Let’s Chat!

Two New Ways to Connect

Getting to know our audience is the greatest benefit to using the Substack platform.

When our audience uses the platform, it’s easy. We can follow each other’s notes and connect nearly every day. (👋Hi friends!)

However, Substack Notes is limited to getting to know only those who are actively scrolling and posting.

In today’s post, we will share two new ways we can get to know one another.

We hope these ways of connection provide us all with inspiration, encouragement, and good ol’ human-to-human fun.

We are a mother-and-son illustration team. Our drawings are hand-drawn and traced in the computer. Our goal is to help Substackers illustrate their publications with fun and simple drawings. We’re trying to restore the human creativity that is being lost from the progression of technology and AI.

Our Chat is OPEN!

We are opening our chat for two new themes.

1. Question of the WEEK (Tuesdays)

2. Show N’ Tell (Thursday)

Through these new weekly threads, we invite you to drop in and say hi, share about yourself, comment, and get to know others who care about human-made art.

Question of the WEEK

On Tuesdays, we will ask a Question of the WEEK. Some questions will be just for fun. Other questions will help us navigate the AJ Doodles journey as we value the input of our audience.

You can expect questions like…

• What did you have for breakfast this morning?

• Are you writing a book?

• What publications would you recommend for art inspiration?

Your answers will help us get to know your preferences. They may inspire a new doodle-art page of breakfast foods or something.

This is simply a time to get to know one another. We won’t sell your information or betray your trust. We want to connect and have fun with others who want to do the same.

Question of the WEEK Thread Guidelines

Do…

• Answer the question asked.

• Engage and encourage others.

• Keep conversation positive.

• Keep it clean. This is a family-friendly space.

Don’t…

• Vent or complain—it’s a break from that.

• Go way off topic.

Show N’ Tell

Remember picking something for Show N’ Tell? Well, through our chat, we invite you to a weekly Show N’ Tell.

The theme is visual art—anything you have created (or are creating).

So, you can share...

• A picture of a painting you are working on and tell us about it.

• A photograph that you took and tell us about it.

• A picture of a cake you made and decorated. Tell us about the celebration for which you made it.

• Some doodles from your notebook or from one of our doodle tutorials.

• Graphic designs that you worked on and tell us about the process.

• Something made by someone in your family—your spouse, your kids, etc.

• A picture of a snowman, sandcastle, mosaic, knitted-sweater, coffee drink, embroidery, birdhouse, bread, cardboard creation, cartoon character, cupcake, featured image, etc.

If you made it, we’d love to see it in this space.

When you tell, you are welcome to share anything related to your image. You can tell about your creative process or a memory associated with your visual.

This is time to reflect on your creative journey and get to know others in the process. It’s about inspiration and connection.

Show N’ Tell Thread Guidelines

Do...

• Share 1 visual per week. We want everyone to have their work seen. We don’t want the chat overloaded.

• Tell us something short about your visual, your process, what it’s for, and why it’s meaningful.

• Include a link for more information if you like. For example, if you wrote a poem that goes with the visual, share the visual and the link to the poem for anyone interested.

• Engage with others and keep the conversation positive.

• Keep it clean. Remember it is a family-friendly space.

Don’t…

• Use this space to directly promote anything not related to your visual. This is not a space for free advertising.

• Add more than one visual per week; you can always post another image next week.

• Make negative comments or complaints. Again, this chat is a fun and encouraging space.

Through this chat, we hope to provide a meet-and-greet for creatives. It’s a place to be human. To have a laugh, tell a joke, and make people smile.

If you’re connecting and want to get to know someone better, we encourage you to check out their publications. Who knows what doors could open for all of us as we share our creative journey intentionally?

That’s it for today.

We hope to see you in the chat.

Can’t wait to see what you share!

Amy and Justin