Tucked away in the small city of Chester in the North West of England is a brilliant little monthly drawing event called Doodleplanet. The night is held at Telford’s Warehouse a vibrant, socialable venue which is popular to many of ye local folke. Doodleplanet is hosted by Illustrator David Setter, with Matty Setter providing the bopping upbeat tunes that keeps the creative mood.

It’s been growing steady over the last 12 months so I thought I’d pop down and check it out. We got there just after the starting time of 8pm and found there were quite a few enthused doodlers who had already got stuck in. We then proceeded to the greeting desk where we were met by none other than Felt Mistress (which was a lovely suprise). People not aware of FM’s awesome creature creations – get yourself educated here! Anyway she explained the setup and we hired some lovely poscas.

We then chose one of the many high quality artboards that lay dotted around the venue and we got stuck in. Needless to say during the 2hrs we were there, lots more people turned up. And with cool art kids sitting on the floor, gathered in groups and just getting their doodle on, it had a really friendly vibe, with people admiring each other’s work. It’s people doing what they love for the cause and getting involved. It has DIY ethics and morality all over it. Plus it’s a damn nice way to spend an evening.

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a new concept. In fact I’ve been to a few similar events in Liverpool and hear of other’s in Manchester. But those always seemed quite cliquey and it seemed that as a first timer I was welcomed at Doodleplanet with open arms. I think the physical space also played a big part. It’s a fairly decent size and you can choose an artboard hung up under spotlight, grab one and sit at a table, or do what we did and sit in a corner doodling your heart out.

It was fantastic to see some of established local artists endorsing it too with their works. You can see some work from Jonathan Edwards, Julian Kimmings and Dan Berry below.

I’ll definately be going back (especially as it’s just down the road from my work), but I envisage it will continue to grow with Doodleplanet playing host to the exposure of some great upcoming artists. Do yourself a favour and get down there at the next available opportunity.

To find out when that next opportunity is you can visit the Doodleplanet facebook page! That’s where all the action is!

Julian Kimmings

Jonathan Edwards

Dan Berry

Richard Page aka UME

Here is another piece of other amazing work by someone who I unfortunately didn’t manage to catch the name of. Please do inform me if you know!

Finally, here is the result of when me and my good buddy Carl went a bit mad on some artboard ourselves.

Get yourself down there!

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