Another Elegant Writer Painting

I will say that this kind of art is improving my handwriting skills, something I have never been very proud of, my cursive writing when I was in school (back in the stone age) was terrible at best, and tended to change if I had to write a long page of text, slanting right, then left, if I didn't have lines to follow, the script wandered up and down and was just generally a mess.

I have been looking at hand writing fonts on my computer, but only to pick out a few letters I want to feature, I have ended up doing my own thing on most of these types of artworks.

I am still playing and experimenting with the Elegant Writer pen, I did another small picture for my niece who came out to visit over the holiday weekend with her mom (my sister) and her dad. I am pretty happy with the handwritten cursive text, I did do it lightly in pencil first, just to get the layout, then went over it with a Micron marker (03 I believe), I then erased the pencil then went back over the letters to give some weight to them.

Here is the picture, you can click on it to make it larger.

CRE8365 day 6 - Whimsical birds cuddling on a wire sketch

Today's theme is cuddle, so I made these two whimsical birds cuddling on a wire.

Doodle # 35

I did this doodle while sitting in jury duty, not actually IN jury duty, but waiting with the rest of the potential selectees, it is a monotangle of Paradox, I just started making triangle shapes, then filling them with Paradox, I left one triangle blank. It's funny, now that it's finished, I can't find the original triangle shapes, the tangle Paradox has an interesting way of blurring the original space-shape that is being filled. After drawing it in with ink, I used a graphite pencil to shade it.

I chose this tangle because I didn't have to think too much, I could just do it over and over and still pay attention to what was going on in the room. I ended up being there all day, I made it through the first 2 thinning where they cut people loose, it was at the final selection that I was cut loose, I am glad I didn't have to sit on that jury, I understand it took another 3 days, I wouldn't have minded being on a jury that only lasts a day.

I believe I was the only person who brought anything to jury duty, you couldn't take anything electronic, no cell phones, no tablets, not even a MP3 player, most of the other potential jurors were very antsy with nothing to do, they couldn't even tell what time it was without their electronic gadgets to tell them. I have one more month to be on call for jury duty, it's not a bad thing.

I used a Strathmore Visual Journal with watercolor paper in it, 5.5"X8". I used a Sakura Micron Pen in 01,  Ticonderoga pencil to shade it.

Imaginary Animals #1

I finally dug out my book on Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals by Carla Sonheim, this book is about seeing creatures in ordinary everyday things, like faces in wood-grain, critters in the clouds and such. Today I was sitting at my desk and saw this little thing sitting on the floor, even though it looks like a bug, it's really a piece of dry dead grass with some roots attached, one of the dogs must have brought it in on their fur. In this little piece of grass I could see a flea, a moth, and a bird, the only artist's prerogative I took with it was the size and the colors on it. The shape of it is pretty much as it looks.

I used a journal I just got, a Strathmore Visual Journal with watercolor paper in it, 5.5"X8". I used a Ticonderoga pencil to sketch it, then I used Sakura Koi Coloring Brush Pen and a waterbrush to give it a watercolor look and blend it. I finished it with Sakura Micron Pen in 005. I might add some highlights with a white gel pen, but for now I'm enjoying it as it is.

Christmas cards 2013 (Doodle # 17-35)

Alrighty, been super busy but wanted to make some Christmas cards, since leading the zendoodle class a few months ago, and learning that at least one of the ladies in the class were going to be making cards, I felt like I really needed to make these cards... besides, it was so fun! Any excuse to get to doodle, right?

When I started I had no idea how many I would make, it ended up being 19 (plus one that didn't get scanned, I'll explain later), I just sat down several times over a few days and got them done. First I sketched them in pencil, then inked, then some got colored pencil, or colored marker, and/or shading with pencil. I used a gold pen, a silver pen, white pen and silver sharpie marker, on the scans the silver ink comes out looking grey, that's just the nature of the beast.

I did a combination of ZIA and cutesy bears, and one cutesy dog, the dog card went to my neighbor who gave us a rescue dog (Zoe). Turned out that I had almost exactly the number of cards I needed to give to everyone, I still need to make 2 more then I'll be done. The one I didn't scan went to a friend who just lost her husband, I made that card last (of this batch) and didn't have time to scan it.

All the cards with the exception of one are 100% hand done, including the lettering, the only one that I used Photoshop on was the Noel card (on the circles and letters only), I wanted to make the letters look like they were on a spherical surface, after doing the all the hand lettering on the other cards, I know I could have done that as well. All images can be clicked on if you wish to see it larger.

  This is the only dog, and it went to my neighbor up the road who gave us Zoe.

 The lettering was colored with silver Sharpie marker, the bears are shaded with pencil.

 The inside of this card says "A Very Beary Christmas".

 The circles of the balls and the letters were done in Photoshop, all the rest of this card is hand done. I used gold and silver ink on this one.

 I had a good time doing the lettering on this one, when it's first done, it looks so messy, then when I started adding the designs and color, it really came together.

 This one I thought I would be my least favorite, and it turned out to be one of my favorites once I added color.

 I incorporated a ZIA and a realistic leaf design.

 I tried something new by putting in the scrolls, wasn't sure if I would like it or not, but it turned out just fine.

 This was my most intricate design.

 I was running out of ideas, but this still turned out pretty good.

 PB didn't get this one until I colored in the black around the bear. The letters on this are colored with silver Sharpie marker.

 I began adding doves to my designs, I like it.

 I added more doves, I shaded around the doves to make them "pop".

 Some of the letters are done in silver Sharpie marker.

 Silver Sharpie marker...

 I had a good time drawing the bears :)

 Didn't like this one until I added color, then it looked just fine.

 This is the only one I did with colored pencil, it came out OK, it is actually brighter than the scan appears to be.

Another one with silver Sharpie marker.













Altogether, I used:
White cardstock 8.5x11 folded in half
Micron liner pens, black
colored markers
silver Sharpie marker
gold, silver and white ink pen
Ticonderoga pencil

Doodle # 16

Click to enlarge the images.

This is a special doodle, it's a birthday present for a wonderful friend, she is a Halloween baby :) I was her caretaker for several years, her health is better now so she doesn't need me like she did, during the time I was her caretaker, we spent a lot of time together and we got very close, she considers me like her daughter and I consider her like a mother.

I worked on this for a couple of days, maybe 5-6 hours total, I didn't want it to get busy, I like the white space. I also debated about the shading, after deciding to do it, I am happy that I did it, it really sets off the piece.

I used something new and different (to me) to do this picture, I used tracing paper, it's almost like very thin vellum, it takes the ink very well, and it also takes graphite for shading very well. Being so thin and translucent, it does need a backing sheet of white paper in the frame to make the background look white. Even though it's thin and seems delicate, it is sturdy paper and holds up well to the ink, graphite, eraser, blending stump and all the handling it received before finally going into the frame.

I drew my design/line art in Photoshop, printed it off, then using the tracing paper for what it's best for, I traced the image in ink, then I began to add the doodles and details in ink. Once I was satisfied with the inking, I used a graphite pencil and a blending stump to add the shading.

I put this in a plain black frame, it's about 8x10, I did have to trim the tracing paper to fit.

Supplies:
01, 03, 08 Micron pens, black
black Ticonderoga graphite pencil
blending stump
Mead Academie tracing paper - medium weight - 9x12
black frame 8x10

I took it over to her house shortly after finishing it, she loved it!

Doodle # 15

This is my first entry into The Bright Owl's Zendala Dare #73, I had quite the good time with this, since the line drawing is already done, it makes it easy to just fill in the spaces, of course I say that now, I'm sure there will be a challenging one in the future :)

Click on image to see full size...

When I first saw this, this screamed for the tangle called Leaflet, that's the ONLY thing I could even consider to put in this layout. I added the flower in the center and the bubbles around the outside. I shaded it with a graphite pencil. I look forward to the next challenge!

I used:

Micron black liner 01, 03

Ticonderoga black graphite pencil

standard white printer paper

Doodle # 12 and 13

This is from the Diva's Weekly Challenge #135: New Official Tangle "Well" I did 2 variations on the challenge, you will notice I didn't scan in the unshaded version, I decided I was doing that because I was a chicken, I was afraid of messing up my original so I would scan it unshaded, print it out and shade the printed copy... I will not do that again :) The only chicken around here is the kind we eat!
I just BARELY got this one done in time, fortunately I didn't have to go anywhere today (not that going places is a bad thing!), I have the whole day to myself... IT'S DOODLE TIME!

Click on image to see full size :)

This one has these designs:
Well
Prestwood
Allium
Bulb Lantern
Sand Swirl
Screen

This was done with:
#1 and #2 Ticonderoga graphite pencil and 01 & 03 Micron Liner - Black


This one has these designs:
Well
Cayla
PIA
Paradox
Scrolled Feather
Jitterz

This was done with:
#1 and #2 Ticonderoga graphite pencil and 01 & 03 Micron Liner - Black


I had quite the good time working with this challenge, I look forward to the next one!

Doodle # 10 and # 11

This is for the Diva Challenge #134 "Beamz - by Traci F"
http://iamthedivaczt.blogspot.com/2013/09/weekly-challenge-134.html
WooHoo, I got this one in on time!

I did two of them, there will be 4 pictures here, 2 shaded and 2 unshaded (line art). I have been having so much fun with shading these doodles! Here they are, the first 2 are the ones I'm entering in the challenge, they are shaded:

These are the line art before shading of the two above...

The pattern called ensenter, I created that and I'll post a how to as soon as I can come up with it... it was the carved decoration on an antique piece of furniture I saw recently. It was the "in the center" of the decoration, thus the name ensenter.

These were done with Micron liner pens 005, 01, 02 and 03, a Ticonderoga pencil, other graphite pencils of varying softness.

Which do you like, the shaded or unshaded?

The patterns in these are
Beamz http://www.flickr.com/photos/stahnlunts/9098114407/in/photostream/ 
Waves http://tanglepatterns.com/2010/05/how-to-draw-waves.html
Ensenter (mine)
Chicken wire (haven't found a tutorial for this but know it's out there)

The strings came from here:
TanglePattern 027 http://tanglepatterns.com/2012/11/tanglepatterns-string-027.html
and
TanglePattern 005 http://tanglepatterns.com/2012/06/tanglepatterns-string-005.html

Doodle # 9

This was supposed to be for last week's Diva challenge #133, "Tipple love it or hate it", I didn't get it finished in time to officially include it in the challenge, I will add it to the list on the Diva's site for that challenge after the fact... I hope to do this week's challenge, but I don't know if I'll get one done in time either.

 

You can see two examples of TIPPLE in this image, plus
BEADLINES
a variation on
CUBINE
DIVA DANCE
ESCALATOR
FIFE
FRILLEE
HYPNOTIC
KUKE
PRINTEMPS
I included links to the site where I picked the doodles that would go within each section. The pattern in the middle that has the flowers and just below the flowers is my design.

This is my first Diva Challenge, and I'm quite happy with how it turned out. :)

This is what it looked like before I shaded it.

 

The shading is what took me so long, I had the original line drawing done in plenty of time, but didn't know if I wanted to shade it or not, I also didn't want to upload it here until I was finished with it... so I scanned the line drawing, cleaned it up a bit digitally and printed out a copy, that's what I decided to shade before working on my original, which remains unshaded. I like the line art copy that I shaded. It took me a few days to get it shaded like I wanted it, I am glad I took my time on this, this is my first "big" doodle and I am quite happy with it. I did print out a second copy, that one I will color, though honestly I'm not as "in" to the colored ones, I really like the B&W shaded ones.

I did use an eraser to clean up some edges, places where I wanted to shade but not go over into another area, I didn't worry about going over, I just shaded, smudged, blended then used the eraser to remove the shading in the area of overlap. I used a white charcoal pencil, something that sounds like an oxymoron, I have noticed it really isn't WHITE, it has a bit of a yellow tinge, you can't tell until you lay it on some white paper, not sure if I will continue using it for this.

I'm pretty happy with it, PB says he likes the line art (without shading) better... oh well, each to their own.

I used a Micron 01 and 005 black liner, a Ticonderoga #2 pencil, some softer pencils and charcoal pencils, I blended with a blending stump and Q-tips, I added just a touch of white charcoal pencil.

Unfinished doodle...

Unfinished doodle, I wanted to try my hand at paisley, I like where this one is going and will probably re-do it with a little more thought... I don't like the circle that looks like a Christmas ornament, don't have anything against Christmas, just don't care for the look here...

I used a 005 and 01 Micron pen, for the color I used watercolor pencils, straight, no water, just as colored pencils.

Doodle #8

This may or may not be finished, not sure if I will add color or shading, for now I like it just as it is.  This is the second doodle I did at my friend's house the other day, I used a compass to make the circles within circles, then I filled the circles with patterns. Some would call this a mandala, but honestly I don't care for the spiritual implications of that word, I'm a Christian and not into Buddhism or Hinduism so I'll call it a doodle in the round :)

I especially like the outside ring with the squares and the squiggles. I'll definitely be doing more of these types of doodles. :)

This was done with a 005 and a 01 Micron pen.

Doodle #7

Lot's O color! I created 2 doodles while over at a friend's house, she is one of the 2 ladies I am a caretaker for, both of my ladies are very creative, one does poetry, the other is an artist. I had been over at the artist's house. We cleared off the table and laid out a bunch of art stuff, paper, pens, markers, colored pencils and such... this was one of two that I created that day. I drew a square, then a string. I used a 01 Micron pen and Crayola Crayon markers. I am not thrilled with how these markers work, they do not play well on the paper, but it was just a fun time, nothing serious so it didn't really matter, I was just playing with the colors... maybe someday I'll have some of the higher quality markers like Copics.

Doodle #6

Random doodling, this doodle happened while I was with a friend at the hospital, she was there for a routine procedure, this procedure takes the better part of 4 hours, she slept during much of it giving me the opportunity to work on a doodle.

I have been working on "seeing" patterns everywhere I go, believe it or not, there was so little to work with in that hospital room, not even the tiles on the floor had anything I could work with.

This one started out with a series of circles, then I began dividing up the spaces inside and between the circles. I like the idea of the lines from one element following and attaching to the lines of another element, gives it some flow, some continuity.

This doodle was done with Micron 005, 01 and 03, a grey marker along with graphite pencil for the shading, I'd like to get the shading more dramatic to give it more depth and dimension. The dark grey shape in the middle was done with a grey marker, but I decided I didn't care for how dark the marker ended up, it really covered up the design in that spot. I used a template to make the circles.

Doodle #5

This was a strange one for me, it's the eye in the middle, I used to draw eyes all the time, all different sorts of eyes, human, animal and other... I need to work on incorporating eyes into my doodles better, this one is just right there in your face...

The birds and the sun are whimsical and take some of the edginess away from the eye. I don't know why or how I ended up with the squiggle going out of the square on the bottom, but I like the effect.

I like this one, colorwise, better than the previous colored one. I did this with a 005 and a 01 Micron Liner pen and colored it with Crayola colored pencils.

Doodle #4

I played around with color on this one, I drew a string then did the large pineapple looking thing, I added the hills, the houses and the circles on the bottom. I used a 01 Micron pen to do the doodles and Crayola colored pencils to do the color. I didn't color the circles at the bottom, I might go back in and do that sometime, for now though, they will remain B&W.

The houses are supposed to represent a song called "Little Boxes", it's about all of us living in little boxes made of ticky tacky, all doing the same thing... I chose to make all the houses red instead of all the colors mentioned in the song...

Doodle #3

I know I said one doodle a day, I'm trying :) This was done using a black Micron liner pen in 01 and 005, and a regular pencil.

I have to say this is my favorite one so far. I created this one while sitting outside waiting for my laundry to dry, it was a perfect day, sunny, warm with a light, cool wind, my dog Zoe was nearby laying under a tree. Since I was outside, I didn't have any reference material nearby, I had to work from memory and making it up, ie being creative! ☺

I began the doodle wanting to do more curvy or circular shapes, I started with the circles in the top section, I wanted to create the look of perspective so the circles started out large and shrunk as they moved farther away. I started to shade the circles then decided to leave them white, they look like they are rolling over hills coming toward you.

The left section is just a series of half circles, sort of like sea shells. The far right is vines with leaves on a starry background.

A few days ago I saw a picture of dogwood blossoms, I really liked the graphic shape and lines of the petals, they were perfect to include in this doodle. The bottom section is where I deviated from the round shapes, although if you look closely you will see an undulating pattern to the horizontal lines, when I look at it just right, it looks like draping fabric.

I added some pencil shading to create depth and it was finished. I have to work on working slowly, not getting in a hurry to get the pattern and image finished, it's good to enjoy the zen like qualities of drawing without worrying about getting finished on a time schedule.

Oh and FYI, I now have a light over my computer area, it's about a foot and a half from the surface of the table so it's perfect  for drawing and doodling, thanks to PB!

Doodle # 2

Here is the one I started and completed today, I have been having such a good time with these, I am working on getting them neater looking, again I blame the lighting, uggghhhh, I have GOT to get some sort of light near my computer area, even in the day it's not well lit up here... ok, enough excuses, here is my next tangle.

I'm happier with this one, it actually looks pretty good for my second attempt, it looks a lot more detailed and neat. I used my newest line markers on this one, I also added some shading with a pencil in the middle area (that design is called a "mooka").  The design in the upper left corner looks like a school of fish to me :)

I used a pencil to sketch out the string, and used my pencil to draw in some temporary lines in the upper left corner design to get the squares and inner squares more precise, the pencil lines were then erased after I drew in the designs.

A few days ago I spoke to our town librarian about this, she hadn't heard of Zentangles or anything like this, I did a quickie one on the spot to show her what they look like and how it works, she really liked it and could see the potential, we discussed possibly having a class at the library for the after school kids and even the adults, I am excited about doing it, will have to work on the structure of the class, how long it should last and what materials I will supply and what the kids will need to bring. I think this could be easily done with some printer paper, a pencil, and a thin Sharpie marker, we could also add some color with colored pencils, crayons and such.