Umbrella doodles is a mindful drawing workshop that encourages you to stop, look and draw from your surroundings; tracing what you see through a transparent umbrella with colour and lines.

 

I launched 'Umbrella doodles' 6 years ago and it has been a huge success in Manchester and across the North West. This walking & drawing workshop encourages children, students and adults to look at their environments more closely, recording Architecture, Nature, Geography and History onto an umbrella to create a unique sketchbook of their journey, that can be taken home and used.

 

Umbrella doodles has taken place in a variety of settings (parks, cities, canals and canal boats, nature reserves). Local councils (Manchester, Salford City and Trafford) have used Umbrella doodles to support Health and Wellbeing walks in collaboration with Metrolink Transport. Manchester Metropolitan University use Umbrella doodles to introduce foreign students to the city. And organisations, such as, Creative Tourists and Manchester Museum of Science have hired me for numerous events since it’s creation.

The event is always really popular and I love running it, I haven't heard of any similar idea and believe that it’s an original concept.

 

You can read a testimonal on Umbrella doodles here, by participant Susie Stubbs, Dir. of Modern Designers, UK.

 

Below is a marketing video made by Manchester Metropolitan University and Culture Club, it records an Umbrella doodles event I ran with the University from 2014-16.