Using My Doodles as Decor: Georgie and Georgina Sugarskull

My doodling addiction continues. Introducing Georgie and Georgina Sugarskull, the newest additions to my doodle collection and Halloween decor. I've been wanting to incorporate some Dia de los Muertos ( Day of the Dead) touches and these were an easy addition. I printed them out and framed them in black and gold painted frames to match my color scheme of black and white and  gold.  

I started my drawing by tracing a simple skull outline. I knew I wanted to give her a floral crown so I drew the flowers on top of her skull first and then kind of went wherever my pen took me. This is what I find relaxing about this. I just kind of go wherever in an image, usually without a plan and just feel my way through. 

Georgina was done first, but Georgie was named first. I'd texted him to my son, he asked if he had a name, I said "you name him" and he named him Georgie. Georgina was kind of a no-brainer after that. 

I followed the same process for Georgie, took me a while to get the hat right. If I'm adding an element like that I'll do it in pencil first, then go over it in pen but the Zentangling itself I just go for with the pen. 

The frames were inexpensive plain unfinished wood I had in my stash. I painted with a couple coats of black paint, then dry brushed with gold. 

Now, lest you think I'm allergic to color, I did color each of these in my Recolor app. 

These Boots Aren't Made For Walking: Funky Witch Boot Printable

My nightly doodling continues and so does my obsession with the Recolor App. I decided to try my hand at a Witch Boot so I drew the outline, then filled it in with random doodles and colored in Recolor. The steps to do that are easy. 

I use my iPhone so these steps are based on that. 

• Take a picture of your image using your phone
• Open the Recolor App
• In the upper right hand corner you'll see "Import"
• Click, and then you can choose where you want to import from ( eg. Camera Roll). 
• Use the options to clean up your image if you like
• I've been using "Despeckle" which whitens and brightens your image. 

Then proceed to color your image! There are free options and pay options. I love the colors in the pay options but haven't purchased any yet. 

After I was done coloring my image I pulled it into PicMonkey and then added some additional graphics from my collection and voila! 

I duplicated the boot and flipped the image to make a pair, added a coordinating Witch Hat, Sentiment, and Frame  which  are all  from Designbundles.net Crafter's Delight Bundle. 

Image is free for you to use. It's sized to 8x10. If you do, I would love to see what you do w/ it!

Digitized Doodles

Everything old is new again as the saying goes. A few years ago I became obsessed with Zen Tangling. I don't know that what I like to do fits the official Zen Tangle definition. Like most things I do, I adapt it to fit what feels right to me so I have not mastered "official" tangles and I tend to like to mix things up and be very organic about the process.

At some point I stopped doing it for a while but in the process of practicing my hand lettering, I've picked it up again. Sometimes combining it w/ lettering and sometimes on its own.  As with my lettering, I thought about what to do w/ all of this ( still haven't totally figured that out) and started playing w/ different digital options.

For this version, I scanned the image in to my computer and played around with it in PicMonkey adding different transparent layers. 

One thing I like about this option is I can keep the original black and white image once scanned in and explore different options while not losing the original work. 

I also discovered an app for my iPhone called "Recolor" ( it's FREE!!). It comes pre-loaded with lots of images you can color or, and this is what I was really after, you can import your own images into it from your photos and play around. 

Using this same image I played around and did this which completely changes the look and feel of the same image! 

You can color everything or just portions and you can color the background or leave it blank. 

For this one, I also applied a colored pencil filter : 

So many possibilities. But I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do w/ all this stuff lol !

Zen Doodling

This may be old news to all you cutting edge artists, but Mr. Chocolate, who watches me do this regularly, asked me if I'd put anything up on my blog about it and I haven't so here I am. I first became aware of this while watching an episode of "Scrapbook Memories" . Officially, it's called "Zentangle" but since I haven't taken a formal class I don't feel qualified to use the term. Here's the same segment I first saw:



I was instantly hooked and went online looking for more which led me to the official Zentangle site started by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. They have a Zentangle kit you can order and you can also become a certified Zentangle instructor (which I am not). I decided I would play first before ordering the kit and about a year later, here I am but I do plan on ordering it.

Most work is done in black and white but you can do whatever you want. I was playing around near St. Patrick's day when I did the green one (colored pencil). For me it's just relaxing, and unlike many of the creative things I like to do, very portable. I can Zentangle waiting for things like doctor's appointments, or sitting in an airport , or wherever. I have a small notebook I carry with me all the time and another one that sits by my "TV chair".

It's forgiving because you can hide your mistakes and consider them intentional. And there's no right or wrong. I've cut my pieces into smaller pieces and used on cards, and have framed some pieces as easy DIY artwork:

You can start any way you like but here are a few basic musts ( shoulds):

• Good quality paper....I like Canson sketchbooks 
• Smear proof pens. The recommended ones are Micron by Sakura and they're great, but a smear proof gel pen is what I tend to use...Pentel, Pilot  whatever's on sale at Staples usually

That's it. I either start with a free form blob kind of random drawing that I then section off and fill in until I get tired of whatever pattern, or like this basic diagram, with a focal point and work out from there wherever my mind goes:

 

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