3 Truths That Change How You See Your Doodles
For years I blamed my talent for something that had nothing to do with talent at all. Turns out I was measuring the wrong thing.
I learned to play tennis with the wrong hand.
I'm left-handed. But somehow, as a girl, I learned to play right-handed. So there I was, swinging away with my off arm, next to my middle sister, who had the kind of natural, fluid strokes that made the whole thing look effortless.
My backhand was solid. My forehand was another story. It never quite obeyed me, because it wasn't my natural arm, and I knew it. So I spent years feeling a little overshadowed. A little like the one who wasn't really built for this.
Here's what I need you to know. I never quit. I loved the sport too much to walk away, wonky forehand and all. And every so often, out of nowhere, that fluid stroke would show up. The one I was sure belonged only to people with more talent than me.
It was mine too. I just had to stay long enough to find it.
Maybe you've looked at your own doodles the way I looked at my forehand, and decided you simply aren't good enough. Before you count yourself out, here are three truths worth seeing clearly.
Truth #1: The Problem Was Never Your Talent
When I struggled with that forehand, I decided the issue was me. That I just didn't have the athletic gift my sister had. It took me a long time to understand the real story. I wasn't lacking talent. I was swinging with the wrong hand and comparing my hardest stroke to her easiest one.
You may be doing the same thing with your doodles.
You look at your wonky flowers, your lopsided little teacups, your simple sketches, and you decide the problem is your talent. But you may be measuring your very first attempts against someone else's years of practice. That is not a talent gap. That is a beginning.
I think about Pauline R. often when this comes up. Pauline used to own a nail salon in Wales, and somewhere along the way, a teacher told her she had no artistic talent. She believed it. So she didn't pursue art at all. Not for years.
Then she discovered surface pattern design. And what do you know. That teacher was wrong. Pauline creates the most beautiful commissioned pieces now, baby blankets, onesies, one-of-a-kind designs for the people she loves. She even designed a blanket for her nephew Noah.
She was never short on talent. She was short on someone telling her the truth. So let me be that person for you. The doubt you carry may have very little to do with what you are actually capable of.
Truth #2: The Imperfection You're Hiding Is the Thing Buyers Want
Here's what nobody tells you. The hand-drawn, slightly imperfect quality of your doodles is not a flaw to apologize for. It may be your greatest asset.
People are tired of generic. They are surrounded by mass-produced, machine-perfect patterns, and they are hungry for something with a little soul in it. Something that looks like a human being made it. Your wonky little flowers are not a problem to fix. They are the personality people are reaching for.
Kyle Y. is proof of this. She ran her own graphic design and advertising agency for over thirty years, but surface pattern design was brand new to her. She brought her bold, hand-inked designs to a church craft fair, the kind of playful, personality-packed art that makes you smile the moment you see it.
Three hours later, she had sold over a thousand dollars worth of products. And then nearly another thousand came in through follow-up orders.
Nobody bought her work in spite of its hand-drawn character. They bought it because of it. That personality you're tempted to sand away is the very thing that makes a design feel special. Please stop hiding it.
Truth #3: What You're Missing Isn't Skill in Drawing, It's the Skill of the Repeat
So if it isn't talent, and it isn't the imperfection, what is actually standing between your doodle and a design someone would buy?
One skill. The repeat.
A single doodle is lovely. But it becomes sellable when you learn how to turn it into a seamless repeating pattern in Adobe Illustrator, one that can scale onto fabric, wallpaper, stationery, and more. That is the piece most women are missing. Not more talent. Not a steadier hand. The process.
Maria A. understood this. She's a watercolor artist living in a village of forty people in southern Sweden, and she was already talented long before she found me. But she didn't start by trying to turn a full painting into a repeat. She started with something simple. A few basic doodles in black pen. And she focused on learning the steps in Illustrator, the exact sequence that makes a repeat actually work.
Once those steps were in her hands, she went back to her watercolor thistle and built it into a pattern. That single painting became pillows, tea towels, tote bags, and eventually a line of linen dresses. I own one of those dresses. I've worn it a dozen times.
Her style never changed. Her reach did. All because she learned the one skill that turns a doodle into a design.
Seeing Your Doodles Clearly
So let's put the three truths together. The problem was never your talent. The imperfection you've been hiding is the very thing that makes your work worth buying. And the only real gap between where you are and where you want to be is a single, learnable skill.
Imagine looking at your own doodles the way I finally learned to look at my forehand. Not as proof of what you lack, but as the beginning of something that could genuinely be yours. Wonky flowers and all.
You were never not good enough. You were just early. And early is a wonderful place to begin.
When you look at your doodles, are you seeing a lack of talent, or are you looking at a beginning that just hasn't been given a fair chance yet?
If today's truths stirred something in you, here's a gentle next step. Grab my Doodles Workbook, a complete step-by-step guide to creating your first repeating pattern. It’s only $10 and I show you click by click, with screenshots of every step, how to learn the art of the repeat in Adobe Illustrator.
You can grab it at members.artwithanne.com/workbook.
Because taking the first step is often the moment everything starts to feel real.
xo,
Anne
It’s Never Too Late to Create®
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MEET ANNE
Hi…I’m Anne!
My creative inspiration comes from a lifetime of observation. I grew up in Paris on the Place St. Sulpice and walked to school through the Luxembourg gardens. And that was only the beginning… Learn more by watching the video on my About page.
