Doodling…

I’ve been creating fine pen doodles, sometimes known as zentangles, for years now and have sketchbooks full of them. When I started creating these, the originals were always black and white and if I added colour I did it digitally after I’d scanned the originals. I was very precious with those originals – too frightened to experiment in case I ruined them. But just recently I’ve started adding them into some of my mixed media work…

…and I’m quite pleased with how they’re turning out.

This one was created using a collage of book pages, followed by a watercolour wash and clear gesso glaze. The doodling came next. I don’t plan this, its totally spontaneous and I’m always surprised by the end result! Lastly I added some colour to the doodling using pitt pens and a bit of shading with a water soluble graphite stick.

More Zentangles!

I’ve rather got hooked on these Zentangle doodles – looks like I’m going for a series!

I chose to use the sun as my central image this time. Everything is drawn freehand, which is why the box is not quite square to the page on this one – just call it artistic license!

Once again I used my Unipin Fine Line pen – I think I’m going to have to bulk buy these if I do many more of these zentangles!

I just wish the scan could show the wonderful shimmer that the Twinkling H2O’s add to the image!

Doodle Flowers

Yesterday I got talked into trying out a new app on my iPad called Bamboo Paper. It’s a notebook that you can paint and scribble in.

The first thing I wanted to know after I’d played around with the different tools and produced a few doodles was – “Can I export the images?” So I tried… and it let me email myself a .png file copy of the page I’d been working on. From there it was a simple matter of playing digital games to come up with today’s image. I can see I’m going to have fun with this!

Sleep With The Journal? ….. No Way!!!

Sleep with the Journal? …. No Way!!! It’s much too lumpy and there are far too many sharp bits sticking out!! Instead I altered the instructions and created new ones!!

It now has a series of statements/ instructions:

Sleep is something we all need
Are you happy with Life?
Experiment with the book!
Journal your thoughts …
Descibe how you are feeling …
Play with the art
All experiences are useful
Leave your comments here

I then coloured the pages using a water colour pencil wash, and added an explosion of colour to the left page! I may well add some more comments to the right page as I think of them 🙂

This next page evolved as my doodles are inclined to do!! I had no intention of drawing a face when I started out … it just ended up that way!

The left page evolved after I used it to try out some new rubber stamps I got from the SSP Guild on Saturday morning. It just reminded me of these words from an old Dave Clark Five song called Here comes Summer (Showing my age there!!) Only trouble was … the page got really wet after I wrote the words and they bled everywhere!! So I wrote over the top again. I think it looks even better now!! What was that I was saying about accidents improving artistic content? (see bottom of last post)

Following another set of instructions …

… I coloured the edges of the pages using Perfect Pearls from Ranger. It would have been easier to do at the beginning before the book got so fat!! 🙂

Altered Business Meeting!

Today I took my ‘Wreck This Journal’ book to the Thanet Venture Group’s monthly meeting with a simple request ….” Would they please each do something on the ‘Hang this Journal in a Public Place’ page. I provided lots of coloured marker pens for them to play with and they added some coffee/tea and biscuits. The original intention was for them to complete it during the break, but the book was passed round continually throughout the meeting causing much hilarity and raising some really great issues. It definitely made for an altered business meeting! This is the result 🙂

The book is starting to look really battered now ….

…… but there are still plenty of pages left to have fun with – keep watching this space for further updates!