December Doodles

Yeah. I got more done this month but didn't meet my goal. Hopefully January will be kinder to me.
Have a great New Year. I'm looking forward to it. I have lots of plans, hope I can live up to my expectations.  Thank you Doodle Day for keeping me drawing. Here's what I got done of my holiday doodles:

November Doodles.

I promised myself to get back on the Doodle train in November but sadly, it left the station without me. I did manage a few good sketches. The theme was "based on picture books". I had a good start and the holidays tool over my brain. Here's what I came up with:

 

It was a great exercise, I regret not finding time to finish. This was my favorite sketch, based on Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

Looking forward to the dark months ahead to draw, draw draw.

October was my new December.

I love to draw and post on my blog but October swept in and whisked me away on a series of new fun adventures.

OCT. 2 & 3, 2014: 
The first weekend in October, I was in Springfield Il, representing SCBWI-IL at the Illinois Reading Conference. I designed the SCBWI-Illinois display booth and created six bookworms made of fruit to reflect the conference theme: "Harvesting the Fruits of Literacy" We spent two days handing out literature to show teachers how to bring authors and illustrators into their school.


The book worms were made of plastic fruit and wire. Each had a series of miniature books that were replicas of books written by authors or illustrated by artists in Illinois in their hands. We gave them away to preservice teachers after we closed our booth.

 Alice McGinty and Gaye Kick were workers at the booth which was filled with books written or illustrated by Illinois SCBWI members.

On Saturday, Oct. 4th, The Downstate Illinois Illustrators met at a rustic cabin and we made plans for our group in 2015. Here's a pix of us on a hike through the woods.

September 24: Doodle Day Prompt: Gray

A great gray gorilla gobbled gobs of gerkins.

Colored pencil on gray paper.
Inspired by a prompt on the face book group "Doodle Day".

I called this ape when I saved the file. Is there a difference between an ape and a gorilla? Hum, guess I need to find out.

Sept. 23: Doodle Day Prompt: Rectangle

The prompt was "rectangle". I wanted a ram reading in a recliner. Thought I'd use a rectangular rug under him. But.....my drawing had another idea. (Guess I could count the book as a rectangle.)

Ram reads in his restful recliner.

Colored pencil on gray cardstock.

Sept.22: Doodle Day Prompt: Black

Black sheep in bat costumes bedevil the bus driver.


My idea here was to show the school bus the afternoon after the school Halloween party.

Wasn't happy with the outcome. I drew so small I couldn't get the detail I like in the background.






Guess I have to work larger than 8.5 x 11. [From a prompt on Doodle Day, a facebook group.]

Sept. 21: Doodle Day Prompt "Star"

A slender stork steals the skating spotlight.



I guess you could "count" the snowflakes as stars.
I totally fogot about the star prompt in this one. I think my original idea was to use a star shaped spotlight, which in hindsight was a good idea.

Oh well sometimes my artist brain takes over my writer brain, what can I say?

Sept. 20: Doodle Day Prompt: Brown

Buckaroo Badger baked bowtie buns for his babe.


Inspired by Doodle Day Post: Brown

Colored pencil on dark cardstock.

Sept. 19: Doodle Day Prompt: trapezoid

In Tahiti, tri-colored tapirs transport tourists in taxis.

In response to the Doodle Day prompt, trapezoid.
Doodle Day is a facebook group.


Colored pencils on acid free cardstock.

Sept. 18: Doodle Day Prompt: Violet

Vampire vultures exchange violet valentines in Venice.


Colored pencil on black cardstock.

My perspective is waaaaay off. Eek.

Sept. 17: Doodle Day Prompt: Pyramid

Parisan pigs protest for peace.

Colored pencil on black paper.

Inspired by a prompt on Doodle Day
[a facebook group]: "pyramid"

Sept. 16: Doodle Day Prompt: Lavender

A lamb in lavender leggings leaped over the lavatory.



Doodle Day prompt: Lavender
Colored pencil on black paper.

Sept. 15: Doodle Day Prompt: Octagon

Ocelot was oblivious to the ox cart obstruction.

Colored pencil on cardboard
In response to the prompt from Doodle Day (octagon).

Sept. 14: Doodle Day Post: Navy blue

Newton and Ned, nautical newts, pose in Nantucket wearing knitted knickers.


Colored pencil on black paper.
Inspired by a prompt from the facebook page, Doodle Day.

Sept. 13: Doodle Day Prompt: Crescent

Cheetah's cardboard canoe was a catastrophe!

Colored pencil on black paper.

September 12: Doodle Day Prompt: Royal Blue

Rhino's recorder recital rehearsal was rousing.

Colored pencil on black paper.
(I forgot about the royal blue prompt, oops!)

Sept.11: Doodle Day prompt: Heart

Hippo is hypnotic at Halloween.

Colored pencil on blue cardstock.

From a prompt on the facebook page
"Doodle Day".

Sept. 10: Doodle Day Prompt: Light Blue

Baby baboons, Bob and Babs, have baggy blue bottoms.

Sometimes you feel like elaborating, sometimes you don't.

Sept. 9: Doodle Day Prompt: Green

I couldn't make up my mind how to position General Giraffe in my sketch. I probably should have found a reference photo but I didn't.

I did, however, find some great photos of junk sculpture to inspire the finished drawing below.

GENERAL GIRAFFE'S GALACTIC GALLERY REFLECTS HIS COLLECTION OF GLOBAL GARBAGE.

Obviously, I left the prompt, GREEN, to give more emphasis my tongue-twisting title.

What would I do differently?

1. Try to make the window more evenly colored.

2. Be more aware of perspective.
(Yes, my cubes are wonky.)

It was fun doing this drawing.
I think it's ok.

Sept. 8: Doodle Day Prompt: YELLOW

Yellow Yukon Yak yo-yo's during yoga class.

Colored pencil on tablet back.
He's out of proportion but I thought he was work sharing anyway.

Sept 7: Doodle Day Prompt: OVAL

My original sketch had the orangutans lined up. Too predictable. In the final I tried to arrange them huddled up. I should have sketched it out before working on the final paper. I was struggling with the composition.


I adore the colors here but am not 100% happy with the composition.
And if you are an oboe player, please don't cringe at my hand positions....

Lessons learned:

1. FULLY research your inspiration images before starting.

2. ALWAYS sketch out your composition before diving into the details.

Still learning....

The title is "The orangutan orchestra plays an oboe opus."

Sept 6: Doodle Day Prompt: Orange

The Doodle Day prompt for today was orange.

Sketch: I wanted an octopus in an office organizing...I like the expression of the sketch, but ended up not using it in the final colored pencil drawing.








 Final:  An orange Oriental octopus organizes his office.

It's funny how you can see mistakes you overlook when working once you digitize your work. Although I like the color, I think the sketch had more life. I was too focused on having eight arms showing. The symmetry made the image too static.

Sept 5: Doodle Day Prompt: Triangle

The Doodle Day prompt for today was TRIANGLE.

My drawing is
"Tigers turn and twist between triangular tubes."

Love my tigers, cringe at my climbing dome....waaaay off.
I should have sketched it first. Duh.
Guess I'm a slow learner.

Doodle Day is a facebook group. I'm not posting any of my drawings that take longer than one hour.

Sept 4: Doodle Day Prompt: PINK

 My original sketch was altered for the final. I wanted to show more depth.

Perky pandas pogo in pink pajamas.
Colored pencil on gray paper.

Sept 3: Doodle Day Prompt: Square

Square: I actually like the motion better in my sketch. Loved to play square ball on the playground when I was a kid.








Finished work was ho-hum. Not too excited about how it turned out. I struggled with the shadows. Guess I need to do some research on how to draw shadows.

Sept 2: Doodle Day Prompt: Red

The Doodle Day Prompt today is RED.
I've always wanted to do my version of Red Riding Hood. Here's the sketch I came up with.

The final done in colored pencil is called "Red reads relevant tale to a rambunctious pup."

Sept 1: Doodle Day Prompt: Circle

 The Doodle Day [facebook group] prompt for Sept. 1 was circle. I chose to do cats on a merry-go-round.

IF I did this image again, I'd make the circle round..ugh. And alternate the striped cats and the solid ones.

I wasn't satisfied with the cats so I tried another image. Which I think is more successful. Title is "South Sea seals sail in a circle"

I'm having fun making up tongue twisting titles for each September prompt. Some of the images will be pretty crazy. Be warned!

Animals with a Twist: The Lost Images: Lemur: Heddy LeMur, film star and Sir Chimpanzee

EEK! I forgot to post these images from my July study.
Here they are better late than never.

More from the series I did in July:
Animals with a Twist
All were based on prompts from the Facebook group, Doodle Day.

Top Image:
Sir Chim Panze
Black and white pencil on gray paper.


Bottom Image:
Heddy LeMur film star
Black, white and yellow pencil on black paper.
Love those 1930-40's fashions!

Insects U-Z

U: Underwing Moth
I enjoyed sketching this powdery moth with it's feathery wings.














V: Viceroy Butterfly
Two dollars worth of black pencil went into this image. [Boy was I tired of black!]

W: Web Spinner
Every few drawings, seems like I have to break out of the "scientific-realistic" mode and give myself something playful to work on. The web spinner as an Ancient Egyptian with a pyramid-like web.

X: Xerces Butterfly
Once native to North America, now extinct. What a loss...how lovely it was.

Y: Yellowjacket
Yikes! Gave me shivers the whole time I was drawing it. Creepy insect.

Z: Zebra Butterfly
Have to say as much as I don't like insects, it was a good month to push my media boundaries. I learned a lot.

THANK YOU DOODLE DAY for the nudge!
[Doodle Day is an online facebook group for folks who like to draw.]

Insects P-T

P: Pea Weevil
Although this has a nice reference to aboriginal art, I wasn't happy with the end product. The background was too much for colored pencils.

Q: Question Mark Butterfly
Ah....my favorite fall colors. Was satisfied with this image.

R: Rhinoceros Beetle

Loved this drawing. The rhinoceros beetle is a real challenge. I nailed it...if I do say so myself!

S: Stink Bug
This needs explaining. The stink bug has a dry looking gray back. When I was studying it to draw, all I could think of was Boris Karloff in the Mummy, with his dry peeling crusty skin....so I incorporated his image on the back of the bug.













T: Thrip
I challenge you to say that three times quickly. I couldn't say it once without a cartoon image popping in my mind, so here's the outcome.