011 - The Wall

Black Ball Point and Prisma Color Markers on Sketchbook Paper

Ugh, this morning I hit the wall!  I didn't want to do my doodle.  It could be Finals; I've got a TON to do  and it's all due tomorrow!  It could be that my Pisces cycle is taking over my Aries initiative.  Born on a cusp; fiery passion for starting things, watery passiveness that doesn't let me finish them.  I am determined though!

My scanner is being weird the last couple days.  The markers I used were 60% and 30% cool grays.  The paper shows none of those purples, but I liked what the scanner did, so I left it.

I think this project is starting to organize itself in my head.  The page is a lot less cluttered than the first ones, yet I didn't feel like it needed anything else.

010 - This Space Intentionally Left Blank

Blue Papermate on Sketchbook Paper

I've been thinking a lot about transferring to the Atlanta campus next fall.  I feel like I've exhausted all Savannah has left to offer me, and Atlanta as a city has so much more potential!  Savannah is a beautiful place to visit but you can see it all in less than 2 weeks.  After that, it's the same old same old.  

Atlanta feels full of hope, but I need to learn if that's because it's where I'm supposed to be, or because it's just not Savannah.  "Darling you've got to let me know, should I stay or should I go."

009 - Demagoguery

Black Papermate on Sketchbook Paper

Once again, I love my CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood, and I love sleeping in.  I got up 30 mins before the show started and finished my writing on time, but my doodles were done over the course of the hour and a half program and things just were NOT flowing.  The whole upper right side of the page was done during Face the Nation.  

Politicians are just silly.  This morning they really liked the word "demagoguery".  Seriously, it sounded like the dude just made the word up!  I suppose "Scare tactics" has been over used, and they get to try and make themselves sound smarter in the process.  Other than that, folks are just saying the same old things they always say, "Americans want (insert whatever the politician wants here)."  All their words convince me of only one thing, nobody knows or cares what we want, they just care about contradicting the other side and getting reelected.

008 - Ambiguous Title

Blue Papermate Pen on Sketchbook paper

007 - What a Day!

Blue Mechanical Pencil on Sketch Book Paper

Ugh, what a day!  I slept too late and only had time to do my writing this morning.  The doodle happened in class.  I wasn't happy at the time.  Also, apparently blue pencil has similar problems as blue marker when it comes to reproduction.

006 - Who Am I?

Blue Papermate Pen on Sketchbook Paper

I think I just found my favorite pen for doodling!  I love the fluid impermanence of the blue, it's not as much of a commitment as black, but still scannable.  You can also get a really good range of darks to lights allowing you to shade like a pencil if you want.  

A theme has emerged over the last few days; there is always a song in my head!  I think I already knew this, but it's never been documented before.  I let lyrics speak for me all the time.  My life philosophy even comes from a song, All You Need is Love by the Beatles.  "There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be."

I know what most of the symbolism is in this image, but the Kookaburra came out of nowhere and surprised me.  It's not listed in my book of Symbols, so I had to go searching on the internet.  The Kookaburra  meaning of family, sibling rivalry and turning hurt into happiness sums up almost a full page of my writing this morning!  It also represents a search for my own truths, and then sharing what I've learned with others, which is exactly what I'm doing with this project!   Some might call the meaning of the symbol a coincidence, but I don't believe in coincidence, see my life philosophy above.

I love it when things prove out this way.  :)

005 - Doodles in Blue

Blue Pitt Pen, Blue TomBow Pen and Black Copic Multiliner on Sketchbook Paper

Oops!  I thought it would be fun to change things up today, but I guess they call the color "non-photo blue" for a reason!  Sorry for the poor reproduction.  In Sequential Art and Animation we like to do our roughs in Non-Photo blue, then do nice clean lines with Pencil or black ink.  A slight adjustment in Photoshop will get rid of all the  blue you see here and leave just the clean black lines.

The ants marching into the coin purse are inspired by Emily Ayres post yesterday.  

004 - The Weight of Ancestors

Ball Point Pen on Sketchbook Paper

Today's doodle is inspired in part by Karen Bozik's ancestral drawings. It got me to think about my ancestors and just how many people contributed to my genetic make-up over the centuries.  Then it got me thinking about my role in this string of continued lineage, and time started to press on me.  Who will be the father of my children, and what lineage will he bring to their line?

And then I realized there's no sense in worrying about any of it.  Supposedly, there was one genetic Eve who gave birth to 7 daughters, and between all the people of the world, their lines continue.  The weight of our ancestors is spread among all the people of the world and I don't have to bear it all.

003 - Birth of a Wise Woman

Ball Point Pen on Sketch Book Paper

Imagery inspired by bad news regarding my finances for next year's classes.  It's my last year before I graduate, I'm sure the universe will help me pull through.  Right now though, it's big and heavy and it's staring me right in the face.

My art student brain wants me to do something about all the symmetry in my doodles.  It keeps yelling, "Make it more interesting!"  My art student brain doesn't get to be in control of this project though, so it better learn to be quiet until it's appropriate. 

002 - Turn the TV Off

Brush Pen on Sketchbook Paper

Today's Doodle is a little less involved.  I stayed up too late, slept in too long, and didn't give myself enough time to finish my work before my Sunday distraction, CBS Sunday Morning.    The image, compared to yesterday's, illustrates to me the negative affect TV has on my creativity, though the first thing Martin said when he saw it was, "oooh!"  Perspective.

001 - New Beginings

Random Japanese Brush Pen on Sketchbook paper.

I want to speak a little bit about my process on this first day.  I wasn't sure about adding text to the post initially, but since this is a journey of self-discovery, I changed my mind. :)

I've been struggling artistically for the last year, going for days without even putting a line on paper.  Last fall, at the suggestion of a friend, I picked up a copy of The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.  One of the most helpful tools I found in the book was the Morning Pages exercise. I did them religiously for about 2 months and found them very helpful, then I gave up on it after the school quarter ended. I decided to start doing them again in conjunction with 100 Days.

Last night I went out and bought a brand new notebook to write my morning pages in, and a brand new sketchbook with a Van Gogh cover to do my doodles in.  The blank pages in both symbolized a new beginnings.  Continuing in books that I had started before only reminded me of my past failures. I wanted to start fresh.

This morning when I woke up I immediately poured out 3 pages of stream of consciousness writing in my new notebook.  As soon as that was done, I opened up my new sketchbook and doodled the first things that came to mind, allowing no judgement as to quality.  They were the spirals at the bottom of the page.   From there I filled the whole page pretty much seamlessly from start to finish.

Finally, I pulled out my Signs and Symbols Sourcebook that I bought at Barnes and Noble almost a year ago.  I looked up a bunch of the imagery in the book to see what it all meant traditionally.  To my surprise, I learned that I unknowingly drew my spiral suns in the Tibetan tradition, radiating counter clockwise from the internal point, representing the suns movement from east to west.  It also represents growth and an accumulation of power.

Most of the animals I used in my doodle represent new beginnings and spiritual growth.  The open doorway represents movement into another world.  Interestingly, the last meaning listed for ocean, and the only one that made sense to me, is as a symbol for the subconscious.  By doing these morning pages followed by stream of consciousness doodles, I'm opening a doorway into the world of my subconscious, hopefully to bring about new beginnings and spiritual, as well as artistic, growth.

100 Days Again

I've decided to give this 100 Days Project another go.  Let's see if I can make it past Day 10 this time!  I've decided to go easy on myself this time around.  I bought a blank sketch book and my job is to fill it, a page a day, for 100 days.  I'm not telling myself what I have to put in there, I just have to fill the page.

As a Sequential Artist, someone who makes comics, I suspect my pages with be filled with a combination of words and images.  While most of us look at words as just that, words, I try to see them as symbols with power and meaning.  I'll likely explore that, along with what most people would consider traditional symbols, in my doodles.

Another theme I'm very interested in is Perception.  How can two people look at the exact same symbol, or witness the same event, and see something completely different?  What does this mean for reality?

I'll be starting my Senior Year at SCAD this fall, and I'm not sure where I want to go or what I want to do when I graduate.  I hope that, through these 100 Pages, I'll learn something new about myself, or rediscover old passions, and find some guidance for the next stage of my life as an artist.