Kina Stringfellow, AGMF Historian
March 24, 2026 Guest Speaker: Cheryl Anderson, The Dotting Chick
Once our Guild members got settled in their seats, Cheryl, The Dotting Chick got this polka-dot party started! Beautifully packaged kits included all the dotting tools one would need at their disposal:
- A stencil
- A plastic palette – although, we used the paint bottle caps as an ink well
- Q-tips (read: erasers)
- Glass rods and styluses of varying sizes.
With smocks donned, plates were picked along with self-selected tri-color paint preferences. And the dip-dot-dip-dotting commenced.
The first 45-minutes were a workshop to familiarize attendees with the tools and their uses. Styluses were put into play to create the small dot (a dotting staple), the swoosh (a small dot with flare and swagger), and the ‘walking dot’ ( a series of dots in superlative sizes that can be placed in close proximity around larger dots in single, double or triplicate rows). Rods were employed to create larger, central dots, and needed a bit more control. Rods required more paint and flat contact with the paper, both of which needed to be controlled as the excess paint tends to pull the paper up with the rod. Stencils were chalked or penciled on the plate to provide guidelines. With heads bent, our attendees were engrossed, studiously placing their dots on their plate with precision and care.
Dotting is often enjoyed for its meditative qualities. Dotting is also a great example of ‘practice making one more perfect.’ Placement and spacing are key elements of these mandala-like designs. Skills required for the desired effects of dotting include:
- Redipping the tool before each new dot (except for the walking dot and the diminishing paint on the tool creates the shrinking size in this pattern). Be careful to dip your tool back in the correct color lest you add an anomaly to your pattern.
- Dotting with a consistent amount of paint, placement, and pressure.
Cheryl has been providing workshops at The Art Lounge in Menomonee Falls for the past three years. She got into dotting once she had retired from a career in hairstyling. After completing a bucket list of things she thought would be very interesting to do, she found herself bored and wanting a new challenge. On a whim, she purchased a paint dotting kit from Amazon, and the rest is history! Cheryl is dedicated, doting, and determined to help her students dive into dotting. If you ever have a chance to take a class with her, you’ll be sure to walk away with a smile and a groovy little gift that you made, one dab and dot at a time!
