A day of presentations means a day of doodles

I had a full day of training recently, but there wasn't much I needed to make notes on during the day, so I filled my time with some doodling again.

Morning session, part 1

Morning session, part 2

Afternoon session, part 1

Afternoon session, part 2

I put them in my Etsy shop - doodles for all!

From a mental to a manatee

I  take part in a mentoring scheme for my professional body. I refer to myself as a mental rather than a mentor, and my mentees get used to being called manatees. Recently, one of my current mentees nominated me for an award, and somehow, I won it! She joked that she wanted 10% of the prize, which I swiftly agreed to (while declaring that she should have asked for more, but a deal's a deal... ;) ). As a thank-you for the effort she had to put in to somehow making me sound good, I thought I'd make her a wee gift, to go along with her cheque....so this is the development of a manatee :)

 First came the drawing, sketched from one I found online. Theses sort of filigree filled drawing need clear and simple outlines, so I quite often look for line drawing versions of the shape I need, so I can see how things look when broken down into simple parts. Then I sketch my own take on them.

Then I duplicated the sketch onto a watercolour postcard, and inked the outline over the pencil.

I started to do the filigree infill, but it became clear that the body outline could end up a bit lost.

So I started to thicken the outline, while making sure the filigree stayed a wee bit clear of it, and kept filling.

I wasn't quite sure how to deal with the snout, so I left it alone for a while to think about it, and kept filling.

And filling...until finally...

 A completed manatee!

All ornate and fun!

I sent the manatee off to my mentee this week, and she received it today, so now I can post this without it giving away the surprise! Thanks for nominating me, Miss M!

Starry, Doodled Night

I had been doing another drawing yesterday (which I can't unveil yet), and still feeling in the mood to craft, I asked for ideas of what to draw next. Mobeena Khan (@greebstreebling) suggested Starry Night, by Van Gogh. Replicating famous art isn't something I've ever done before, but when I looked more closely at the original, I felt I could see a way to do it. So I sketched in in pencil some main shapes that I could pick out from the swirls:

Then I started to draw things in a bit more "properly", and thicken up some of the original thin ink lines, and begin with the filigree doodle infill:

And continue with the infill...and add the details to the sky:

And keep going with the doodles and details until it felt like every space that needed it was filled.

I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out. I'm thinking about getting prints made of this one, whenever I get a chance to get to the print shop. It's half the usual size of the prints I get made though, so I'm not entirely sure the print shops machines can cope with how small it is!

Anyway, I'll leave you with the lovely Starry Starry Night by Don McLean.

Another conference, another doodle...or four

I was at a conference all day today, so I put my "brain's listening, hands are drawing" approach into action again, and occupied my hands with a watercolour postcard pad and a 0.05 nib pens.
This is the result:

 Introduction and First Keynote Speaker

Session on "Professional Knowledge and Skills Base"

Parallel session on a CPD23 experience

Final session keynote - it started as nothing and ended up suggesting itself as a bat

All of these postcards are rehomed or on offer to people - some of them to the people whose sessions I drew them in. I hope they're not offended, but it really is something I do to keep my hands busy, while my brain is occupied listening!