032 - Sepia

Brush Pen and Sepia Ink on Sketch Book Paper

Helped my friend Danni out today with a bunch of convention preparation.  I was staining Harry Potteresque Wands most of the day.  She had this really cool transparent burnt umber ink and I played around with it in my daily doodle.

Whenever I do my doodles at my friend's house, her dog, Jacob, always finds his way into them.  The wyrm is inspired by the adorable critters she makes to sell at cons.  I looked up the symbolism for the Vulture and surprisingly found it associated with birth and motherhood.  Very interesting considering my friend is pregnant. :)

031 - Goodbye Dr. Who, Hello Again!

Ball Point Pen on Sketchbook Paper

I know the whole point of 100 Days it to be inspired by the other artists participating in it, but tonight's doodle is instead inspired by a random piece of art I found in an old convention sketchbook.  I have no idea who the artist is since he, probably she, uses a cute little squiggle as their signature, kind of like I do. :)  The image is of an adorable little blue Parakeet gryphon about to eat an inch worm.  I drew my own Cockatiel gryphon in response, and his sad old man of an owner.

The rest of the cosmic space imagery is inspired by Dr. Who's The End of Time parts 1 & 2.   At the risk of giving away spoilers (though the images on the DVD boxes gives it away anyhow) it is the sad sad sad end of David Tennant's run as The Doctor, and the introduction of the new Doctor.  I didn't do so well with the last Doctor switch, and I really like DT, so I'm only slightly looking forward to starting the new season.

030 - Bone!

Ball Point Pen on Sketchbook Paper

I don't know where the Rat Creatures came from!  I read Bone almost a year ago!  Maybe this was my subconscious's way of reminding me that I love Jeff Smith's art and I should study him more for the books I'm planning on doing.

The giant flaming marshmallow was inspired by, well, giant flaming marshmallows!  Mom bought these GINOURMOUS marshmallows and she, my brother Matt and I were toasting them over the fire pit tonight.

By the way, I just auto corrected my consistent misspelling of the word Marshmallow.  I think Marshmellows are much cooler, though I can't ever remember feeling all that mellow after eating them, but they look so mellow in the bag!

029 - Blarg

Ball Point Pen on Sketchbook Paper

Blarg!  That's how I felt drawing this page, that's how I feel right now noticing the scan is messed up at the bottom!  

028 - The Boy of Rock

Ball Point Pen on Sketchbook Paper

Back to doodling after my morning writing.  This one started as an illustration of Micah and Molly, two characters from a story I'm developing.  This was another case where I started out with a drawing and filled in the blank spaces with doodles. 

027 - We're Still Here!

Ball Point Pen on Sketchbook Paper

This late night doodle was a drawing first, of poor Despair, Beetle and Dalia trapped in my head, wanting to come out.  It's been over a year since I did my last Almost Normal comic, they want some face time.  The rest of the page is randomness.  I think the bird is part Kookaburra, part Pheonix, part some weird looking Muppet thing.  There is also an ostrich feather, whose meaning I should look up, but I have a vague memory of it being something bad, so I don't want to.  The Piesces Aries cusp symbol I've been working on is united by a fire snake, my Chinese zodiac sign.  I like it and want to work with it more, maybe develop it into a tattoo. 

026 - Pisces Aries Cusp

Pencil on Sketchbook Paper

A day behind in posting, but not drawing.  My doodles have migrated to before bed now, partly due to my internship, partly due to not having internet access on my own computer yet.

I did some research on Pisces Aries Cusps last night.  That's what I am, having been born on March 19th.  I have the dreamy impracticality of a Pisces and the firery passion of an Aries.  This sometimes results in rash, not well thought out decisions, like moving to Atlanta.  It sounded like a good idea at the time, but perhaps just going home to Savannah is the better choice.  Blah blah blah.

025 - Tough Day

Ball Point Pen on Sketch Book Paper

Today was a tough day.  There's a lot of adjusting I'm trying to do.  I don't have the internet on my computer, but Grampa doesn't have Photoshop on his, so I'm having to run back and forth between machines when he's not playing solitaire. :)  It's frustrating.  

I'm also adjusting to working at Free Lunch Studios.  I'm not used to the distractions, and I don't have a space that's mine there yet either.  I feel very out of my element.

Then there's the personal issues I'm struggling with, such as if I really want to draw for a living.  I remember when drawing was fun, now it's work.  Matt believes work and fun are the same thing.  I'm having difficulty adjusting to that mindset.

Also, I miss my life in Savannah, Martin and my kitties.  I was feeling very alone tonight while I was doodling.

024 - Free Lunch Comics

Brush Pen on Sketchbook Paper

I started my internship at Free Lunch Comics today!  They have Monday night sketch jams, and that's when I did my doodle.  The Great White board inspired the shark and the argument on the cultural relevancy of World of Warcraft inspired the gritted teeth at the bottom of the page.  The rest?  Who knows!

023 - Bad Dreams

Ball Point and Brush Pen on Sketchbook Paper

Don't have a lot to say about this piece.  It's actually partly about a really bad dream I had!  The rest is influenced by a very long Baby Shower, followed by helping my friends cart all their new loot back to their home and helping them organizing baby clothes, toys, and accessories to be put away.

Dragon flies and Sun Spirals have been consistent imagery through my doodles.  I adopted them as symbols of appreciation and seizing the day after reading the Epic of Gilgamesh. "It is only the nymph of the dragon-fly who sheds her larva and sees the sun in his glory."

Basically, if you only lived on the earth for one day, like the dragon fly, and you only saw that one sunrise and one sunset, it would be Epic!  None of us can appreciate it quite from that stance, but we can try. :)

022 - Water into Wine

Ball Point Pen on Sketch book paper

I think this is one of my best doodles so far!  My process has changed over the course of my move North for the summer.  I hadn't had much time in the mornings, so my doodles have had to wait till later in the day.  This one was done at my friends' house the night before their baby shower.  Two other friends had come in from New York for the event, and between the 5.5 of us, their dog Jake, and the 2 cats, it was a nice little party.

Once again, I haven't looked up any of the symbolism in this piece, but I know the flying cereal box has something to do with my friend Joe, the one who just passed.  Jake the dog and his now dead monkey toy are also in the image.  I have no idea what the crazy crow headed hippogryph carousel horse thing is!

021 - Grampa's House

Grampa's Ball Point Pen on Sketchbook Paper

I got to CT around 6 pm on Friday.  I stopped at Mom's first where I witnessed Dad rescuing their Jack Russell, Ginger, from under the shed.  Silly dogs. Hogan and Ginger had dug their way under the shed, but only Hogan had come out again.  Ginger had been trapped by some roots all the way at the opposite end from where they'd gone in.  Dad had to dig her out again.

Anyhow, I got to Grampa's around 8 PM, unpacked, got us some Ice Cream from Pralines, and sat down to watch the Red Sox game with him.  I did my doodle during the game as I'm not a big sports fan, but I am a big Grampa fan. :)

020 - Ninja Gnomes!

Brush Pen on Sketchbook paper

My friend was not eating breakfast, as she should, and her cousin left her half a bagel on the counter, hoping she'd eat it.  She did eat part of it at some point that day, and her cousin, noticing the quarter of the bagel left on the counter asked my friend if she'd eaten it.  I don't remember her response exactly, it was something good humored though smart allecky, and her cousin replied, "Well, I don't know, it could have been gnomes!"

My friend replied that she hadn't seen any gnomes in her apartment, and I said, "They could be ninjas!"

Thus, the birth of Ninja Gnomes!  I was sent off to do my daily doodle.  My friend's cat shows up, being hypnotized by a flying nautilus so that the ninja gnomes could get away with the bagel.  I often wonder how people come up with these things, I wonder even more so when it's me!

019 - Pixel and Zuko

Ball Point Pen on Sketchbook Paper

I feel this piece, as cute as it is, shouldn't be as difficult to write about as I am making it.

Day 19 was the day of my friend Joe's funeral.  I hadn't seen him or his wife Asia in about 5 years.  Asia and I had been very close back in the early 2000's.  She saw me through some difficult moments in my life and was always there with an "I love you," when I needed it. Thankfully, Asia let me return the favor by accepting my offer to stay with her for a few days.

Asia's cousin Eve was also staying with her.  That evening, after everyone had left, Asia fell asleep on the couch as Eve and I got to know each other by talking about our cats.  Eve has had many cats in her life, Pixel and Zuko are my first.  Apparently we talked about cats for 4 hours as Asia drifted in and out of sleep.  She told us she found it comforting to here us babble on about or babies.  Her own cats, Yuki and Kona, kept wandering into the room, giving us more to talk about. 

I doodled this image of my Zuko, with Pixel in the background, during that conversation.  I haven't taken the time to research the rest of the symbolism in that piece, though I suspect that the chick and duck Easter eggs probably came from the Christian service for Joe earlier in the day.

I miss my kitties.  I won't see them again until I return to Georgia in September.  They are only a year old and I was never a cat person until they used their Kitten Fu to get me to take them home. 

018 - iPad Doodle

Drawing App on iPad

I completely forgot which app it was that my friends Megan and Dan had on their iPad.  I think it was an Adobe one, but I'm not sure.  Either way, I was having so much fun messing around with it, I decided to use it for my daily doodle.

The Pheonix has been a personal symbol for about 6 years.  I have a few "pheonix moments" in my life, time periods or events I describe as the destruction of who I was so that I could be reborn as who I am.  I suppose this summer is sort of one of those moments, though not quite as destructive as previous ones have been.

017 - On the Road

Mechanical Pencil on Sketchbook Paper

On the road.  Didn't think I'd get to post this today, but my host for the evening offered to scan my doodle for me. :)  He has a very large snake named Tesla who, combined with 9 hours on the road, is the main topic for tonight's doodle.  No writing today though, no time.

016 - Last Day in Savannah

Blue Papermate on Sketchbook Paper

Today's been a tough day.  It's my last day in Savannah, unexpectedly.  I didn't think I'd be leaving until Thursday, but now I'm leaving tomorrow.  I feel like I haven't had enough time to appreciate everything, including my kitties.  They'll be staying with Martin for the summer, then moving with me to Atlanta in the fall.

It's hard to move on, even when you know it's the right choice.

015 - Camellia

Pentel Pocket Brush on Sketchbook Paper

The Camellia is a symbol of friendship, it is also a symbol of loss.  The Kookaburra showed up again, reclaiming ties to family.  Lyrics by The Doors.

014 - Loss

Ball Point on Sketchbook Paper

I found out before bed last night that a friend of mine passed away unexpectedly.  He and his wife are not much older than I am.  It's a tragic loss.   I feel all of our hearts wrenching as we are pulled together to fill the void, the vacuum, left by the loss of our friend.

They were one of those couples that shine like a beacon of hope on all us single women, proof that true love is out there, there is someone for everyone.   As an individual, he was one of those people who could always make you laugh.  He'd find something, a silly noise, a phrase, whatever it was, and milk it until you were falling out of your chair, laughing so hard your cheeks hurt!  I can't help but smile when I think of him, even through the tears.

For my part, this loss is compounded by two others that have gone before.  This is the third death in three years of a friend, the husband of another friend, all of them so close in age to me.  All three relationships were those beacons, those pillars of faith in the goodness and rightness of love, of hope.  All three of these women had what so many of us want, and it was taken so suddenly, too early, from them.  They deserved lifetimes with their husbands! They got years.    

None of these men were taken by war or accidents. All three, so close in age to me, died from something medical.  Only one was not instant, he fought a long battle in a hospital before he died.

Though I am sad for the loss of my friends, I grieve for the women left behind.  I know I am putting my own hopes and my own fears into what I think they must be feeling.  None of them had children, and while I don't know the reason for this, I suspect the possibility was always forward in time.  The hopes and dreams of family, gone. 

While I feel slightly guilty for making their loss be about me and how I feel, it reinforces my belief in the interconnectedness of every human being in this world.  The loss of one is the loss of many.   

:(

013 - Not Quite Here Today

Copic Tech Pen on Sketchbook paper

So much going on today with finals and stuff.  I started my doodles but didn't finish them.  I totally forgot to post em too, but here they are now.  

012 - FINALS!!!!

Marker Bleed and Brush Pen on Sketchbook paper

Oh my gosh finals!  About to go turn in a bunch of stuff now!  Not my best quarter at SCAD, by far. I don't even want to show people my work.  It's pitiful.

The marker from yesterday's doodle bled through to today's page.  I used the splotches to construct today's doodle.  Not my best doodle either.

So tired!  Off to class.