Saturday Morning Doodle

My Saturday morning consisted of getting lost in a world of colorful, patterned mountains…or fish scales, depending on how you look at it.

It was incredibly relaxing to spend some time with a cup of tea, my little sketchbook, some markers, and absolutely no pressure to get it “right”, good, or finished.  It’s how every morning should be spent, really.

I’m hoping that this post is the first of many like it.

I want to come back to blogging – but in a very different way.  A way that’s similar to this doodle: simple, colorful, fulfilling, and most importantly – absolutely no pressure.  I am not a writer – I am just a designer that wants to share.

So, that is my newest commitment to this space.

Happy 2015 :)

A Creative February, Part 2: Completed Projects

Now then…where was I? Oh yes!

At last month’s [awesome, amazing, inspiring, super fun] Art Nite, I shared my pasta snowflakes as my project. I’m not sure what I’ll share at the next Art Nite, but I already have a handful of projects that I worked on in February, that I’d like to share with you!

First up, some India Ink swirls:

I had only used India Ink once before in college – but the assignment we used it for didn’t leave a lasting impression of how awesome it actually is. So, I decided to give it another shot and I LOVED it!

I actually set time aside over a couple of nights to sit and paint – it was so(ooooo) relaxing. It also helped to both semi-satisfy/further ignite a hankering I’ve had to get back into watercolors.

But I’m not quite done playing with India Ink yet…

…I’d like to take another crack at mountains and I was thinking that I could try painting some India Ink moths as well. That might sound strange – but I’ve always appreciated moths. I think they’re just as interesting & beautiful as butterflies, yet they don’t get the same admiration. Poor moths. I appreciate you and your grayscale color palette! :P

Next up: I combined inspiration from the flowing lines of my friend’s incredible Henna design and a pin from my 2014’s Muses board and drew this line-design feather:

Clean lines + doodles + feather = love!

While it’s not large, it took me a couple of nights to complete. My perfection obsession was annoying as usual – so I was very preoccupied with trying keep my lines smooth, steady and even. In hindsight, I don’t think the marker I used was the best choice – I’d like to try another feather with a nice ballpoint or maybe even a fountain pen.

For my final project, I actually spent an evening with an old friend: my sewing machine! We had a LOT of catching up to do – I haven’t really sewed since last Spring. Sigh. Fortunately, it didn’t take long for us to get back into a sewing groove, and in a couple of hours I sewed a reversible bandana for our dog, Misha! :)

Ironically, sewing the bandana was WAY easier than trying to get a good picture of Misha wearing it. As I mentioned, it’s very difficult to get a picture of the curious + black + puppy combination. But, thanks to plenty of natural light and a mini-photoshoot – I was successful.

The one side looks like a batik print, and the other is purple polka-dots. I made it large enough to fit over her collar – ya know, so she can rock it around the neighborhood :) I will say, while it’s not easy to get pictures of a black dog – colors really contrast off of her fur beautifully!

I have some friends that like to joke about how serious Misha always looks in photos. And it’s true – she always manages to look wistful in pictures. She’s not much of a “smiler” – but I assure you, she is one happy pup (with one awesome bandana)!

2013’s Doodles

Are you ready for some footballllllll doodllllessssssss????

Hope so! Because I’m going to share some of the doodles that I completed as part of last year’s goal: A Doodle a Day in 2013.

I’ve already admitted that my goal was a little too big and broad, so it ended up being less than successful. Oh well, goals are meant to be broken….right?? Oh wait, that’s rules. Eh – same difference.

Nevertheless – I still want to play show and tell! Let’s start with some of my favs: some simple trees and a cartoon giraffe :)

Here are some that you might’ve seen last January, when I was eager to share my awesome-goal-accomplishing-skills (ha!):

It wasn’t long before the dreaded slump began…

I helped a friend make decorations for her daughter’s birthday party. While decoration-making was super fun, it took up a lot of my time. I stopped making having time for nightly doodles, but not without making these [super-fun] animals (& some other doodles) first:

The party & decorations were such a success, that I decided to forgive myself :P

Around the same time, I started reading became obsessed with the book “Gone Girl” (sidenote: LOVVVVED the beginning and middle…didn’t care for the ending) which made it hard to get back into dedicated-doodling-time. In an attempt to combine my brief obsession with my slowly-failing goal, I decided to sketch some book cover ideas. I also played with some other typography/logo ideas:

But then – doodle-spike! My cousin Tina texted me asking for a tattoo design with the word “Ohana”. According to the movie Lilo and Stitch: “‘Ohana’ means family, family means nobody gets left behind. Or forgotten.” We love that quote :) Within an hour I had about 13 doodles done! That’s almost a half-a-month’s worth!

This was some of the funnest doodling ever :)

My cousin surprised us all at Thanksgiving with one of my designs on her foot! (The Ohana/infinity combo in the middle of the page). I’d like to get the same design too…possibly on my arm. We’ll see.

The “Ohana” doodles rejuvenated my desire to doodle more. I realized that nightly doodles would be easier if I focused on something. I needed a muse. So, I chose one of my favorite animals: owls! To make it even easier – I started each owl by tracing a coin. From there I just had to doodle up some personality!

Ironically, these owl doodles led to my next “slump”. Well – it wasn’t really a slump – I was still doodling – but I was just hyper-focused on one masterpiece of a doodle. Circles + owls + COLOR!

I used a circle template to make all different sized circles, and then colored specific cross sections to make my owl and the moon. I ended up working on this “glorified doodle” for weeks. But, I’m pretty happy with the end result :)

Ironically, this piece truly was the beginning of the end. After working on this, I wanted to take a break…which turned into a 6 month break. Ha! I mean, sure – I still doodled in the margins of my notebooks, but I stopped devoting specific time to doodling.

Hey – at least I went out with a bang!

While I was looking through my sketchbooks for this post, I found 2 sketches that I did back in 2012. Obviously they’re not part of last year’s goal – but I want to share them here anyway:

Rehashing the flaws of last year’s goal has given me some ideas on improvements for this year’s goals, so I’ll be tweaking that list a bit over the next couple of days.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Practice makes perfect…

…and I love perfect. Ironically, one of my goals with doodling everyday in 2013 is to combat my perfectionist tendencies. Striving for perfection is one thing, but avoiding art just because it might not be flawless – that’s just a waste of creative opportunities!

As part of my commitment to doodle more – I’m also making an effort to broaden and improve my illustration subject matter. Drawing patterns is fun and all, but like swirls – they’re low hanging fruit for me. I want to get better at freehanding actual things, like people, animals and trees.

Conveniently enough, opportunity came knocking (well, texting) a couple of weeks ago. My friend Stacy is throwing a farm themed birthday party for her 2 year old, and requested help with crafty decorations. Come up with some friendly little farm animals? Don’t mind if I do!

Fat and friendly farm animals: the perfect muse!

I realize Old McDonald didn’t have a giraffe – but they’re my favorite animals, so I drew one for fun :)

As I’ve mentioned before – I’d like to write and illustrate a series of children’s books one day. One minor problem: I stink at drawing people! To try and break this self-fulfilling prophecy, a couple of years ago I bought an instructional book on character design, along with a large sketchbook dedicated to all of the characters I was going to draw. Unfortunately, aside from an initial whack at characters, my sketchbook didn’t get filled as quickly as I had imagined.

Thankfully, my barnyard friends rekindled my interest – so I blew the dust off of my character design book and tried again over the weekend:

For now, I started with just faces (baby steps), except for the gorilla – he was actually the result of mistake fixes :P

Before I work my way up to the cast of characters that will make up my children’s books – I’d really like to come up with a signature character that I can draw anywhere, doing anything, on a whim. Instead of swirls in the margins of my notebook, this friendly character will be there playing with a yo-yo or doing a handstand. I think that developing a go-to character will be good practice to learn how to express different actions and emotions.

Coming soon to a Sandbox near you: Throwback Thursday!!

At the request of my Mom (my blog’s unofficial Public Relations Director) – I’m going to start featuring various projects, that I’ve completed over the past couple of years, here. I’ve dabbled in all sorts of arenas: clay, jewelry-making, stop-motion videos, painting… so why not share all the creative goodness that those projects entailed?

I can’t commit to every Thursday – I really just needed a catchy name to serve as both motivation for me, and enticement for you. But, I’ve already got my first throwback project planned and ready to go! So, check in this Thursday and take a nostalgic trip down Creativity Lane with me :)

A Doodle a Day in 2013

That’s the goal! One doodle, every single day, in 2013.

That’s 365 opportunities not only to be creative, but also to improve my illustration style, AND (most importantly) get over my perfectionism. A doodle (or sketch) a day will help make me a more confident freehand artist, as well as give me a daily opportunity to explore different illustration styles.

I used to draw all the time – and my drawing portfolio is what got me accepted into the Graphic Design program at York College. But nowadays I never sit and sketch, and if I doodle – I typically stick to my default: swirls. They’re my obsession favorite thing to doodle – I love the fluidity and smoothness of every single little loop…

Swirls: a tell-tale sign that Amy was here (and bored :P).

Swirls are fine and all, but they’re really just a security blanket. I draw them because they’re fun and easy. I avoid drawing other things because there’s a chance it won’t look clean, or balanced…or perfect.

I think a doodle a day is the solution to this avoidance issue – coming up with something new to draw everyday will push me out of my swirl-comfort zone. Plus, it will also give me more to share here! There are no promises of grandeur (or perfection) – I’m just playing around – but I’m happy to share that, so far, I’ve got a good collection of doodles:

One last thing: I had an epiphany the other day while buying fabric to make another rice and lavender heating pad….I’m going to write a tutorial! I’ve been able to create so many awesome things based on tutorials that I’ve come across that I think it would only be right for my blog-karma to return the favor. So, it’s out there now…and once it’s written on the blog, I have to do it! Stay tuned :)