Every month, a group of doodlers of all abilities are invited to meet up, put pencil to paper and capture the world around them. The inaugural meeting of Oxford Doodle Club will take place at the Ashmolean. It's a fairly straightforward concept - bring a sketchbook or pencil and paper, explore the space, and let your imagination run wild as you scribble what you see - but the potential results are limitless! We've interviewed the founders of Oxford's latest artistic venture.
Who founded the Oxford Doodle Club and what was the motivation for doing so?
The group was founded by Mat Roff, an Oxford based illustrator who studied for his illustration degree at Oxford & Cherwell Valley College (now Banbury and Bicester College) and he has worked for the likes of PlayStation, Sega, Surfers Against Sewage, and Oxford based charity SpecialEffect; Laura Hope, an Oxford based illustrator, who has recently moved to Banbury has worked for the likes of Harrods, Kiehl's and Roger Vivier; and Alex Moore, a London-based illustrator who has worked for the likes of Nintendo, Wired Magazine, Nike and Uber.
The idea behind the club was inspired by Sheffield illustrator Geo Law, who set up a Doodle Club in Sheffield for two years to connect the community and offer mentorship and support to Sheffield Hallam University students in the art degree courses that he taught.
I went to their February meet up and fell in love with the concept, and that led me to considering setting a club up in Oxford, but with my own twist - to draw in venues and explore the city of Oxford itself. Not to just base it in the same spot every month.
It's also to help bring local people and creatives together, showcase their work, start collaborations, and battle mental health issues, which can be very high in the creative community due to our lifestyles and freelance careers.
Will there be themes to each event?
No, the group's content and the work they produce will be down the venues we visit.
Our first meet will be at the Ashmolean Museum which has a lot of items on display. We like the idea that we can visit the space together, but how you spend your time in the venue and what you draw is totally up to you.
But for less experienced artists or children, we'll be creating prompt sheets to help get them started as drawing in public spaces can be quite scary at first.
Who is the Oxford Doodle Club for?
It's open to everyone, no matter your age ability, or location (one of our founders lives outside of Oxford and we have a few people planning to travel up to visit the city for the first time as well), but a lot of the attendees and organisers will be people working in the creative industry, hobbyists, freelancers or students.
I will be there, as will the other founders to help people settle in and give help and advice on drawing if they need it, but this is really about having fun and not taking the work too seriously.
Any additional details?
We've teamed up with local organisations such as Populate Coop, a community owned organisation based in Oxford who plan events and projects in UK cities; as well as Creative Waffle, a creative industry podcast which talks to both national and international designers, illustrators and creatives about living and working in the creative industry.
These two sponsors will be contributing to make sure we inform attendees about local and regional design events, and keeping us topped up on merchandise and promotional materials at all of our meet ups.
In terms of where we will be visiting - we plan to visit not just the Ashmolean, but Pitt Rivers, The Museum of Natural History, The Oxford Botanical Gardens, and potentially a meet up at Blenheim Palace at Christmas too.
We want people who live, or who wish to visit and explore Oxford to have a group to tag along with who share the same artistic interests - so we will be exploring the city, other attractions and venues too.
