Mandela Memory

The nice thing about making these mandelas is….you don’t have to have a memory.



All you need is a compass to draw the circles and many markers!



I forgot how much I relax and enjoy coloring in these mandelas.  The hardest part is deciding on the design.



I have to purposefully bring in the purples and the maroons cuz those aren’t my “go to” colors.





Just plain fun!  I reinforced the black lines to help define the shapes better.  I can’t believe it’s been a year since I did my mandela series

• Circle Mandelas
• Mandela Mania
• Many More Mandelas

….not going to wait that long next time….Haha

5th Set of Doodle Directory….on Sale in etsy

                 “S” is for SALE!!

Sometimes it’s a hard choice….do I doodle my alphabet or do I doodle my directory???



I was running out of doodle ideas until I read this comment from jinxxxygirl (thank you Deb)

6 There are so many doodles out there waiting to be put to paper that your doodle directory could be never ending!
on this post.  And I realized she was right!

In honor of this 5th set being released, I thought I should have a sale.  Now until June 4th, you can get my Doodle Directory prints for 33% off.  

Pricing List:

• 1 Set-   $8.99   (10 prints)  Sale $5.93
• 5 Sets- $24.99  (50 prints) Sale $16.50

Use Coupon Code DOODLE33 when you check out at my ETSY store and you’ll get the sale price plus shipping and handling.

Have a safe and Happy Memorial Day :D

Doodle Directory….Set 5

I completed Set 4 three months ago.  Wow!  That means this group of ten prints took me as long to complete.  Well, I must confess, I didn’t really work on it much, just between projects and all. 

Lots of pictures coming, be FOREWARNED.  Above is print 41.



Next, Print 42.



Here’s 43….



Then there’s 44….



And now Print 45….



Can’t leave out #46.



Some of my favorite designs here in Print 47.



Some visual interest in #48.



#49….the monitor in the background definitely did not hold its true colors in this picture.



And last…but not least….Number 50!

These will be available in my etsy shop as soon as I get my act together.  I’ll let you know.

Facing Forward…in Incognito…..FINAL

Finally got to my favorite part!  Yep, drawing in this background.  I totally love doing this part, because I could unplug the ‘noggin.  LOL!!  I think those colorful pebble squares work here, too.  But not everyone around me agrees.  My dear teen daughter told me that this picture was “way too busy”, but what does she know?  HaHa,  I usually listen to her though, because she’s got a good eye.  That’s ok,  I’ll survive,  we are all entitled to our own opinions.  Plus, I’m  all about color and she’s not.



I am loving how my friend in blue turned out.  She’s a lady with class and I hope she likes my representation.  However, in the original picture she tilted her head to the left, and I’ve drawn it tilted to the right, which makes me wonder just what I’m seeing!!!  Ah, well!



Just an early stage of the background part.  I am planning on fixing the yellow-biker-chics eyes because she’s so much prettier than I made her out to be.



Learned a lot with this drawing. 

1. Sometimes less is more (less pencil marks for the eyes and things)
2. When you are stuck on a dimension of a person…..walk away from it for awhile, preferably overnight.  If you don’t have that much time, ask someone to look at it with you.  Their fresh eyes will give you the needed adjustment.   (I do this A LOT!)
3. Take the things you like or can do from a picture and EMBELLISH it anyway you want….It’s allowed, really! 
4. Not everyone will like my version of the picture, and that’s OK. 

Thanks for all your EnCoUrAgEmEnT and kind Comments you’ve left along the way here.  They really keep me on task, and I appreciate each and every comment you leave!

A Dancer……Facing Forward

Well, I got permission from the photographer (Tilak Haria on flickr) to post this picture on here, but he disabled downloading. So the only thing I could think of was to take a picture of my monitor. Which doesn’t do the picture justice, please click over to the original to see it much better. It’s no wonder he disabled downloading with over 2000 views and over 75 people calling it a Favorite on flickr, I would too.

What drew me to this Dancer was the colors of her dress. Ahhhh, such beauty. But I kept it simple and just colored in the dress my way…..Remember the sketchbook has to be completed by January, so had to speed things up a bit……plus didn’t think I could draw in all that detail anyway.

Still in my contour drawing mode because you gotta start somewhere and it allows me to use the drawing like I would a coloring book.

I don’t know if the watercolor pencils were the right choice for these parts of the dress. I thought they’d show more contour and shading, did not pull that off.

Markers are so much more predictable. In other words, I’m so much more comfortable with the markers versus the pencils.

The face of the actual dancer is so much prettier than this simple one. I only noticed after I outlined her lips that they are not centered….. Shoot!

The cool thing about her dress is the way it was partitioned off. Which allowed me freedom to doodle or zentangle in those striped areas anyway I pleased.

I got the idea from Rebecca at DaisyDolls Gypsy Caravan to use the music symbols in the background. She had zentangled some faces where she used music notes….I thought it was Brilliant! Since, I don’t know how to read music please forgive me if this is all gibberish!

All-in-All she was a lot of fun to draw.

Whew, that’s page 5 complete!

Foot fetish???? Hmmmmm….

Actually…..it’s more like a Sock Fetish! And I’m not the only one, my daughter inherited it as well! I ransacked her sock drawer yesterday because I needed a striped sock. And look at all the goodies I found. It’s 95 degrees outside and I haven’t seen her wear any of these socks in months, possibly years. I don’t think she’ll notice they’re missing. If this were my sock collection, I’d have less pink and purple and way more reds,greens, and yellows….but that’s just me. Unfortunately, I’ve since grown out of my sock-mania- obsession.

As I said, I was looking for a striped sock, because I wanted stripes in my drawing not the funky pattern from the socks on the monitor. (Using creative license once again, to make things easier on me by replacing original sock pattern with stripes. Otherwise, I’d throw in the towel and be done with it). I must say, it’s a tad hard to draw in this position. Glad I was only concerned with the stripes at the heel though.

Made the stripes the colors I wanted, because it’s allowed (you know with that creative license et al). And for some reason, I can never remember the order of the Rainbow colors. Never!! If someone knows a pneumonic or rhyme to help….please share!

If you’re wondering what I used…..markers or watercolor pencils???? This was done with the watercolor pencils! Aren’t these colors vibrant? I am really impressed! At first, whenever I thought of watercolors, I always thought of those subtle, light, pastel colors….which I have to admit is a bit of a turn-off. But these colors, wow… they rock! Really! Very simple drawing, not much shading, cuz I don’t know how to do that with the watercolor pencils. Just a bit of highlighting, cuz I don’t know what I’m doing. Basically what this drawing was good for, was CONTOUR drawing. You know, getting the correct shape down on paper.

Again, I used my C-L (creative license) to make the socks longer, hence giving me more stripes to color in!! Ahhhh, pure heaven for the simple minded!

Craving Color

I’ve missed my markers! What can I tell you? It’s two steps forward and then one step back here. My steps forward were actually using Graphite Pencils, my step back was running back to my marker stash first chance I got. Gotta have my color. My pretties! Pictured above are my Faber-Castell Brush tip markers! Love their vibrancy, their energy!

There’s not much that makes me happier than outlining with the standard black Indian Ink Faber-Castell PITT pens! I can trust them to do the job.

I don’t use the Sharpie Poster Paints as much as I’d like. I tend to forget I have them. As you can see they are of the broader variety. A bit chunky to carry around in my little marker-case.

Talk about versatile! These Sakura Microns fit the bill. They have all sizes of nibs and a decent selection of colors. I only wish they sold them individually where I live because I tend to use one over and over. When the ink runs out I have to buy the whole set for just one replacement marker. I’ve only been in a few Art Stores that have their inventory set up to purchase these singly.

Sharpie Ultra Fine Points…..they do everything and everyone has some. They are cheap and reliable. What more could I want?

Bic Mark-its are another inexpensive & dependable marker. Staples will sell these individually but it’s not the ultra fine nib which I always prefer! Maybe someday they will.

Here’s my little doodle’d Art Journal page for the day. A Mental Health Exercise!

Please tell me of other markers that you prefer. I’ve only got one COPIC marker, does anyone use these regularly? Are they worth the money?

Doodles upon Doodles….

I bet your wondering what these are? They are…. my Doodle dictionary pages printed out as a jpg from Walgreens. There’s 14 prints in all. The only problem is the moleskine is a 5x8 and the prints are 4x6, so there’s a bit of a cut-off factor. For the most part, I can see all the different designs when I pull these out for inspiration. So, they work.

I thought the prints looked pretty cool all together. This includes Set 1, Set 2, Set 3 and this present set.

A little doodle fan for ya!

The Stripe Strips piece was inspired by this image at Flickr.

What a relaxing way to clear the head…..doodling aimlessly….actually it requires a little more forethought than that or else I’d be just coloring checkerboards, that’s why I made my own directory. Browsing the flickr groups helps me get ideas. What works for you?

A Bird in his right mind….

Clarence- the Creative Cashier ….He’s definitely in his Right-brain, and he has been all his life. Funny, that with a name like Clarence you’d think he’d be a big time Lawyer, just like his Dad. But Clarence works as a cashier at the Art Store, where he’s a big help to his customers. He knows every type of art media and is very forthcoming with advice. He’s quite the asset! He’s very bright and has lots of ideas, his only problem is he can’t stay on task. He becomes too distracted. As a free spirit, this job is perfect for him. Once he can harness some self-discipline he’ll really make something of himself. …..I’m just saying

Are you tired of my birdies yet???? I’ve finally found a real-life art class, so hopefully I can put a little more variety into the next bird. I must admit, they are fun to draw and to hear about their little lives. I’m enjoying the slow-journaling I learned from Tammy (@ Daisy Yellow) when I write on my paper. Otherwise, my handwriting would be quite sloppy!

In case you’ve missed it, I’d like to introduce my little bird family.

• Billie Jean, Cleopatra, Andre, Suzie, Martha & Renee
• Olga
• Sheila
• Easter Birdie
• Patty
• Terri
• Diane
• Susie
• Regina
• Penny
• Amy
• Leo

I just realized I’ve drawn 18 of these guys! Eighteen!!…. and I’m not bored with them yet, highly unusual! But like I said, they have taken on a life of their own and are asking to be created or something like that! LOL!!

To be no one but yourself in a world which is doing it’s best to make you just like everybody else, means to fight the greatest battle there is or ever will be. - e.e. cummings

I’ve always loved this quote, because I find it so true. Really, how boring would the world be if we all thought the same, looked the same, did the same things? I try to limit my TV viewing, because after a couple of hours watching the boob-tube I feel like I have to be more like “her” or “her”. Visiting other countries or cities is such a good experience, it enhances our perspective on ways to live. All cultures have their norms, but freedom of expression is pretty cross-cultural, don’t you think?

Freedom of Expression……this is what ART is all about. We really don’t have to sketch the house with the straight lines, do we?…..we can put our own spin on it and do a less straight line version like this. We get to decide what colors we want to use as we draw or paint. We can choose to be more playful and draw a whimsical character or try our hand at something more life-like. Ahhh, the choices, the possibilities!! Endless!