Doodle 092 - Happy Halloween!

We are 3 months in and I am very proud to say not a single day has been skipped so far, hurray!

I hope that those of you who celebrate Halloween are having a good holiday, I had a lot of fun today!

First, here is what I drew today:

Happy Halloween! - blue and black mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox. 15 mins.

It is a steampunk witch on her way to the All Hallows Eve ball!

And now for a treat for anybody who has asked me for prints of my work:

The Drawing Saudade Red Bubble Shop is now open! Go here to check it out.

Right now I only have 4 pieces up, mostly because I still need to scan and format other doodles, if you have any requests for any of my pasts doodles, please let me know in the comments and I'll do my best to get them up on the site as soon as I can.

Doodle 091 - Valkyrie and Elf

I have been working on setting up a store for everybody that has been asking about purchasing prints. I asked a friend who is an illustrator about where she would recommend I set up shop.

She pointed me in the right direction and I am happy to say I'll probably have something up and running either by the end of this week or just in time for the 100th doodle giveaway. Yay!

Hopefully once it is set up and orders go out the finished product looks good and you guys are happy with it. Also, I am trying to keep the drawings as close to the original as possible, very minor edits so the levels are right.

Anyway, I'll make sure to let everybody know when I get my shop set up and ready.

Since I was poking around with that project I ended up just doing 2 very quick doodles:

Elf costume design sketch - blue and black mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 10 mins.

 I wanted to try and draw an outfit, this is what came out.

Valkyrie - blue and black mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 5 mins.

Then I just drew very quick lines and a nebulous Valkyrie emerged.

OK I am off to tweak some more stuff and then bed. :)

Doodle 090 - Bonus Interactive Friday doodles!

As promised, today I drew the last three combos you guys provided me. These took a little longer, but as drew more and more combos it became easier for me to imagine how I would mesh the animals in more interesting ways.

 Mrsblocko said: "Lilies tigers and giraffes!"

Giraiger Lilly - red and black mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 20 mins

 The Giraiger Lilly is an omnivore that lives in the savannah, its long neck allows it to eat the sweetest and softest of leaves from trees and it can also hunt for birds.

AppleCore said: "I hope I'm not too late. How about an aloe vera plant, a hedgehog, and a goat? Sounds fun."

Aloe Hedgegoat - red and black mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 20 mins.

 The Aloe Hedgegoat is a domesticated medium sized animal/plant , it produces aloe that can be harvested and nectar instead of milk. It is known for being able to jump large heights and distances, so keeping them corralled can be difficult for inexperienced farmers.

And finally JessJess said: "A cheetah, owl, and lotus flower :)"
 

Lotus Cheetowl - red and black mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 15 mins.

 The Lotus Cheetowl uses its sharp night vision to hunt. It can also swim and float in the water to hide or fish. This animal is also an incredibly fast runner, some of them have been successfully domesticated and used as hunting companions.

Doodle 89 - Plants and animals interactive Friday (Part 2)

I had tons of fun drawing your suggestions this week, at times I would read the combos and wonder how on earth would I make that work LOL.

I drew most of the suggestions and have 3 left, since they all sound equally awesome I'll just finish those 3 tomorrow, so hang on tight for a bonus interactive post.

Maria said: "could you try doing something with a hamster, catfish, and an eggplant :3"

Eggplant Hamkoi - red and black mecnahical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 15 mins.

The Eggplant Hamkoi is a variety of pet fish that  thrives on garden ponds or aquariums. It is purple with different purple hue spots over its body.

Sarah said: "Can I just pick one of each? A peony and a butterfly. If you must have three...throw a kitten in there, too."

Peony Kittenfly - red and black mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 15 mins.

 This species of kittenfly gets its peony name thanks to its wings which look like peony petals in bloom. This variety of kittenfly is medium sized and uses its tail to secure itself to flower stems while napping and sunbathing.

Melissa said: "hydrangea, elephant and a tortoise :)"

hydrangeaphant tortoise - red, blue and black mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 20 mins.

 This hydrangeaphant (say that 6 times fast), has a shell, similar to a tortoise's, it blooms during the spring and summer months.

Suzanna said:  "An Orchid, a cockatoo and a Koi fish. :3"

Cockakoi Orchid - red and black mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 15 mins.

 This type of Cockakoi lives deep in the rain forest. It thrives in the humid, hot weather and lives part time between the water and perched atop the trees.

And finally for today, Charissa said: "An oak tree, an otter and a tiger!"

Ottiger Oak - red, green and black mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 15 mins.

The Ottiger Oak lives in forests with abundance of rivers and ponds, it blends in with the foliage, the leaves on its back change color with the season and fall off during the fall so the ottiger can grow extra fur for the cold.

Doodle 088 - Plants and animals interactive Friday (Part 1)

As always, you guys rose up to the challenge and gave me amazing combos to work with. I gotta admit my brain had a work out today and tomorrow I'll try and get many more done because they all sound so fun!

I was outside most of the day, aaand then I came home and decided to play Dishonored for a little bit... a "little bit" turned into 3 hours, seriously, that game is nearly as addictive as Skyrim, hehehe, anyway, I had to peel myself off the controller and draw.

First we have Marebabe: "I've thought it over. Try a whale, a dragonfly, and a palm tree."

Flying Whalepalm - non photo blue pencil, red and black mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 15 mins

This flying whalepalm lives in the sea, but comes up to the surface and flies around during the day in intervals to let its palms absorb sunlight. These animals are actually rather small, about the side of your hand.

Next is tracie: "I think a tiger, a panda and a daisy has some potential!"

Panger Daisy - non photo blue pencil, green and black mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 15 mins.

This animal/plant hybrid requires some shade and needs to be watered and played with often for optimal growth and health.

And finally for today judi: "A penguin, a chipmunk and a water lily?"

Water Lily Chipguin - non-photo blue pencil and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 20 mins.

 This animal/plant lives in ponds, it is a very good swimmer and can dig itself into the mud for safety and warmth. During the day it swims around the pond and uses the Lily on its head for camouflage and photosynthesis.

Doodle 087 - Fairy and Friday's Interactive Theme!

I have been video chatting with my nieces, so between that I managed to doodle this:

Fairy (from photo reference) - green and black mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 15 mins.

And now for this week's theme!

Take any 2 animals and a plant and I'll try my best to create characters out of each combo.

I will also be working on the giveaway piece for my 100th doodle celebration, so I will take 6 and hopefully be able to get to all of them, if not I'll continue them over the next week.

Ready? Go!

Doodle 086 - Horse Studies

When I started drawing today I decided to play around with a deer at first:

Ancient Forest Deer - green and black mechanical pencil. Aprox 10 mins.

I wanted to give it a more fantastical feel... I nearly turned it into a dragon to be sincere.

After that I remembered I had to study horse anatomy, so I did a search and started to draw from random photo references:

Hoof and eye details - green and black mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 15 mins.

Horse head - green and black mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 15 mins.

Horse jumping - green and black mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 20 mins.

Melancholic horse - green and black mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 20 mins.

Practice makes perfect, never be affraid of tackling difficult things to draw, it might not look right at first, but the more you try the better you will get. I still need a lot of practice, but I won't give up :)

Doodle 085 - Preparing for All Hallows' Eve and misc rambling

On yesterday's post LeAnn said she wondered how I decide what to draw since she seems to draw blanks often.

I thought I would give you guys a bit of insight, now, I am not saying this is a fool proof way or even the right way to do it, it just works for me more often than not:

After work I normally take a bit of a breather, play a bit of a video game, watch a show or two, have dinner with Andrei and we talk about our day, before 8 p.m. I sit down in front of my computer, gather all my drawing supplies, put on some headphones and start playing whatever I feel like listening to at the moment.

Right now I am using Spotify at home and work, I find that music helps to keep me focused, I have quite a bit of a case of ADD, my mind races from one thing to another and I work better with multiple projects going on at once, but I try to concentrate my efforts to come up with ideas and music helps with that.

The music I prefer while drawing are soundtracks, closely followed by classical music and melancholic songs.

Once I have that down I start looking at my pinterest, tumblr and devianART feeds, I try to follow people that pin/blog/photograph interesting things, like historical clothing and costumes, architecture, art and yes a lot of geek related stuff.

Every day I see brand new things that can jolt my imagination, sometimes I will try to do my own version of a photo, others I'll start thinking about a story I want to tell sparked by what inspired me and then I start drawing whatever images I make up in my head.

This works often for me, other times I am just not in the mood to create anything at all, be it out of exhaustion, laziness, or just "because". In that case I just sit myself down, let myself browse the internet looking at silly videos of cats, and start throwing lines onto my notebook until something starts taking shape.

Not every day is a good one, sometimes all I want to do is crawl into bed and make up an excuse as to why I didn't draw, but first Andrei would nag me about it, and then I would nag myself about it thinking about the fact that you guys know I have to post every day and you are there waiting lol.

So I just keep trying until I come up with something. Of course one last thing is important: I try not to second guess myself too much, if I want to draw something I just do, no matter how weird, silly or ridiculous it might seem. Anything goes really.

And now for today's doodle:

Gathering herbs and supplies for All Hallow's Eve - green, red and black mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 10 mins.

It is Elphaba on a gathering trip to collect herbs and other ingredients before All Hallow's Eve. The glass pumpkin/skull lantern isn't too bright as to not call attention to herself and can scare hostiles away.

Doodle 084 - Caterpillar Birthday

I was rather busy with work and home stuff today, sometimes I wonder where the day goes, before I know it, it's lunch time and by then, when I think I still have a couple of hours to finish projects, I look at my clock and realize is way past quitting time.

So today I did a quick sketch based on yet another silly photo I saw on tumblr (seriously, between tumblr and pinterest I could be glue to my seat all day), and now you know how I am attracted to silly/cute things... I can't help it, it's like my siren song:

Caterpillar celebrating a birthday via tumblr

So then I just had to draw my own version:

Caterpillar Birthday - red and black mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 10 mins.

Doodle 083 - Sleepy Bat

Thanks for the comments on yesterday's post guys, since there seems to be interest I'll def. do a giveaway for one of my sketches or a watercolor piece. I am probably going to be on the road when I hit my 90th drawing so I will do the giveaway when I hit the 100th post.

I am excited, it should be fun!

Today I was inspired by the silliest thing ever:

Cute yawning bat via s-kinny-l0ve on tumblr

Yup, it is a small gif of a yawning bat that was on my tumblr dashboard this evening.

We had a bunch of bats back in Madrid when I was little. They would come out of hibernation and pretty much claimed the night skies over summer swooping down from high apartment buildings and right over our heads as we walked around the street.

I must say, none of them were as cute as the one on the gif, sure it has bony wings and teensy vampire like teeth, but it is still fluffy and has beady adorable eyes... call me crazy (because well... I am a bit crazy), but I think this one is just so cute!

So... I decided to make a quick couple of sketches:

Cute little yawning bat - red and black mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine. Aprox 6 mins.

Waking all the way up - red and black mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 5 mins.

Doodle 082 - Testing

What a weekend, we truly had a blast, but tonight I am exhausted.

We finally made it back home and now I better get ready for the week.

I was rather tired and really had to fight myself in order to do today's doodles... I really wanted to just go to bed or watch TV instead, but I decided to try and draw something.

I  have to keep experimenting with different drawing styles, and that's what I did today. I am not sure if I like these at all, but trying new things out and experimenting is what I need most right now.

Also, I have been thinking about doing a giveaway to mark the 3 month 0r maybe the 100th mark of doodling, I am just not sure what I would give away since I don't really consider any of my doodles good enough to give away yet.

I might work on a watercolor piece and use that as a prize, what do you guys think?

Anyway, here are today's doodles:

The Last Dragon Rider - blue, red and black mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 15 mins

"Are you chewing the pencil lead again?" - red and black mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 4 mins.

Rough Expression Test - red and black mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 3 mins.

Doodle 081 - Jellyfish Racer

We watched Wreck It Ralph this morning after playing video games at Disney Quest, it was a blast!

I recommend the movie, it is fun, cute and at times very, very sweet.

I wore my hair candy today and got a ton of compliments, so that was a success.

We also got to see a bit of the Orlando dragon boat races and now I sorta want to put a team together... mostly so I can be the one playing the drums to keep the rowing pace LOL.

I drew the following character inspired by the Sugar Rush game and the Nemo pool at the Art of Animation resort.

I doodled the basic structure tonight after having a swim and finished it after dinner.

I'm also attaching a photo of Andrei playing Fix It Felix, the arcade game from the movie, a Wreck It Ralph cupcake and a photo of the dragon boats.

Doodle 080 - Diplomatic tensions

I'm on the road at the moment, like I expected the day was hectic, so I ended up having to draw while in the car.

I imagine these are both queens from bordering countries that seem to be going over a bit of a rough patch in their diplomatic relations.

Doodle 079 - Vanellope von Schweetz candy hair ornament tutorial and female Captain America

Tomorrow after work Andrei and I will be hitting the road to visit Walt Disney World and attend a special screening of Wreck It Ralph. This means there won't be an interactive Friday this week.

Also I said I was going to post a tutorial tomorrow, but then I figured I'll be running around like a chicken without a head all day tomorrow and I decided to post it today instead. Hooray!

This craft is actually super easy, I decided to do it once I got confirmation that we would attend the screening, also I am a big dork, but that goes without saying.

Vanellope is a character in the movie, she is part of a game called Sugar Rush, the game takes place in a world that looks a lot like Candy Land, all the characters sport clothing that is made out of candy... well pretty much everything is made out of candy, and Vanellope's hair happens to be sprinkled with gummy bears, peppermints and... sprinkles:

Vanellope shaking hands with Ralph - Disney

My hair is pretty dark too, so I decided it would be fun to wear some sprinkles on my hair Saturday for the movie, it is a bob at the moment, so the pony tail with the Twizzler scrunchy is off though.

For the madness to begin all you'll need are:

-A hot glue gun (and glue sticks for it)
-Short or long bobby pins (depends on your hair length) that match your hair color more or less.
-Hair clips (also close to your hair color)
-Small beads or ornaments that look like candy.

When I decided to go on ahead and try to do this, the first place I hit up to find "candy" was Michaels. It is super close to my office, so I went over there on my lunch hour with Andrei and I found these:

Peppermint bead ornaments from Michaels. A bit over $2 after coupon, yay!

They are starting to roll out all the Christmas decor, so if you want peppermints and candy canes that are small enough for hair ornaments I would go now and stock up. These peppermints are an inch in diameter, perfect!

After work we had to do some shopping at Walmart, and in their kid's craft section, I found these on clearance:

Foam Beads.

At first they looked like they might not work since they have these designs printed on them, but they had a blank side, plus foam is super light, so they wouldn't be uncomfortable to wear or weight my hair down, plus they are all less than one inch, perfect size for sprinkles.

I also picked up some hair clips and bobby pins while there, nothing fancy, the cheapest I could find on black.

I was worried the candy ornaments would be difficult to separate from the hooks they came on, but it was actually just question of a simple twist and pull and I had all of them off without even getting the hooks off the package:

Yay candy!

These had a lot of tiny transparent beads glue to them, it gave them a cool frosted effect, but the beads kept coming off, I rubbed them with my fingers to get the excess out and to totally get them off one of the sides of the ornaments so they would stick well to the hair clips I was using.

Candy on hair clip test.

After that I opened the pack of foam beads and looked at the shapes and colors available:

The blank side was perfect.

Then I tested them on long bobby pins, the beads have a small hole through them already, so all you have to do is skewered them with the bobby pins. A small drop of hot glue does help keep them in place:

The long bobby pins were too much for my short hair, so I tried shorter ones I had already:

 

Once I had figured how I wanted to place the beads and ornaments I broke out the hot glue gun and did the last part of this super quick craft:

Before.

After: 3 minutes later... done!

Yup, just a bead of hot glue on the pins and clips will keep everything in place.

And then all you do is randomly place the candy all over your hair (after the glue has cooled off and dried, of course):

Sorry bout the bad photos, bad light, plus camera phone, plus me being lazy equals... photographic mess.

Anyway, They do look better in person and like candy, so I am pretty excited to wear them on Saturday.

Now for today's doodle. I did a quick female version of Captain America... I don't know why, I just did LOL:

Female Captain America. - graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 15 mins.

Doodle 078 - Waiting room doodle and Vanellope von Schweetz

Ah! I am so late posting today, I ended up having to go the urgent care clinic, don't worry I am ok, just started to feel sick and I ended up needing some meds.

The good news? It isn't anything major.
The bad news? I had little time to draw today, but I tried my best anyway.

This first doodle I actually did on my tiny notebook while waiting at the doc's office:

Walking the wire - mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 10 mins.

It is shaky and rough, but I was holding the notebook in one hand and the pencil on another, plus I was feeling rather sick (still am), so I am actually surprised it looks like anything.

Once I was released from the doc's office and got home I decided I needed to draw at least one other thing.

Andrei and I are going down to Disney World again this weekend, I scored us spots to go see Wreck It Ralph via the Disney Parks Blog and then I got extra lucky and got a room at the new Art of Animation Resort, so as you can guess, I am very excited for the weekend.

And so, I drew this:

Vanellope von Schweetz - graphite and pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 5 mins.

It is Vanellope! She is one of the characters on the Wreck It Ralph movie, and the inspiration for a small tutorial I'll be sharing on Friday, since I'll be hitting the road and not going to have time to do an interactive Friday this week.

OK I am off to bed now, I am exhausted, but I am determined, not a single day without a doodle.

Doodle 077 - Randomness

First: Thanks for bearing with me yesterday and a very heartfelt thank you for all of you who left a message and shared your own struggles. I second guess myself a lot when I write something that is sad or rather personal, but once I get it off my chest I can feel a bit of improvement, I guess I do carry a rather large collection of stones over my shoulders, little by little I hope to start leaving them along the road I am carving for myself and eventually I'll feel better and more free than I have in a long time.

Today I just started to doodle randomly, trying to figure out something to put down on paper is sometimes the hardest part of the whole process, so I have a series of images I gather on pinterest for those times when I get stuck and need some inspiration:

Mayan Healer via Pinterest.com

I saw this image a few days ago and decided to repin it, today I went ahead and tried to draw something inspired by her:

Mayan Healer - non-photo blue pencil and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 15 mins.

As you can see it was a rather loose doodle, I couldn't figure out what I wanted her to be doing so I decided to leave it as is for now. Maybe I'll think of something one day.

Then I did a very fast doodle just to practice a male profile structure without references:

Random male profile - non-photo blue pencil and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 5 mins.

And finally I saw this gif set on my tumblr dashboard, started to draw and ended up with this:

"Hey guys, I found a hummingbird, that's good, right?" - non-photo blue and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 15 mins.

I have no idea what the gif set is all about, maybe a Doctor Who episode I haven't seen (shock!) or a mash-up of two series by fans, anyway  used the girl's face as inspiration and this came out... I don't know, I let my mind do what it wants, resistance is futile.