Week 17 of 365 Days of Art Challenge

Creative Doodling and Beyond
by Stephanie Corfee

This week has just flown by! Since I've been working on doodles this past week, I decided to do a couple following Stephanie Corfee's instructions from her book Creative Doodling and Beyond.  This is a workbook with prompts, ideas, and projects for turning simple doodles into works of art. After giving explanations and examples of a particular idea or technique, there are blank pages on which to practice. It is a fun book and my workbook is turning into an art journal of sorts.

The two doodles that follow are done blindly. You set your pen (or pencil) on the paper, close your eyes and draw a looping, freeform, curvy line without lifting the pen from the paper. After opening your eyes, you fill in the design (string) with tangle patterns and create an interesting abstract work of art!

Abstract Blind Doodle #1, 7" x 5", with 0.01 Sakura black pen and graphite pencil on workbook page

Abstract Blind Doodle #2, 7" x 6", with 0.01 Sakura black pen and graphite pencil on workbook page.
I ran into the beaded lines delineating the margins of the page with this string. Oops! (But, my eyes were closed!)

Sorry about the photography - I was having trouble getting a good photo without shadows. Not sure why one came out with a sepia cast and the other a bluish cast to it. They are on the same workbook page! I really need a better camera! (hint, hint!!)

This was a fun process, as I had no idea how the string would turn out.  It was relaxing, different, and a creative way to do a doodle, especially if you are stuck with starting a string for your Zentangle or doodle.

Week 16 of 365 Days of Art Challenge

This week has just flown by. Week 16 of the 364 Days of Art Challenge! Wow! Where has the time gone?!

Create Mixed-Media announced the winners today of the Zen Doodle: Oodles of Doodles challenge. I am

Zen Doodles Oodles of Doodles challenge

one of the winners!!! Whoo-hoo!!

I posted last week when I received the email about being one of the winners and which Zentangles were accepted. (See post from Fri, April 18.here.)  I've been busy drawing my step-outs for each Zentangle that was accepted. However, I can't show these just yet.  You'll just have to wait for the book to be published to see my sketches for Week 16! F&W Media is planning a Dec 2014 publish date. Thank you for your understanding and support! (especially my husband - he's been having to cook this week! Lol!)

The editor also asked me to send a few more photos of my Zentangles. I like Traci Bautista's glamour girls and had to try a couple. This is one I sent. The others have been posted already.   

Glamour Girl, 6" x 6" Zentangle-Inspired Art on mixed-media paper
with 0.005, 0.01, 0.05 Sakura black pen and pencil. 

I also quilted some this week. I've been working on a charm square challenge issued by the President's of the Prickly Piecer's quilt guild chapter I belong to. I found a modern quilt pattern that I really like called Shine Through by Zen Chic's Brigitte Heitland. I chose Kaffe Fassett fabrics for the charm pack and a solid red background with a solid purple backing fabric. I plan to also use the purple fabric to add a piping to the binding.  I'm ready to start quilting, but not sure how I want to quilt it yet.

My version of Shine Through, 83" x 64".

Zentangles to be published!

F&W Media published a book last fall called: Zen Doodle: Tons of Tangles. I have four Zentangle-Inspired Art (ZIA) pieces published in this book (see post .dated Sept 9 2013).  It was such a success that they decided to followup with a second book, Zen Doodle: Oodles of Doodles.












In mid-January, Create Mixed Media announced a call for entries for the 3.5" x 3.5" Zentangle tiles for this new book.  Yesterday, I received an email telling me that they have accepted 5 of the entries I submitted!!! Whoo-hoo!!!!

These are the tiles that were accepted:

Now the hard work starts. Making step outs and captions for all the tiles! I'm so excited!!

Week 15 of 365 Days of Art Challenge

This has been a very busy week. Tax time!! Wasn't sure I was going to get any sketching done as taxes were taking so long to do. My husband has a handyman business, so have to do the self-employment stuff. I knew I had made a mistake someplace on Schedule C. Took me 3 days to track it down!!  Finally, have them done, and actually got them in a couple days early. Yeah!! Sketching time!

I found a couple photos of people and children on Pinterest that I'd been wanting to sketch. Narrowed it down to an elderly lady and a child. I think children's faces are hard to sketch, because if they're not done properly they look like adults, not children. So I decided to start with the elderly lady's face first. I got as far as getting an outline done. Realized it would take me too long to get it done for this week's challenge. Zentangles - a good standby for sketching something quickly that is still fun to do.

Here is the Zentangle I did this week for Week 15 of the 365 Days of Art Challenge:

6" x 6" Zentangle-Inspired Art on mixed-media paper done with
Sakura 0.005, 0.01, 0.03, and 0.08 micron black pens and pencils.

I drew a series of loops for my string.  I used Ennies, Floatfest, Frickle,  Knightsbridge, Linq, Mooka, Pepper, Sparkle, and Zinger tangles.  I'm pleased with the result. Now if I could get the paper to lay flat so I wouldn't get the shadowing on the bottom of the page when I photographed it, I'd really be pleased.

Fixing the Dishwasher

My son, his wife, and grandson were over a couple days ago.  I don't usually post pictures of my family, but these ones made me laugh! I thought you might enjoy them.

This is what happens when you leave the guys in charge of watching children!! Lol!!

Dad and Papa in charge of watching the grandson!

Dad and Papa still haven't noticed what I'm doing. Grandma
had time to take pictures before they finally caught on!

We girls just laughed! He was so happy just trying to figure out how everything worked! He is definitely Daddy's boy!! I love it - the mother's curse is working out very well!

Week 14 of 365 Days of Art Challenge

Wasn't sure I was going to get any sketching done this week. I almost always procrastinate about doing our taxes, especially since we usually end up owing money. Therefore, I've been busy working on taxes, adding up all those darn receipts that seem to multiply since I started working on them! Would be so much easier if my husband wasn't a small business owner! But he enjoys being a handyman, working for himself, so I really can't complain!

Back to sketching. I found some time this week, while waiting in doctor's offices (and when I needed a break from receipts!). I wanted to work on some portraits this week, but those take more time than I had available. I fell back to doing more exercises from the dragon book - Dragon Evolution by J. "Neon Dragon" Peffer. This week I sketched different types of dragon wings.

Batlike Dragon Wing in pencil on mixed-media paper. The added flap at the top of the wing
for additional support was difficult to make look correct. I'm not sure I was very successful. 

Fingerless Dragon Wing in pencil on mixed-media paper.. Not sure how this wing is supported
without the elongated fingers, as in the bat-like wing. I like the way it looks, however.

Part-Feathered, Part-Batlike Dragon Wing in pencil on mixed-media paper.
I want to draw a dragon with this type of wing. This was fun to sketch.

Multi-spined Dragon Wing in pencil on mixed-media paper. I like the small added
wing flap by the body. Although, I'm not sure how this helps with flight. 

Tattered Dragon Wing. This wing type is my favorite. I think it's more dramatic.
But, how does a dragon maintain flight with tattered wings?

I enjoyed drawing the various wing types this week. Except for Oriental dragons, most have wings. I'm learning much about the anatomy of a dragon from this book.  Ms. Peffer's book is very well done, making the exercises easy to follow.

On to week 15!! Taxes will be filed by then and I can relax and really enjoy sketching!

Week 13 of 365 Days of Art Challenge

Week 13!! I've completed weekly sketches for 1/4 of the year so far! Didn't really believe I could do this. I'm enjoying it, though, and I'm learning to make time for sketching instead of just trying to figure out how to fit some time in for it.

I really wanted to do one of the exercises from Cate Caulacos Prato's Mixed-Media Self-Portraits: Inspiration and Techniques. (See book club discussions from Deb Prewitt at Blue Twig Studio and from previous my blogs from March 31 and March 1.)  In this exercise, you put a transparency on the mirror and trace the features of your face. It was much more difficult than I expected. The outline of my face looked okay, but everything else was warped! Lol! She did say it may take a few tries to get a good outline! I'll post this when I get something that looks like a face!

So, I've continued with my dragon sketches from J. "Neon Dragon" Peffer's book Dragon Evolution. (See info in past posts here.)  I finished the different types of dragon horns that I started in Week 11 of the 365 Days of Art Challenge.

Segmented Horn - pencil on mixed-media paper. I actually
posted  this one in Week 11, but thought I'd re-post it with the
other segmented horn and dragon so they are all in one spot.

Spiked, Segmented Horn.- pencil on mixed-media paper.

Dragon with spiked, segmented horn. - pencil on mixed-media paper. This dragon makes me think
of a water dragon or that he is flying rapidly through the air chasing something.

Ram Horn - pencil on mixed-media paper.

Forward-Facing Ram Horn - pencil on mixed-media paper. It's hard
to tell from this small sketch, that the horn is actually facing forward. 

Dragon with a ram horn - pencil on mixed-media paper. I'm pleased with the expression
on her face, but would soften the edges where the horn attaches if I drew it again.
I also need to center things better, so I'm not running off the edge of my paper! Lol!