope? It can be revealing! Why not give yourself the chance to find out?
So, one more time. What’s in this for You to set aside time and place (and maybe quiet music) to doodle for yourself? We know our world grows increasingly COMPLEX Daily life gets tense–even frantic at times. There’s less and less personal time for reflection. It’s easy to lose touch with yourself.
This Doodling idea has revealed the opportunity to find out about myself in new ways that I wouldn’t have thought of. Why not give yourself opportunity for thought you might not otherwise have? All you have to do is BEGIN and keep going. It will happen!
Still not convinced? Here’s a simpler way to begin–doodle line letters. Choose a simple word to express your current feeling and doodle it out–several times. Remember to emphasize and exaggerate it more each time and get each version larger to have space for faces. And color can be added for emphasis. Go go!
As I’ve reflected on my process of developing the idea of WordToons. I’ve increasingly found it to be a valuable activity for finding personal calm in this our frantic everyday world–a quiet refuge if you will–a daily meditative fun time. It gives me a time of personal peace.
It’s become a self discovery time. I’ve found what I consider to be an inner me. And I believe you can find yourself through this fun process–yourself you didn’t know. Yes, it’s there!
Is it difficult to think of your being without your phone? Or other screens in your life? Research shows that these can be addictive. And this can keep you away from you. Their absence during WordToons doodling gives you that break which also gives you a break from the myriads of daily problems. You get back to all those later with fresh energy and new ideas!
Mack has had fun inventing WordToons and wants YOU to enjoy it too.
are WordToons? They are having fun playing with and exaggerating the meaning of a word. Depending on your chosen word. It can be funny, dramatic, whatever. It’s meaning can be expressed without it being in a sentence. It’s a visual thing. 
are WordToons? Doodling and exaggeration bring out the meaning of your chosen word simply by doodling its letters. It’s an action thing.
are WordToons? They give you fun–they’re all yours. And they’re relaxing for your own personal enjoyment. Whant to know more? Mack will show you how you can doodle too! Anyone can do it. And you canToon!
“I have guided all kinds of doodlers on this entertaining journey, high school students, retirees, jail inmates. It’s an idea that gets you in touch with yourself. See you inside? (this virtual book)”
Doodling WordToons! It’s fun. We all doodle. And Rowe has figured out how it can make words come alive. Words which tell you about themselves in a fun way. In doing them you get a chance to have some fun. It’s a relaxing process that he takes you through the process. It’s entertaining and relaxing. Here’s what some who he has taken along have said:
“I laughed out loud”
“The is much needed”
“I love WordToons”
“Thank you for the smiles”
“Helped my day”
They perfectly express their meaning”
Join the fun! You’ll never be at a loss for words.