Doodle 031 - Ice Cream Cone Dog

Just came back from a quick doctor's appt. while there I noticed the art left by a bunch of his younger patients displayed on the back of my exam room's door.

I love children's art, I don't know why, but looking at how they try to capture reality is a lot of fun.

This particular drawing caught my eye:

Children's art at doctor's office - crayons over plain copy paper.

I loved the gigantic legs on the birds (I am guessing they are egrets since this is Florida), and the two animals to the right. I am guessing they are cats or dogs... maybe even chickens or gators... or baby T-Rex dinosaurs.

Anyway, my husband called them: "Ice Cream Cone Dogs"

So... after I got home and while he got the cats situated before hitting the road, I quickly drew this:

My ice cream corn dog - Graphite, micon pen, brush pen and prismacolor pencils over plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 20 mins.

I am sure I won't have time to update later tonight, so I decided to go ahead and doodle something fast... and yes, his ears are made out of fudge. Andrei complained that my version had 4 legs instead of two... I said I couldn't have him dragging the cone about, because it would break.

Yes, we do have that kind of arguments around here. We are all insane.

Oh, and... happy 1 month of drawings!!! I can't believe it's been already 31 days without a pause.

Doodle 030 - Going to Dragon*Con

First, thanks so much for the encouraging words yesterday. I really have no idea what I have done to deserve this, but I have the best team of cheerleaders. It really does mean a lot to me to have everybody following along, I find my own drawings rather silly, but if they make you guys smile, well then to me, that's the best part.

Anyhow... very early this morning we got us situated in one of the host hotels for Dragon*Con. I have no idea how I found the room, but now we are sorta set to enjoy our first ever American geek-oriented convention.

At first I was rather overjoyed with the deal:

The hills were alive, with the sound of geek glee - Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 4 mins.

But then... it dawned on me I had made very little to no research on the whole thing. The only other cons I have attended have been for graphic design and I made sure to network ahead of time since I was a total noob and working, so my time was literal money.

I am also used to cons at Spain... there the only cons I attended were geared toward SciFi writers and aspiring writers, (yes, I once used to write SciFi, shock!). The whole affair there was very low key and small, nobody dressed up in costumes, there were no autograph lines, just maybe a small book signing or two apart from open forums, round tables and workshops, and the famous SciFi and Fantasy writers didn't have staff to guard them, they just roamed about freely and mingled with us, I once danced several jigs with Joe Haldeman and had a rather lengthy conversation with Orson Scott Card about how weird Spaniard cons were, for example.

So I can tell I am going to be in a total alien environment:

Realization and packing panic - Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 7 mins.

That's me pretty much saying: "Hold on... I have no idea of what I am doing, I have no plan, not a clue of what I want to see... and... what the heck do I wear?!"

Followed by: "ZOMG I HAVEN'T PACKED!!!" *Ninja packing powers, activate!*

Anyway... I really should be packing and figuring out if I can, somehow, make a sorta kinda steampunk looking outfit by using clothing already in my closet (if I pull that one off I will demand a medal people, a bad donkey medal).

Wish me luck, I have already contacted my fellow geeks and they have promised to be the Jedi master to my padwan, so I should... and I repeat *should* be OK. Photos, postings and general mayhem to come your way starting tomorrow.

I will try my best to locate Jen and get my picture taken with her on her Lady Vadore outfit.

May the Dragon*Con odds be ever in my favor... and junk.

Packing... so not amusing - Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 10 mins.

Doodle 029 - Otter mail

I had/still kinda have a rather large migraine today. This happens way more often than it should, I have been to the neurologist before about it, have been trying different drugs to figure it out, but like a lot of things in modern medicine, it is all about approximation apparently.

Of course it doesn't help that the neurologist office is at the hospital, and due to my history, the place makes me incredibly uneasy and more panicked than I'd like to even admit, so I only go when it gets really bad.

Maybe it was due to the headache, I am not sure, but I doodled this today:

Otter Mail Delivery - Graphite and mechanical pencil on Moleskine plain notebook. Aprox 10 mins.

My proportions and perspective are both off... if that makes any sense given the drawing itself lol.

My brain functions in a very wonky way when I have migraines.

There is a chance that I'll be able to attend my very first Dragon*Con this week. It would be awesome if we manage to pull it off, plus I'll get to meet more of my husband's family which is always a plus.

I have been in a bit of a funk lately, so a small getaway and adventure could do me a world of good. Plus I am sure to find a bunch of things that will get me inspired and drawing for quite some time.

Sitting here at home I often second guess myself a lot, I wonder if I have any real imagination left, any talent at all.

The best artists practice every single day, they don't give up, they research and study in order to get where they are, but they must have some raw talent to be able to decipher things, pull concepts out of their head and put them down on paper. I just hope I haven't wasted all of my talent (if I had enough to begin with) away after years of punishment, that's all. I am sure all this doubt comes from the evil funk. Going away for a bit and resetting things should help with it for a while.

If I do go, I'll keep updating. Also, I started a tumblr and a twitter account, I'll probably be able to update those several times a day. My tumblr will mostly have nonsense I am sure, but that's how I roll.

Doodle 028 - Princess and Ariel

Another day, another doodle. I somehow ended up drawing my version of Ariel from The Little Mermaid.

She started out as a single line and the figure sort of organically fell into place.

Ariel - Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 10 mins.

After that I kept trying to figure out a second doodle, and I came up with this:

Princess - Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 15 mins.

After I was done I realized she kiiinda sorta looks a bit like Princess Peach. Maybe it is the crown.

Doodle 027 - Fall and Goose

Ready for a new week? I kinda am... haha! Yeah...

The weather is keeping pretty mild so far, Isaac is staying away, but they are forecasting buckets upon buckets of water for us mid-week. We shall see.

For now, we have all our emergency supplies ready:

Me, basking on hurricane preparedness supplies... "We have soup, we have flashlights! BWAHAHAHA!" - Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 5 mins.

 On the way home we had a run-in with one of the local herds of Canadian geese... everybody is forbidden from messing with them at all. This can actually create very spoiled geese. We didn't really get into a fight per se... I just sorta shook my fist at them as we drove by and gave them "the eye".

At my old job we lived pretty peaceful lives, on time to time a gator would pop out of a pond and park itself in front of one of the buildings there, but it wasn't much of a problem... it is Florida after all, we are used to that stuff (or you get used to it real fast).

Things changed... when the geese nation attacked (Avatar: The Last Airbender reference anyone?).

A couple of Canada geese decided our office building's employee entrance was the perfect place to nest at. Overnight we were being viciously attacked by seemingly innocent poultry. What was worse? We weren't allowed to fight back. Memos, notices and warning posters were circulated and put up around the office.

My favorite warning from a list of at least 20 things that were "No-nos"?
- Do not make eye contact.

At first I thought our HR and security departments had suddenly decided to coordinate a very fancy elaborate joke on us, but when the Fish and Wildlife Department made an appearance to tell us how to behave or face hefty fines I figured it was for real.

The geese got out of control pretty fast. They patrolled the parking lots with zeal and made sure to keep us in line with an iron beak.

Anybody that dared walk in or out of the door would get jumped on, scratched, pecked, honked and hissed with a passion. And really... those things are HUGE!

When they didn't have a human to attack, they would take their rage on the cars, anything shiny really. They had this incredible hatred towards reflective vanity plates... maybe they thought they weren't dignified automotive accessories.

Anyway, the geese reminded me of all of this, so I doodled a very fast comic/storyboard to illustrate this:

Goose Rage! (Based on actual events... I lived this people! I did!) - Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 20 mins.

 Sorry the text is practically impossible to read, here is a transcript of my chicken scratches:

• Panel 1: Car with shiny tag parked (legally)
• Panel 2: Shiny tag outrages goose! (arrow: So very outraged!)
• Panel 3: Burning with rage... the tag will pay!!!
• Panel 4: Thousand pecks of death!!! (arrows to car and tag)
• Panel 5: Goose kick of doom!
• Panel 6: Victory!

True story.

And finally I just doodled a Fall inspired drawing:

Fall - Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 15 mins.

Doodle 026 - Painting, Fox and Dragon

Alright, I managed to finish the bear I started on Friday. It was quite a task, in between my messed up hand and the fact that I hadn't painted anything in so long... well, it isn't the best of paintings by any means, but I am proud of myself for not giving up on it and finishing it.

I added some textures at the end to create the background and a bit of depth on the bear itself.

A Beary Haunted Butler (digital painting) - Photoshop. I think it took me 5 hours or more, I lost track of time on this one.

I was pretty exhausted after I was done with the bear, so I decided to just do a couple of super quick sketches. You can tell I am tired by my sloppy line work, I was determined to get out at least 1 doodle though.

Happy Fox - Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 5 mins.

Smelling the wild flowers - Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 15 mins.

We have a hurricane heading our way, I will keep updating as long as we have power, but if it hits us head on we might be without internet, etc for a bit, so if I don't post on Monday or Tuesday, don't panic.

Doodle 025 - Let me fall

I spent most of today outside... I needed a haircut and once I was roaming the streets like the crazy person I am I decided I should get some sun, so I forced myself to be out in the world longer than usual.

After returning home I decided it would be nice to show you guys how I draw. At first I thought of doing a video of the whole process from me sitting down to draw to a finished doodle... well... I tried and the video ended up being nearly 30 mins, that is, with me going back and forth between lines/doodles etc, and quite frankly, it isn't very exciting to see me try to figure things out.

So I tried again and made this video (don't worry, it has no sound, I was too rushed to add anything lol):

It is just me, drawing a quick doodle.

I refined it a bit more after that:

Kitteh! - Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 10 mins

I started the next sketch while listening to the song "Let me fall" from the Cirque du Soleil's Quidam soundtrack, so it makes sense that this is what I came up with. I must point out, this was done without any reference, I managed to figure out the basics of the foreshortening, so I was glad I didn't mess it up too badly.

Let Me Fall - Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 20 mins.

Doodle 024 - A Beary Haunted Butler

Since today is a Friday I decided to do a bit more developing to the sketch I worked on. Hopefully I'll have the rest of the weekend to keep chipping at it.

When I started working on this sketch I was just thinking about one of my favorite rides in the Magic Kingdom: The Haunted Mansion.

As I kept on developing the doodle I remembered a friend who is way more of a fan (an actually got to be a butler at least once), and decided the bear looked a bit like him.

A Beary Haunted Butler - Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 30 mins.

Behold! It is a bear dressed as a cast member from the Haunted Mansion... I actually had to do some research on the outfit, I had forgotten the jacket had coattails.

I was rather amused with this, so I decided to refine and ink it:

Starting from the right: Original sketch, cleaned up sketch using mechanical pencil, and finally inked drawing using micron pens. Total process aprox 30 mins.

After that I scanned the inked drawing and started painting it. This is what I have so far:

Digital quick painting - Photoshop, aprox 20 mins.

I haven't painted anything digitally in ages, so it is like re-learning the skill all over again. Right now I am just applying the layers that will later (hopefully) make his fur look a bit realistic.

Doodle 023 - Bears and birds and dragons, oh my!

Well, I guess all that chasing my inspiration around worked out today.
I actually woke up on time and managed to fit a work out very early in the morning. Whenever I exercise like I should, my brain seems to work much better, overall if I exercise early in the morning before the rest of the day wears me down.

The first doodle happened pretty easily, I was at the office working on some projects, when suddenly, I had this image stuck in my head. Before it disappeared I grabbed the first thing that was nearby and doodled this:

"A little birdy told me" - Ballpoint pen on standard size post-it note. Aprox 3 minutes.

It took virtually no time, and it is basically a bear having lunch (alphabet soup), while a robin tells him the latest news (gossip) from around the forest.

After I got home I went back to drawing, first a quick warm-up doodle:

Light as Air - Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 5 minutes.

Nothing of significance, just something airy, light, sort of like a wind sprite of sorts singing.

Finally I drew inspiration from real-life sea dragons and created an slightly more fantastic version:

Actual Weedy Sea Dragon - via dive gallery

Fantastic Sea Dragon - Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 20 mins.

Thanks for all the encouragement guys. I have the best cheerleaders pulling for me.

Doodle 022 - Testing the Waters

Working on structure I ended up drawing this small sketch. You can see I was mostly trying to figure out the pose, then added some clothing.

She is just dipping her toes in a very shallow pond or pool.

Testing the Waters - Drawing from memory. Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 35 mins.

I was feeling rather tired and uninspired this evening. Some days all I want to do is watch TV and fall asleep after a long day at work, but my drive to get better and keep this project going, along with all of you guys, really motivates me to not call it a day.

I once heard a quote by Jack London: "You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club." Whenever I feel like giving up, I remember that and chase it around the empty pages of my notebook until I manage to get something out.

Doodle 021 - Lady, Jake and a Fox

After watching yesterday's episode of Adventure Time I woke up wanting to draw Lady and Jake. I tried to get them as close to the actual show character design as I could. Then I decided to try an ink the drawing... and I remembered how badly I suck at inking haha!

Lady and Jake reference via the Adventure Time Wiki
 

No... really... I suck at inking, but that's the perfect excuse to try and ink more often, if I don't practice I'll never get any better.

Lady Rainicorn and Jake - Graphite, mechanical pencil and micron pens on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 30 mins. (Edit: The inking was bugging me sooo much I decided to try again or I couldn't sleep... I might have made it worse, but anyway, I tried heh...)

After that I did a very quick drawing of a small Fennec fox based on a random photo. It was too cute for me to not draw.

Fennec fox - Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 15 mins.

(Side note: 21 drawings... does this mean the blog is old enough to drink now? ;-p )

Doodle 020 - Dragon to Good Home

Confession: I have a phobia of dinosaurs (I googled it and apparently it now has a name: ornithoscelidaphobia, ha!), I know, I know, as fears go this one is way up there on the irrational list, what can I say, looks like I had to be original. Plus it is easier to fear something that no longer exists.

Spiders?: Whatevs
Snakes?: Eh...
Lizards?: They are sorta cute.
Mice?: Really?

Oh, but a dinosaur, a dinosaur will terrify me, and if you want to give me a mini heart attack? Put a large model of Nessie in the water without telling me and let me swim... I am not kidding, when I used to swim in competitions I would imagine Nessie was chasing me in order to get that extra kick of adrenaline before touching the wall one last time.

 I was even scared to death of the silly sea serpent on the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride at Disneyland. I only rode that once and I had to use all the will I had as a 12 year old not to freak out in that tiny Nautilus. (I am not even going to google an image of it, just can't LOL).

So, following my irrational fears... you would think I am also terrified of dragons... I kinda am, but only if I see a "life sized" "realistic" sculpture of one, otherwise I really like to draw them, because... they are cool.

Makes sense? No? That's OK, doesn't make much sense to me either.

And with that unnecessary rambling, here goes today's doodle:

Free Dragon to Good Home - Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 25 mins.

 

I can tell that, whoever happened upon this dragon has probably never been in charge of one before... seriously... who makes a dragon bed out of hay? Amateurs.

Doesn't surprise me they are trying to find it a new home.

Doodle 019 - Regal

A quick regal doodle for Sunday.

I have no idea where this one came from, her face, overall the eye area isn't as nice as I would like, but I sort of like it.
Hope everybody is having a good weekend!

Regal - Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 20 mins.

Doodle 018 - Moleskine, Coats and Shiba Inus

Another work week finished, another doodle and something new.
First: Today's doodle (this will allow you to skip my rambling if you want to).

Costume design doodle - Graphite, mechanical pencil and some ink using a micron pen on plain moleskine notebook. Aprox: 30 mins.

I enjoy drawing outfits, I have been playing with designs of a coat like this for a while. I am not very good at sewing (my biggest achievement so far has been an cute pleated apron), so I doubt I'll ever be able to make something like this.

Shiba Inu - Graphite, mechanical pencil and some ink using micron pens on plain moleskine notebook. Aprox: 20 mins.

 I love Shiba Inu dogs, I will probably turn this one into a vector illustration.

And now, to the rambling: you might have noticed that I use moleskine notebooks a lot for drawing. This doesn't come out of a devotion for the brand or type of notebook, it is actually kind of a silly story.

While in college I would mostly draw on any sketchbook I found on sale, I would go to Michaels and buy a bunch of whichever was "buy one get one free" and then apply a coupon to keep my costs down, (thrifty sketchbook hoarders, unite!).


When you are sketching it really doesn't matter what paper you use, sure, you can have a favorite, maybe you like something more rough that your pencil can grab onto, maybe you like smooth paper to glide over, but in the end, any paper is good when you just need to pour out some ideas. Getting a sketchbook helps keeping your doodles wrangled in one place though, otherwise you end up with a bunch of loose sheets floating about and they get difficult to store and keep track of.

It is also nice to see the drawings in order and figure out where you improved or what needs more work.

All in all, you don't need a fancy notebook to begin with, that said, sometimes a fancy notebook is nice.

I ended up with a rather sizable collection of moleskins when Borders went under. There was a Borders bookstore very close to my office, I used to visit and buy books on time to time during my lunch break, when the "going out of business" sales started I would check stuff out on time to time as the price cuts got deeper each week.


During one of my excursions I noticed and entire moleskine display with a big SALE sign on it. At first the different colors available caught my eye. I just automatically went for the blue and turquoise ones, but as I looked them over and discovered most of them were unruled... I sort of lost it and let my art supply hoarding tendencies take over.


I am sure everybody has a dormant (or not so dormant) magpie like reflex that allows you to hoard stuff, for some it is all about shoes, for others shiny things and jewelry in general, some like purses, others clothes, etc but for me... it is all about art supplies, especially pencils, brushes and acrylic paint colors. I am not kidding, I normally take my husband with me to the art store because he will tell me when I am getting out of control. My eye literally twitches and I have to take several steps back and have a little talk with myself about budget, needs, and space.


Anyway, this time my husband was there as well, but before he could do anything to stop me, I had loaded an entire basket with moleskine notebooks (I will also add, I had never owned one before, so I was def. going out of my gourd), and I was guarding them with Smeagol-like zeal... I might or might not have uttered a "My preciousss" while stroking my loot. I guess we were lucky they didn't have carts available, otherwise I might have just emptied the entire display into one and laughed maniacally all the way down the check-out line and out the door.


Once we got home and dropped the bag filled with notebooks onto the living room's floor I started to figure out the scale of the purchase I had just made. Moleskines are not famous for being cheap, I was lucky and they were on sale, and even if they had been affordable run of the mill notebooks, the sheer amount of bound paper I had just brought into the house would still be ridiculous.
Don't believe me? Ok well, here's a photo of what's left. I have used about 3 other packs of notebooks already.

Behold! Mount Doom Notebook!

 My husband just looked at me and said something along the lines of: "Well, this should get you drawing... right?". Short answer: "No".

The poor notebooks sat on a bookshelf glaring at me for months. I know notebooks can't glare, but to me, it felt as if they were... judging me along the way for not cracking one open already and draw.
Now that I have been drawing again and going through a notebook here and there I can say... I like them!

They are smart-looking, the paper is high quality stuff, my graphite and leads slide on the surface easily and that helps keep my hand from cramping up. The smaller sizes are great to keep on my purse and doing quick sketches, the larger ones are good for more detailed drawing, but I wouldn't recommend it to lay down drawings you intend to develop a lot.

The pages are too thin for really heavy inking, they do work well with some ink, they can wield some watercolor use but wrinkle at the edges. Still, the watercolor won't bleed through to the next page, which I was surprised about. I am probably going to tinker with acrylics and see how they do with those.

Several of my creative friends say they don't buy moleskines just because they are intimidated to doodle on them. They feel pressured to turn every page into a beautiful drawing, and I can totally understand why. When you see what other artists do with theirs, you sort of feel like you have to take advantage of yours and make it amazing. I decided I didn't care, that it was MY notebook and anyway, it was just blank paper, so I dove right in, but that's just me.

Hopefully by the end of the year I'll have a bookshelf's worth of filled-in notebooks to feel proud of, not because every page is an incredible piece of art, but because I kept trying, even when I messed up... and in the end, isn't that with life is all about?

Doodle 017 - Missing winter

You could say I only have 1 season I dislike, unfortunately, that season happens to be summer. I might have a lot of reasons to not like it, but it all boils down to the fact that... I just don't like the heat.

I know it sounds silly, overall since I live in Florida at the moment, and the summers here are muggy, wet and sauna-like. It took me about 5 whole years to be able to go outside in the middle of August and not feel like Darth Vader was force-choking me.

And so, when fall starts to get closer, even when the temps don't seem to change much around here, I feel a bit happier, and by the time Halloween comes around the corner I am in the best mood of the whole year.

I guess this is why today I ended up drawing this:

Winter scarf - Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain moleskine notebook. Aprox 20 mins.

Doodle 016 - Otter cuteness

Remember when I told you I loved otters?

I normally don't draw them as much as cats, I guess because I have 2 cats as reference, so I know their anatomy a bit better.

While waiting for a meeting to get underway today I scribbled some on my notepad... as you can see an otter pretty much took over the place.

Quick doodles - pen on ruled notebook paper.

So once I got home I got down to drawing an otter. What I ended up with isn't a photo realistic otter by any means, but I was going mostly for cute. I used several otter photos to get an idea of what their hands look like, ears and feet.

I must admit I never paid much attention to otter anatomy... most of the time I was just too busy trying to contain the glee whenever I saw a live one and never mind internet videos, my brain pretty much short circuits due to the cute whenever an otter appears. Still, I would love to go to an aquarium and watch them for a bit while making quick sketches.

Otter cuteness - Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain moleskine notebook. Aprox 15 mins.

Doodle 015 - Cloud Weaver

The office was crazy today and I ended up working late. For a moment there I was getting a bit worried that I wouldn't have energy or time to do any doodling.

Luckily, I finally managed to get away and draw something out.

And so, here is my cloud weaver, a completely fantastical creature whose purpose is to create beautiful formations out of water vapor. This one in particular enjoys making cumulus.

Cloud Weaver - Sketch from memory. Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain moleskine notebook. Aprox 25 mins.

Doodle 014 - Studying and the sea.

Well, I figured out why I was feeling so down yesterday, I was starting to feel ill and didn't realize it until very early this morning. In the end I had to stay home to make sure I was all OK for the rest of the week.

I hate missing work, but since I was stuck here I spent part of the day getting better and the other drawing.

On time to time it is a good idea to look at the artwork of masters in the area you would like to apply your focus on. In today's case I pulled out my copy of "The Art of Tangled". I bought this book a couple of months back.

I am a big fan of Glen Keane, if the name doesn't ring a bell, he is one of the master animators and character designers who have helped develop characters like Ariel from The Little Mermaid, Tarzan from Disney's Tarzan, Aladdin, The Beast, Rapunzel and Eugene (AKA Flynn Rider) and many more.

The Art of Tangled has many development sketches for nearly all of the characters, along with an awesome design section, I really love it.

To help myself learn things I use the development sketches as way to figure out how the original artist laid down and drew the characters, then I try to draw them myself.

I started with Rapunzel:

Rapunzel* - Sketch from reference. Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain moleskine notebook. Aprox 30 mins.

I drew the one on the left first, then decided to copy a difficult expression (on the right). My drawings are close to the originals, but still need a lot more practice.

Rapunzel* - Sketch without reference. Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain moleskine notebook. Aprox 20 mins.

Then I tried to draw Rapunzel again without copying a drawing to begin with. I chose to draw her with her short hair, she is probably reading a book about traveling.

Next up was Flynn:

Flynn* - Sketch from reference. Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain moleskine notebook. Aprox 20 mins.

Flynn* - Sketch from reference. Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain moleskine notebook. Aprox 20 mins.

The second drawing was way harder from me. I was so tired by the time I finished these I decided to not try and wing a drawing of Flynn without a reference.

Instead of that I drew an original doodle:

Mermaid - Sketch from memory. Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain moleskine and notebook. Aprox 15 mins.

The first time I watched The Little Mermaid on theaters it was a Japanese version. My mom and I made it a movie day. In that version the mermaid turned into foam, just like in the original version.

When Disney's version rolled around several years later I was indignant that Ariel didn't turn into foam in the end. By then I was already quite a bit of a book lover, so  it made me a bit upset lol.

*(Legal disclaimer: None of the Disney characters pictured above belong to me. These drawings are meant only as a didactic tool and not to be reproduced nor sold.)

Doodle 013 - Taking the dragon for a stroll

I could start this post by griping about the fact that it is Monday... but instead I will post a video I found yesterday that illustrates my feelings about today:

 

Now, imagine I am the panda, the cage is Monday and the panda caretaker is reality... damn you reality! *Shakes fist*

Needles to say, I felt a bit off most of the day, and then just downright sad when I got home after work, but I sat myself down and doodled practically nothing for a couple of hours until... I went and checked my pinterest feed.

Oh yeah,  I am about shoulder deep into pinterest. It is an awesome place for visual types, like me, to gather stuff. I might even be a bit, (or OK maybe a lot), addicted.

I use pinterest as a tool to cheer myself up with geeky things I love and to keep reminding myself of what I want to achieve.

For example: I have a whole board dedicated just to what I believe would be my dream job: Character, production design and storyboarding for animated features.

Anyhow, one of the people I follow, Claire Hummel, who BTW is an incredible artist, has an awesome collection of pins to use as reference for costumes on her drawings. So I got inspired and drew this just by grabbing a jacket from one of her boards and going from that:

Taking the dragon out for a stroll - Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain moleskine notebook, aprox 10 mins.

The dragon finagled its way into the drawing when I found it a tad static, things just seem to flow that way sometimes.

Some days are harder than others and my creativity is affected by the way I feel. Consistency and discipline do help a lot, so I am happy I managed to draw something out. I didn't get discouraged because I knew you guys were cheering me on as well.

Doodle 012- Why the cats?

My drawing hand was acting up today, couldn't quite get a nice line going and it made things slow. I guess it is because I worked on my vinylmation project for quite a while before drawing and that took most of my energy.

What are vinylmations? Well, they are the Disney version of vinyl toys (to see what vinyl toys are, you can visit one of my favorite shops online: myplasticheart.com). I had been collecting vinyl toys for quite sometime before Disney decided to get in on the action. Once they started to roll them out and offer blank versions for anybody to costumize, I started to ponder on a design i would like to paint onto one.

My husband and I go to Disney World a lot. It is just 4 hours away by car, so it is easy to plan long weekends here and there, plus when I get very stressed/sad nothing cheers me up like watching the fireworks show over Cinderella's castle, maybe that's crazy, but I am kinda crazy anyway, so it suits me just fine.

Anyway, not that long ago I picked up several blank vinylmations to try to get back into painting. I ended up doodling an initial design sketch during a very long meeting, and have been chipping away every other weekend.

The project isn't done yet, but it is getting mighty close.

Now, to explain the design itself:
One of my favorite holidays is Halloween, I was born and lived in Mexico City for 7 years and I have very fond memories of the "Day of the Dead" celebration. My family would put up an "ofrenda" (offering), which basically is an altar decorated with flowers, sugar skulls, sculptures, photos of our dearly departed, incense and anything the deceased liked to eat or drink while they were alive.

To celebrate the holiday we would visit the graveyard, clean our families plots, decorate them with flowers and then go home and have a meal while telling each other anecdotes and stories about our grandparents, greatgrandparents and everybody else that wasn't with us any longer. To me, it was a good holiday, I always learned something new about family members that I never got to meet and their memory lives on in mine, which is lovely I think.

I had a black vinylmation so I figured I could turn that into a day of the dead sugar skull.

Initial doodle.

Applying draft work to the actual vinyl toy using prismacolor pencils... they actually draw pretty well on the surface of the black vinylmation.

Front of semi-finished vinyl toy. 9 inches tall, acrylics and plastic scrapbooking jewels.

Left side.

Back.

I need to refine some details, the body is mostly done, the head just has a lot delicate work.

And finally today's doodle, I hit a wall and couldn't figure out what I wanted to draw after spending so much time painting. So I ended up making a doodle of my husband as an Adventure Time character since it is one of his favorite shows at the moment.

He looks slightly puzzled because I am sure his comment when he sees this will be: "Why am I holding the cats?" and I will only be able to reply: "Because."

"Why am I holding the cats?". 15 mins, graphite and mechanical pencil on plain moleskine notebook.

Doodle 011: Hang the stars

I am not really sure how to explain today's main doodle, but I'll try.
I started this one like I do most of them, I laid down a line, then another and before I knew it I had a figure... the problem was, I had a head along with an expression, shoulders, arms and torso on an action pose and I had no idea what the action was for or what it would tell.

When my drawings start at random points without an idea to follow first I (and I figure, like most artists) tend to generate a story for whatever I am putting down on paper as I go to help me visualize what they should be doing, interacting with, etc.

In this case I ended up with someone that could be different a fairy, or a mythical creature of sorts that is leaving her home to do her job. In this case, her job ended up being "To hang up the stars". As she leaves she leans over to talk to her house cat and let him know he will be "In charge" while she is out.

Well, that's my story and I am sticking to it.

"I am going out to hang the stars up. You're in charge until I get back" - From memory without references. Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain moleskine notebook. Aprox 20 mins.

I also did some random quick doodles of animals for fun.

Hummingbird - Drawing using photo as reference. Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain moleskine notebook. 5 mins.

Hummingbird - Drawing using photo as reference. Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain moleskine notebook. 5 mins

Disapproving Llama Disapproves - Drawing using photo as reference. Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain moleskine notebook. Aprox 7 mins.

Tomorrow I am planning on sharing a project that is different from the doodles I have done so far, hopefully I can get some painting done between tonight and tomorrow to get it looking halfway decent. Of course I will also have my daily doodle ready.