Seven Trees

Last night's impressionistic painting was based on a doodle I did on the train coming home yesterday. It was scenery I saw along the tracks between Simi Valley and Chatsworth.

Snakehead

Another face.  I never know what is lurking in my creative mind.

Doodled Border

Ballpoint Pen on notebook paper

A border design I could use on stationary, a painting, or to frame a photo.

Friday and Saturday's Doodles

I just scanned Friday and Saturday's Doodles. Where does the time go?

Saturday's Doodle '4 Stars'

Friday's Doodle

This was another Lab from my Drawing book by Carla Sonheim.  I believe it's called Doodling on Steroids.  You pick 10 or 12 different drawing utensils and keep drawing until the paper is full.  Finally my sketchbooks are starting to look like the ones I've admired all these years.

Drawing Tools Used:
Black Sharpie
Old Green Felt Marker
Red and Purple Prismacolor Pencils
Silver Metallic Marker
Pencil
Blue Ballpoint Pen
Gold glitter gel pen (clear with gold flecks)
White gel pen
Double pointed green Sharpie marker

Frosty Lurking

This is what happens when I'm randomly doodling and a news clip comes on TV of the police knocking down a guy in a Frosty the Snowman costume.

This started out as a doodle, but then I just couldn't stop.  Then I thought it would look better with a watercolor wash. In this exercise, you pick 10 or 12 different drawing implements like pens, crayons, markers, pencils and so on, and use each one of them somewhere.  This forces you to break out of your comfort zone and you end up using nontraditional colors in places.

Trees and Cats

I got up early and went into doodle mode. I find that what I see in my environment sometimes ends up in my doodles.  Yesterday I took a photo of a tree that reminded me of Van Gogh's italian cypress trees, and my version ended up in a doodle, but I didn't put it all together in my mind until a few hours later. And now that I've written this I realize that just a few days ago I was telling my boyfriend about a man I used to visit as a child that had big old cypress trees that made a giant fence around his backyard.  And now I remember my parents also planted a row of them when I was a teenager along our driveway in Sunnymead CA.

Yesterday I drew a series of cats inspired by my new drawing book. Normally I wouldn't have thought to doodle using a giant red marker, but I've been more open-minded after getting that book. Here are two of my favorite cat doodles.

Busy Saturday in LaVerne CA

I took my sketchbooks to the SCA event today, so they are still out in the truck. I'll have to post the last few doodles tomorrow. Right now I need to rest and relax. The booth did well today. We even sold a gourd drum. And more arrows. And beeswax. And I got a painting finished. Excellent.

The Hunt 11/365

In this exercise you start at the center of the mass you are drawing and work your way to the outside, so in a way it's the opposite of contour drawing. Ballpoint pen on Daler Rowney Simply Sketchbook.

Oil Pastel Eye and Heart Doodle 10/365

My Cat 9/365

Doodle 7 and 8 of 365

Trying out interesting shapes for a painting I'm doing today and tomorrow.

One of the men I was watching on a cam.  He ignored me completely but at least I got a drawing out of it.

Artistic Happy Accident

I drew this sketch on a random piece of paper.  Then I scanned it for my blog.  Only then did I realize the trees from the background bled through in an interesting way, and the paper says 'dream' at the bottom.

Maid Marion 6/365

Yesterday I went to see a play called Robin Hood and the White Arrow.  So when I got home I did a doodle of the beautiful Maid Marion.  I wish I'd gotten a photo of her. I had to do it from memory.

Our friend Eric played the King's archer

Madrigal Singers lead the audience to the play.

I didn't even know Westminster, CA had a community theater

My doodle of Maid Marion

Doodle 5/365 robot clock weathervane

Ballpoint Pen on Index card

Robot with a clock and a weather vane. 

Cock-a-doodle Doodle 4/365

Today I made a watercolor stick 'doodle' on my painting, and then painted over it. Remember your doodles can lead to bigger and more impressive works of art. Keep them handy for reference materials.

Connect Dots 3/365

I read about surrealistic drawing techniques and one of them was to make random dots on the page, then connect them with either straight or curved lines. I used all straight lines in mine, though if the dots were close enough together, it does look like a curve.

Pumpkin 2/365

I decided to do a paint doodle.  Now I am not sure if it counts as a doodle at all. Wikipedia has a pretty limited definition of what a doodle is. It says a doodle is something you draw while being distracted by something else.  Like talking on the phone while randomly scribbling on a notepad. Once I become aware that I am drawing, is it no longer doodling?
I thought it would be boring if all my doodles were done with pencil or pen on white paper, so I was trying to mix it up a bit.

My Doodle A Day Project

Day One of 365
Looks a lot like a Ferris wheel.

Chef With Big Hat

Maybe I'll put my best chefs on some fabric.

A Pathway and Eye Notes

Pathway (Sharpie marker on Sketchpad)

Eye Notes (Crayon on Sketchbook paper)

I was looking at the first version I uploaded on my monitor,
and I realized that the purple scribble looked an awful lot like
a butterfly, so I had to add it in.

Burlesque Illustration and Guy

Four Eyed Monster

Sharpie on Sketchpad

Red Chef

3 Chefs and a Girl

After watching a cooking show where the chef kept saying, "There are no rules in cooking", I decided to draw a chef.  I was also watching America's Next Top Model, and realized that Allison often looks like Alice in Wonderland, so I drew her as "Allison in Wonderland."

Sharpie marker on large index cards. Click on the photo so you can enlarge it.
This drawing urge was inspired by flipping through this book: Drawing Lab

Imaginary Garden in Ink and Crayon

I spent two days working on this and I think I'll get it printed on some fabric.

Cartoon Cat Cut Out

Crayons and Sharpie Marker on Calligraphy Paper

I was drawing along with one of those TV drawing programs.  Even as an experienced artist I couldn't keep up with the pace of that guy.  So I know the head was like he drew, but the show was over before I could draw the body.  The first attempt was low on the paper, and this one overlapped that one, so it didn't look very good.  Then I had the idea to cut around the good one, and that way I could use it as a cut-out.  So here it is laying on some paper. 

I wanted to send it off to my grandson so I made a simple card and cut slots for the ears and feet. I popped it into the slots and now he can take it out and play with it.

Halloween Drawings Skull and Witch

These really took me too long for me to consider them doodles. But maybe they will inspire others to doodle today. The top one is ballpoint pen on calligraphy paper, and the witch is done in crayons on calligraphy paper.

Carved Alphabet

If you are not afraid to use a dark pencil or a pen to draw on plastic erasers, you can carve your own stamps. Here is an alphabet I carved. Just remember to draw the letters backwards or transfer them on with graphite paper. I like the freshness of drawing straight onto the carving material. But if you are timid there are other transfer methods.

Once you put your drawings onto stamps,  you can share them with everyone.  Stamp them on stickers, fabric, playing cards, art cards, mirrors, leather, or ornaments.

From the Sketchbook

I was going through one of my old sketchbooks and ran across some characters I'd drawn for Rowan's World.  And I found a few other random things so I thought I'd share.

The funny thing about sketchbooks is that they work a lot better when you use them.