Quirky Zen Doodle Sketch Painting

This started out a few weeks ago as a quirky doodle sketch with egg shapes in a kind of landscape. Just line shapes pulled out of chaotic water-soluble pencil lines. Then a couple of weeks ago, as a break from de-cluttering, I took a notion to do a little watercoloring, so I picked up my Kuretake watercolor set and a brush pen and colored in the different shapes, letting the Stabilo pencil and watercolors mingle some, and left it to dry. I was working in my mixed media journal, which tends to buckle when too much water is used. When it was dry, I closed the book for a few days to flatten the page.

One evening, while resting, I picked up my black gel pen and started zen doodling patterns on the egg shapes, and also the background. The lavendar egg in front wasn't on the original sketch at this point. I overdid the black doodling on the ground planes and sky and went back over it with watercolor, mixing the ink and wc together. Again, I left it to dry and flatten the page.

Last week, I finally got to go to Hobby Lobby, a rarity since we live in a rural area about seventy miles from the nearest one and we are old, and picked up some white gel pens, among other things (see other post). The next day, I used one of the white gel pens to do some more zen doodling, and I added the lavender egg in front to keep the yellow egg from looking too much like it was floating. I also did some more tweaking with the Stabilo water soluble pencil and the water brush and a paper towel.

Just playing around in the 5.5" x 8.5" mixed media sketchbook, because most of my art supplies are still in boxes where I can't get to them while I'm de-cluttering, waiting to be organized. This was very relaxing and fun too, because I didn't worry about the lines and shapes being perfect. I just let them be!

The best art fun is the art you do for yourself, where you can just play and be yourself, without worrying about the "rules". If someone else likes it, great! Even if you don't like the finished piece yourself, you've created something that wasn't in the world before, and every piece is a kind of self portrait. Maybe you don't like it now, but somewhere down the road you will look at it with fresh eyes and know what you were going through at the time, and you will see it in a whole new way and cherish it. At least, I find that true for myself!