Doodling Lucy

They say Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds was inspired by a drawing John Lennon’s son made at school. There are also those who insist other things were on John’s mind when he wrote the lyrics, but the fact remains it’s a wonderful song. It was released in 1967 on the Beatle’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, which became the most successful selling album in the 1960’s. Its dream-like lyrics and powerful imagery makes it perfect for getting lost in some doodling.

Materials

• paper or doodle notebook
• pencil and eraser
• markers and/or pencil crayons

1. Start off by playing the song and reading the lyrics provided below. All sorts of images will easily form in your head and flow through your pencil. Keep in mind that the psychedelic art of the 1960’s was filled with organic shapes and vivid colours.

2. Grab a pencil and some paper and allow the song and lyrics to inspire your doodling. This can mean simply capturing a feeling the song creates, or taking it literally and including actual things mentioned in the song.

3. Once you’ve finished, you can fill your drawing in with plenty of colour using markers and/or coloured pencils. You can also skip the pencil part altogether, and begin doodling directly in your medium of choice.

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

Picture yourself in a boat on a river
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes

Cellophane flowers of yellow and green
Towering over your head
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes
And she’s gone

Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds

Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain
Where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies
Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers
That grow so incredibly high

Newspaper taxies appear on the shore
Waiting to take you away
Climb in the back with your head in the clouds
And you’re gone

Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds 

Picture yourself in a train in a station
With plasticine porters with looking glass ties
Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile
The girl with kaleidoscope eyes

Lucy in the sky with diamonds…