Doodle - 116 Hot Air Balooning and Dancer Cone of Shame

More excitement today, we helped our friends decorate for Christmas. At several points we spoke about getting a "cone of shame" for their dog and somehow I ended up with a mental picture of Dancer the reindeer wearing one so he won't mess with a scrape, which was a result of reindeer games gone wrong.

After that I just randomly drew a dog piloting a hot air baloon. Yup, my brain is a weird place.

Doodle 115 - Panda Zipline and a Battle

Did everybody survive the turkey and sales?

We had a ball yesterday, made new friends at the sales lines and laughed non stop for 3 solid hours.

The crowds got quite crazy at points though, one of my friends witnessed a guy flying over boxes to land on the video game display, the same guy later got in line with Andrei and regaled him with the tale of how he threw himself onto the crowd and emerged victorious.

We got what we needed and made it home safe and sound.

Today we went to the chrismas tree farm, Andrei went zip lining with our friends, I told them I would, but I probably look like a panda just hanging there awkwardly LOL.

And now you know why I drew what I did today.

Doodle 114 - Happy Thanksgiving!

Presently I am in line for thanksgiving deals, we had a great time with friends and we are still hanging out here.

I spent part of the day playing with my friend's kids and we drew hand turkeys, so that's my doodle for the day :).

If you are in the US, I hope you are having a wonderful holiday!

Doodle 113 - Wolf and hostess

We are on the road, this means I ended up having to draw and post from the car again.

The holiday traffic isn't too terrible so far, but it is hard to keep a steady hand and take photos to post LOL.

I drew a random girl with her wolf friend and a hostess with unusual tastes for the thanksgiving holiday... And that's her pet octopus lending some tentacles serving the punch.

Doodle 112 - Work, gravity and things in between

First, a short movie review.

I just finished watching The Descendants, when it was out on movie theaters I had decided I wanted to see it, but when I go to the movies I mostly aim for fluff and films that allow me to escape. I don't really like to see dramas on the big screen, maybe because they are just... "larger" and can easily suck you in.

So today it came on TV while we were eating dinner, and all I have is one word: "Brilliant"

The Descendants

I am very critical of writing in movies that seek to depict human emotions during times of hardship, sometimes writers make their characters overly sensitive, make them explode in every direction to show hurt, sadness or anger, but from personal experience, sometimes the deepest hurts are the ones that bubble below the surface, they burn deep and don't erupt, because one is so hurt, so angry, that if the emotions actually get out people can easily loose their minds.

If you haven't watched it yet I highly recommend it, it is beautifully written and acted and I was very pleasantly surprised.

And now, for today's doodles.

Working Late Into The Night - graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 10 mins.

A girl decides to make a quilt working day and night with the hopes that, once the quilt is done her wish might come true.

"I'm going down the rabbit hole... I might be late for dinner" - Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 5 mins.

I don't know, I just felt like drawing something fast I guess, lol and finally:

"Haha! Yeah, science is fun ladies, now, can we please turn the anti-gravity off? I am trying to have some tea here!" - Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 20 mins.

I guess it isn't all harmony when your roomates are brilliant kinda-crazy scientists.

Doodle 111 - Fairy Tales

I wanted to finish my winter trading cards today, but for some reason my mind wanted to draw something else, so I opened my notebook and started doodling.

At first I wasn't sure what I wanted to draw, but I soon decided it had to be this:

The Little Mermaid's Last Farewell - graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 15 mns.

 I was maybe 12 when I saw the Disney's version of the Little Mermaid, before that I had grown up knowing only the original Hans Christian Andersen version. In it, the Little Mermaid gives away her tongue to the Sea Witch in order to become human, be with the prince she fell in love with and gain an immortal soul. She looses her family and home in the process and discovers that each step she takes on her human legs tortures her with incredible pain.

Despite it all she seems to be gaining the prince's heart, until he eventually falls in love with the princess of a neighboring country. The sisters of the Little Mermaid try to save her by exchanging their hair for an enchanted knife from the Sea Witch. If the Little Mermaid kills the prince and lets his blood touch her legs she would be back to being a mermaid and be saved from simply disappearing.

The poor girl can't bring herself to kill the prince, so she throws herself overboard and turns into sea foam.

It is a very sad tale of love found and eventually lost, and somehow I always loved this version much better.

After drawing that I decided I needed to draw something else since I have been slacking a bit lately.

I came up with a quick doodle:

The Captive Maid - graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 10 mins.

I decided to come up with a story to explain this, and it goes sort of like this:

In an ancient kingdom there lived a powerful wizard, he served the queen and king of a prosperous and beautiful land. He was immortal and at one time had been wise and magnanimous.

After many centuries of living alone he had actually taken a wife, only to see her age and die while he remained young and healthy. Finally the loneliness had driven him mad, but he didn't let anybody notice this flaw.

One day he fell in love with a young and pretty maid from the castle. She was poor and with no family close by. After much deliberation he devised an enchantment that would make it so he could keep the young maid within his mind. After all nobody would miss her since she wasn't a princess or lady in waiting.

"This way she can always be with me, she won't die and I'll never be alone" he thought.

And so, one cold winter night he cast the spell over the sleeping maid who had never really noticed that the wizard had taken a liking to her. 

Time was different within her prison, and at first she was scared, lost and hopeless. Soon though, she began to figure out where she was, how to communicate with the wizard and slowly her strong will and intelligence allowed her to take some control of the wizard's own mind and movements.

She could peer out of his eyes into the world, study enchantments from books as he slept (she had learned to read at an early age), and finally, one day figured a way to escape.

That's all I have for now, maybe I'll figure out how it ends.

Doodle 110 - Oh Sundays

And here we are, at the end of another weekend, it's ok though, I only have a 3 day workweek before the thanksgiving break, truly I am looking forward to it like crazy!

I made a quick sketch today, and I am happy to say I am feeling much better, so hopefully the 3 days at the office will go without much insanity.

Healer - graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox. 5 mins

Doodle 109 - Sleepy

Just 2 doodles for today, I ended up feeling a bit under the weather, so hopefully tomorrow I'll get more stuff done.

The sleepy ride home - graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 5 mins.

Flower Queen - graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 10 mins.

Doodle 108 - More Artist Trading Cards

Today I kept working on the trading card set I have to finish soon. I have had quite a crazy week at work, so I am really excited for the weekend, I'll finally have time to go to the post office, send some stuff out, get my Christmas card list started and clean house... because I am going to need a rescue team to get us out if we don't get things under control soon... yeah, if I skip any doodles, someone contact the authorities because we are probably buried under things that need to be laundered or recycled lol.

This Friday I won't have an interactive theme so I can get my trading cards done, chores and start on my vynilmation project before the holidays rain upon us.

But don't worry, I'll make it up to you guys with a surprise right in time for the holidays.

And without further ado, here are my doodles for today:

More Winter Animals! - non-photo blue pencil, micron pen, prismacolor pencils on cold press watercolor paper cards.

Doodle 107 - Winter Drawings

One of the new things I have decided to do as part of my year-long project is drawing artist's trading cards.

I have known about them for many, many years, I thought of doing some while in college, but between work and school I decided I had more than enough on my plate.

Finally, I joined a group of designers and artists that does "doodle swaps" on a general basis. This time I jumped at the opportunity and now I have to start working on my set of cards if I want to send them out on time.

I figured my theme would be "Winter", today I did my first 3 cards, they are not finished, mostly because I want to keep them a surprise for my fellow swap participants until they get them in the mail:

Winter Doodle Cards - non-photo blue pencil, micron pen and prismacolor pencils on cold press watercolor artist trading cards. Aprox 40 mins.

These were a lot of fun to draw, I might have found a new giveaway type of item that would allow me to spread the love more. The cards are just 2.5'' x 3.5'', so they are kind of cute.