A Doodle Library

So I got this nifty little spiral notebook with a shiny cover at ALA.


I'm not sure what SPIE Digital Library does, other than hand out free graph paper notebooks, but that's enough for me.


Sometimes when I'm doodling, my brain can't think of all the zillions of possible patterns I could use, so I'm using this handy dandy little SPIE notebook to create a reference library of patterns.


And my first two pages are filled now.


Some are good, some are lame, but it's interesting to just draw samples that don't have to fit into a particular space.

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Now in Technicolor

Today I doodled, but it was made a zillion times harder because I added color.


It's not my favorite doodle, and I have a lot to learn about adding color, but it's not bad for a first try.

BTW, I've colored in a doodle or two in the past, but that was with the much more forgiving colored pencils rather than markers.

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Happiness cubed

It's been a very long weekend. Since I'm so well-trained in the art of drawing cubes, here's one of my favorites:




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Ribbonlicious

I have survived the conference mostly intact. I discovered that collecting a whole bunch of badge ribbons is a great conversation starter. In honor of the many interesting people I met because of my compulsive ribbon collecting, I've drawn them.



And, so you can see them in all their full color glory...


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Drawn together

Since my whole life this weekend has been the ALA conference, I decided to draw the beacon that draws me to it each day.

This is my pencil (aka colorless) interpretation of the meeting logo – all freehand, no tracing!



And here's the real thing. I can share it this time because I'm not horribly ashamed of my own version.



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Ugly is as ugly does

Today, while waiting for my carpool buddy, I made a really ugly sketch of a really ugly piece of art in the convention center. I only had a pen -- no pencils -- so my attempt at depicting shading was only frustrating and messy.




If include a photo of the actual statue, but then you'd see how truly horrible my drawing really is.

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Brain dead doodle

Today I had a very long and busy (and good, but exhausting) day at the ALA Midwinter conference. I walked and talked and shopped and learned and shared and networked and lunched and even schmoozed a wee bit.

So a brainless doodle is all I can manage for tonight.




Or maybe it's a doodle of my brain. If so, I can see the olive compartment. Mmmm...olives.


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Trace evidence

Lesson 13 bonus challenge: Tracing!

Luckily, today's drawing assignment was easy - I had to trace an existing drawing twice. No problemo.



The next few days, my drawing may be a bit lame. Sketchy, even. I'll be busy at a librarian conference. But I'll still draw Something each day.

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Housing for High-Class Hobos

Lesson 13 of 40: Advanced Houses

Today's drawing basically consists of adding a wing to the previous shack, so it's more house-like.




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Bambooyah

Today I took a break from the drawing lessons and tested out my new skills by drawing something real. Here's what I drew:



And here's the actual thing I was looking at:



Not too bad for someone who can't draw.

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Hobo mailbox

Lesson 13 Bonus Challenge: Mailbox

Continuing to apply my vast familiarity with cubes, I've drawn a mailbox that might be found in some rural and abandoned hay field.




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Hobo shack

Lesson 12 of 30: Constructing with Cubes

Today's lesson involved using my vast accumulation of knowledge to make a weird little house with holes where the door and window should be.



There's a weird line inside, and I should've fixed it before taking the picture. But I didn't.

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Zenspired to doodle

Today I needed a relaxing break from the drawing lesson series. So I made a doodle, with some new doodle designs inspired from a super awesome book I got at Michaels.

Here's the doodle:


And here's the awesome book:




I want to be able to draw exactly like what's in this book.

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Holey drawing, Batman

Lesson 11 of 30: Cylinder Bonus Challenge
Today's drawing is some inside-out cylinders. AKA holes.




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Land of Tubes

Lesson 11 of 30: Advanced Cylinders

Today's drawing seems to be a city of tube-shaped buildings and some kind of flying doohickey.



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Drawn together

Lesson 10 of 30: Cylinders

Today I drew 3 cylinders. I'm beginning to feel very attached to the last step, which is going over the lines more darkly. It makes my drawings less realistic and more cartoony, but I like it that way. If I wanted reality, I'd take a picture.




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A rose by any other name would still look like a bowl-flag hybrid

Lesson 9 of 30: The Rose (Part 2)

Wherein I take what I learned from drawing bowls and flags and make a lovely rose.



This exercise reminded me of how I drew roses when I was little.

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A rose is a flag

Lesson 9 of 30: The Rose (Part 1)

Today I just did the first part of this lesson. I ended up drawing a bowl and some flags and a whole bunch of foreshortened circles.







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15 balls

Lesson 8 Bonus Challenge: Textures

Today I drew a bunch of balls, of varying lumpiness and with inconsistent cast shadows, each sporting a different texture or pattern.




This was fun, but it took a lot of time to think of that many different textures and then to draw them all.

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Killer Koala

Lesson 8 of 30: Koala
For some reason, my drawing lessons have shifted abruptly from spheres and cubes to koalas.




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A Towering Achievement

Lesson 7 (continued): Advanced Cubes Bonus Challenge

Here's the bonus drawing that goes with yesterday's lesson, wherein I go wild with stacking cubes.




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Building on my skills (har har)

Lesson 7 of 30: Advanced Cubes

Today I drew a building-type thing with doorways and ramps and stuff.




Each of these lessons has a "bonus challenge" afterward. So far, I've been doing the bonus drawings as part of the lesson. Today was sufficiently difficult and time-consuming that I'll be doing the bonus part tomorrow.

Of course, I won't get through this drawing book in 30 days, as planned, but I have a whole year, so lighten up.

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Stacked

Lesson 6 of 30: Stacking Tables

I fit in today's drawing between jogging and JKD. This one seemed pretty easy and quick compared to some previous lessons.




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Flaps and Lids

Lesson 5 of 30: Hollow Cubes

Today I learned how to draw flaps and lids on boxes. Apparently, it involves a lot of compass directions.




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That's so square, man

Lesson 4 of 30: The Cube

Today I moved past balls and started to draw boxes. Woohoo!







Two whole pages of dandy cubes.

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I will call him Blinky

Drawing lesson 3 of 30: Advanced Spheres

Today's lesson was more involved than previous ones. Still, just drawing spheres.


The bottom drawing is just a pile of balls, but it inadvertently ended up looking like some sad creature with one eye popping out.

Cast shadows continue to be a source of concern, anxiety, and dissatisfaction.

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I drew me some balls

Lesson 2 of 30: Overlapping Spheres.

Bask in the glory:




I'm not a fan of these cast-shadow things.

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Draw One

Lesson 1 of 30. Off to a mediocre start.




Gotta start somewhere.

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A house, an airplane, and a bagel

I'm starting a 30-day drawing program from yet another library book. The first task was to do a sort of pretest. Here it is:




Stunning, no?

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Flashback to my kindergarten art

Here's my beautiful drawing for today:


This drawing is the result of the first "pre-drawing" exercise in a drawing book I have from the library. The task was to draw a scene including a house, a person, a tree, some bushes and flowers, and at least five other things of my choice.

I'm sure looking forward to improving.

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Faces by me; bodies by Keagin

My new 365 project for 2013 is to draw something every day. I've always wanted to learn how to draw, so that's my goal for this year.

Today I was inspired to start my long artistic journey while at lunch after doing the 5K Resolution Run and Polar Bear Plunge.

I drew crappy little pictures of my fellow ice-run buddies. I drew just the faces, and then Keagin pitched in to add the bodies, which I think are pretty sweet.




One thing I learned from my first drawing attempt this year is that I'm really bad at drawing chins. If only faces could just be floating in air under a pile of hair.

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