Doodle Olympics Update - Autumn Acorns & Falling Leaves

Day 306 of the Doodle Olympics - Obsessing over autumn right now, it's all about trees, leaves and squirrels.

Day 307 of the Doodle Olympics - Autumn also means that the smell of bonfires and fireworks linger in the air!

Day 308 of the Doodle Olympics - Another leaf tumbling on the breeze!

Day 309 of the Doodle Olympics - Little mouse collecting acorns... honestly I just had a real desire to draw acorns.

Day 310 of the Doodle Olympics - The back of a patterned rabbit. I started drawing a pattern... it looked a bit rude... so I turned it into a rabbit. I'm quite pleased with him though :)

Day 311 of the Doodle Olympics - Fortunately I won't have to experience any of this kind of thing this year, but it is hard to forget the memories of standing in the cold waiting for a bus that may never come. I remember one year, I was working in a bookstore that was a twenty minute bus ride from home, I had left work at 5.30pm and didn't get in until 9.10pm, cold and hungry.

Day 312 of the Doodle Olympics - Some days you just don't want to draw. This was was second attempt in the end, the first just kept going from bad to worse! 

A Monster, A Waffle House & Precarious Teacups

Day 215 of the Doodle Olympics - A little hairy jealousy monster. I wasn't feeling jealous myself, I just heard the word on a podcast. Phew! Feeling jealous is the worst!

Day 216 of the Doodle Olympics - The same podcast also mentioned a waffle house... tada!!!

Day 217 of the Doodle Olympics - I quite like those walls you see with collections of frames on them. I want one but so far I have some images but not the frames!

Day 218 of the Doodle Olympics - I was watching the finals of the gymnastics, so I've no idea why I decided to draw a spaceship, maybe it was to do with their shiny leotards!

Day 219 of the Doodle Olympics - A circle, bubble tree...

Day 220 of the Doodle Olympics - This is a bit big for a fairy house, so I decided it should be a 5* fairy hotel!

Day 221 of the Doodle Olympics - I was looking back over some showjumping footage as I doodled this, so I can only assume I was a little inspired by poles falling off and things being a little precarious.

Seaside Memories & An Obsession With Florals

Day 100 of the Doodle Olympics - We had homemade scones at the baby shower, and I have been craving more ever since, but in an effort to stop eating yummy things, I'm drawing instead.

Day 101 of the Doodle Olympics - Helter Skelter, a memory of Hunstanton, from a few weeks ago. 

 Day 102 of the Doodle Olympics - a lighthouse, I seem to have a sea/tall things theme!

 Day 103 of the Doodle Olympics - more sea! 

Day 104 of the Doodle Olympics - True story :( 

Day 105 of the Doodle Olympics - I still wanted to draw something tall, and I was watching one of those home programmes at the time.

Day 106 of the Doodle Olympics - Still obsessed with my floral doodles, as you will see...

Day 107 of the Doodle Olympics - ... floral pumpkin...

Day 108 of the Doodle Olympics - ... Floral tree...

Day 109 of the Doodle Olympics - ... Floral cat...

Day 110 of the Doodle Olympics - ... and Floral skull. :)

Just A Wee Little Forest

Day 39 of the Doodle Olympics - Oooh look, I am posting on the same day as I doodled. I would like to claim that is because I am suddenly more organised, but it is not true. The truth is, I am suffering from afternoon fuzzy head, symptoms include, staring into space, typos, spelling mistakes and forgetting what one is doing. Therefore all jobs that require more than one paragraph of typing, have been abandoned. Still at least the doodles are blogged up to date. :)

Day 3 and 4 of the Doodle Olympics

Day 3 of the Doodle Olympics

Day 4 of the Doodle Olympics

Swing! Swing!

Here is another new little illustration, using another Zombie Kitteh - They are beginning to get everywhere!

This time, Zombie Kitteh is quite small, but there is a lot more going on, as far as a scene is concerned. I thought it would make a nice change :)

As always, he is available as a print, or ipod case, or laptop case/skin in my shop on Society6.

Thanks for looking :)

Bunnies, Mushrooms, Hearts and Trees

Well it is the end of another week, and the time in between my last post seems huge, how did time fly by so quickly!

I have been giving the birds a rest this week and have tried to focus more on illustration. I have found it to be pretty trying, once upon a time I felt nothing of picking up pencil, paint, paper and glue and following my instincts, but after training as a Graphic Designer, I'm a bit out of practice. My mind now works around, 'but why are you putting that there, what does it communicate', which I think is quite useful, but it does occasionally stop me from just going with the flow. The worst thing of all though, is desperately trying to teach myself to paint again, with the knowledge that there is no 'history', or cmd z button to help me out should it all go horribly wrong!

The first pieces this week are my bunnies, 'Bunny by Night' and 'Bunny by Day', a couple of mixed media pieces featuring a cheeky little bunny eating all the flowers. Not only was I trying to get back to my painting, but I decided to throw some fabric and sewing in the mix too, hey why not :)

I am also trying to decide what scoring board to buy, so I can crack on with some card making. Do I get a plastic one? Will it warp, bend, move around too easily? Do I get and MDF one? Will it be too bulky and heavy, will bits chip off it? Most important of all, where will I find it cheapest? Obviously I ended up stumbling across a manual mechanical one that I simply cant' afford - but I still want it!

One of my card ideas is similar to this, cup stains! A little cliche, but I thought it could be quite cute to use as a note to say 'hi' to someone you would like to meet up with, that you haven't seen in a while. I seem to have incorporated a bit of hand sewing into this too!

Finally I love to doodle! The only time I relax and stop worrying about making mistakes is when I doodle. I doodle lots of odd things, such as mushrooms...

...and decorative patterns, that usually include circles and spirals, I love circles and spiral, or any organic kind of shape really. I have been drawing by hand, and made one attempt at painting. I actually really enjoyed it, it was very theraputic, but it was here that I realised just how reliant I am on cmd z. I love working digitally, but it is definitely time to get back to your roots when you begin to rely on the computer too much.

I was really pleased with the results of my tree efforts. I removed the original outlines and was left with something quite fragile and organic.

My other efforts (and the mushroom) were filled with colour using Photoshop. I love to see how clean colour fills are corrupted by my sketchy lines, they are busy, bright, and a little bit chaotic and messy.

Well Life would be boring without a little chaos wouldn't it ?

I think on my next post I will take a little break from the 'me' show and take a gander at creative things other people are doing. I will probably start by meandering through my Misi wish list...