A Doodle A Day

Hotel Window

A quick little post to keep the tumbleweed at bay around here as it has been a few days since the last one.

At the beginning of the week I was in Scotland and had hoped to do a couple of quick sketches but as soon I passed Carlisle and saw the signs for Scotland the skies grew very dark and the heavens opened and for the most part continued in that vein until I saw the sign pronouncing 'Welcome to England' on the return journey. I did contemplate doing a couple of quick sketches in the hotel bar on the evenings but while the mind thought it a good idea the body didn't want to get off the sofa.

So, this weekend which saw me working in Leeds seemed as good a time as any for a quick sketch. The hotel in Leeds is just on the outskirts of the City and in an area of new developments, city apartments and the like and while not the most wonderful of views out of the window it was the only possibility. Not my idea of a room with a view but at least it is back to some, or at least an on the spot sketch. Unfortunately the camera lens has skewed the perspective a little and as I never spend any time over taking a decent picture of the doodles and don't use a scanner it will have to suffice.

The Technical Bit.

Fountain Pen on Cartridge Paper.

Play Time

Ink seems to be the medium more than any other that I am drawn towards to doodling with and especially the more organic line quality of dip pen nibs rather then the single precise width of the technical pen.

The dip pen nib does have a drawback however in that it can only be used on the down stroke and sometimes this can be frustrating. After the Mid Autumn Festival doodle of a couple of days ago and the link with Chinese mythology I decided to purchase a Chinese bamboo brush and some ink sticks and have a play around with ink drawings using a brush instead.

It is an extremely satisfying method of drawing even though I am pretty ham fisted with it at the moment and the results less than precise. However it is fun grinding the ink from the sticks and applying it, or rather trying to apply it with the brush, and then adding more water to dilute the ink to create tones.

I think I am going to have a good play around with this method of drawing. Just out of interest I sketched the same simple doodle twice, firstly with the medium bamboo brush and then with a No 3 Rigger. In a moment of silliness I also carved a little leaf motif into the soapstone seal that came with the bamboo set, which I think was a more successful exercise than the actual doodles!

The Technical Bit.

Medium Goat Hair Bamboo Brush and Chinese Stick Ink on Cartridge Paper.

No 3 Rigger and Medium Goat Hair Bamboo Brush  and Chinese Stick Ink on Cartridge Paper.

Rainy Days and Mondays

and today's weather is....

The Technical Bit.

Fountain Pen on Cartridge Paper.

Chinese Moon Festival

Oh No, it's another one of those swirly oooh ahhhh eeeee oouuuuu (insert ethereal music) ink doodles. Sorry kids!

Alina Chau on her blog mentions in her latest post that next Monday is the Chinese Moon Festival or the mid Autumn Festival, as on searching the web there is a moon festival every month and you get to eat Moon Cakes too! Search the web for recipe! mmm cake! There is one recipe out there for moon cake with Chinese pork in it, so that's a mmm mmm mmm Moon cake!

Anyway, off the topic of food and back on track and we end up with this ink doodle. I love reading about different cultures mythologies and (here is the link to Illustration Friday's topic of depth) there is such a depth of cultural beliefs and legends throughout the world which fascinate me. So, I give you the Chinese lady of the legend flying to the moon. There seem to be different variations on this legend as there tend to be with most legends so I won't include it here, but Alina has one variation in her post.

The Technical Bit.

Dipping Pen and Ink on Cartridge Paper.

Another retro post

Oh yes, I am dragging out the old ones again. Well, last years anyway.

This little pastel doodle has been sitting in the sidebar up until now and is one of those that first saw the light of day on my old Tree of Life site.

Last night after the hand sketch I looked out of the window and in the distance through the trees I could just see the misty orange glow of a street lamp. The kind of mist shrouded glow that makes you think of Sherlock Holmes, of dark nights, damp cold air, muffled sounds, scarves, long coats with the collar turned up, the welcoming pale yellow warmth of lights in windows. So as a result I thought I would pull this little doodle out of the side bar into the main blog. It's strange but this little doodle is the one doodle that people always seemed to fix on usually ending in a query as to if it was for sale. As it is only a doodle it wasn't and it is still sitting in the pastel paper pad somewhere under a pile of other pads.

Just so it isn't only a retro post and to link in with welcoming yellow light and of that Sherlock Holmes feel, a rapid pen doodle of the little Indian candle latern that sits on the desk.

The Technical Bit.

Mist - Artists Soft Pastel on Pastel Paper.

Lamp - Fountain Pen on Cartridge Paper

Something freaky this way comes...

Hmmm...So you are sitting there with a pen in your hand and a sketchbook on your lap thinking what can I doodle.

And then you get the strange idea of sketching your hand, the hand that will be doing the sketch sketching itself. It's not that easy to sketch and have the subject of the sketch doing the sketching at the same time. I deliberately chose just a single candle for illumination to give a stark feel to the sketch and found that in order to create the sketch I had to use a very loose grip and fluid movement to be able to maintain a constant hand form while moving it across the paper to sketch, no changing the angle of the pen or hand at all.

I draw more or less in this fashion anyway. I never rest my wrist on the paper and always draw from the arm and shoulder rather than from the wrist and fingers as drawing from the wrist restricts the fluidity of drawing.

The wrist ended up way too thick as I have fairly slim hands but hey it was an interesting exercise!

The Technical Bit.

Fountain Pen on Cartridge Paper.

Books and Snacks

It has been a day of permanent twilight and heavy rain here today and the only thing to do on a day like this if you have any sense is to settle down with a good book and snacks and maybe idly doodle a little.

It might be difficult from today's doodle to guess which book I disappeared into!

The world of sketch blogs seemed a while back to be the dominion of our friends from across the pond and I used to wish that I could find a few more home grown sketch and art blogs to compliment them.

Well of late it would seem that the Brits are rising to the challenge with some great sketch, art and animation blogs.

Uli Meyer Studios in London seem to be trying to redress the balance just on their own with some great new blogs starting with Uli Meyer and then Sean Hayden and Paul McKeown. And then guys like, Matt Cruickshank, Gerben Steenks, Stephane Kardos and Matt Jones. Most of these had been added to the sidebar a little while ago but there are also some new links added today such as Alina Chau.

Now I am an animation nut and the main comment from my better half is ‘can we watch a film with real people in it for a change?’, so I am really enjoying seeing these blogs from these guys. And of course the simple answer to the question raised by the better half is of course, ‘No!’

The Technical Bit.

0.9 Propelling Pencil on Scrap Paper.

A year on

Where does the time go to?

It is nearly a year now since this little watercolour doodle was originally posted on my previous blog 'Tree of Life'. It was idly doodled one Sunday afternoon at home in mid Autumn during what I remember to be a hectic time of trips away. It isn't a great doodle but it does capture something of the feeling of Autumn for me.

Spring and Autumn have to be my favourite seasons. Autumn for the colours and the freshness in the air, the cooler evenings. Spring for the promise of longer lighter evenings and the rebirth of plants and trees and for the wonderful dawn choruses and all day long birdsong. Winter would be fine if we still had heavy snowfalls and breath taking cold but we don't have winters like those any more and so it has become more of a non event as a season and is just a period of long long nights. It is strange how you notice that change of smell in the air. A couple of nights ago I was waking back home on the evening after nipping out for something from a nearby shop and found myself sniffing the air and thinking in that kind of wise all knowing sage way, 'Autumn is definitely here'. I'll be leaning on five bar gates next with a stalk of straw in my mouth making utterances such as, 'Red sky int mornin, Shepard's warnin...Red sky at night, yer barns on fire' and the such like!

Jeepers Creepers

Creeping vines seem to be a prominent feature of the last few doodles, from the triffid on the doodle desk to the vines in Dreamers and Sleep (Roots) drawings.

These things don't just happen by accident something prompts the inclusion even if it is more of a subconscious happening than a decision at the outset to include them. I realised what had been the catalyst for these in Dreams and Sleep today, and that is... that they are all over the one part of the house making it almost impossible to shut the one slatted wooden door to the storage area that houses the gardening bits and bobs as they creep behind the door. They seem to get a little bit further each year and I quite like them as the leaves are a deep burgundy and when the sun shines through them they become a rich red,  I am always quite sorry when they die away with the onset of winter. So not content with the outside of the house they are now taking over the drawings.

The Technical Bit.

Fountain Pen on Cartridge Paper.

The Inner Sanctum!

The what?!?

Well it gets to be rather black and white around here so I thought for a change I'd get away from the doodle posts and the black and white lines and let you into the place where the non out and about doodles are created, the doodle desk. I am always on about it and the things I use for sketching and ink doodling so here are some of them. This also kind of links in with Studio Friday's favourite tool subject

The leather bound sketch books I use on the left and the dip pen handle and nibs on the right hand side. The Celtic pewter dip pen handle being the favourite.

One of rock crystal lamps and bankers lamps that creates the right ambiance for those late night doodling sessions.

The fountain pen and pencil that I use for all of the sketching when not using the dip pen. A Cross 0.9 propelling pencil and a CARAN dACHE fountain pen.

And finally the watercolours and brushes which travel with me. These are the four most often used brushes and out of these the Rowney Diana No8 and No6 Kolinsky Sables are the favourites.

So there you go, a little bit of colour for a change and the tools I most often use.