I spent December 2012 away from home. Doodling was a tried and true way to reduce stress and regain objectivity during the trauma and drama of hospitals, holidays, and family. Most of the doodles were done on 3x5 note cards using the back of Kleenex box as a writing surface.
Enjoy the December 2012 doodles below! Doodle posts for previous months are here.
In November my focus was on creating doodles that could be included in my decorating for Christmas. Quite a few of them were done on a light weight fabric that is suitable for display on windows which are visible in some of the photos below.
Enjoy the November 2012 doodles below! Doodle posts from previous months are here.
I continued my experiments with colored pencils and markers in October plus started on some semi-realistic depictions of flowers and a desert scene. There’s also a celebration of fall leaves in these doodles.
Enjoy the October 2012 doodles below! Doodle posts from previous months are here.
I graduated to more color (pencils and markers) and the use of fabric for some of my doodles in September. The fabric was a lightweight, fused (rather than woven) fabric - somewhat like interfacing. I found strips of it while I was cleaning out - not sure what it was originally purchased for. The first three items in the slide show below are the ones on fabric. The others are on paper. Enjoy the September doodles!
Doodle posts from previous months are here.
Back in mid-August I posted about finding things to celebrate each day. It’s been remarkably easy for me. Here’s what I’ve recorded for 10 days:
Sunlight through the trees. Being out and about on a late summer morning with the sun making an ordinary forest of trees look magical.
A family birthday. Not one where everyone can gather to celebrate. This was a savoring of relationships that last a lifetime.
Butterfly stake and solar powered sunflower for the garden…. and the sunflower lit up the 1st night! We had gone to the nursery to buy azaleas; we’d read they could be planted in the early fall or early spring. We were advised that in our area the fall planting is not advised (winter too harsh). 
While we were there we looked at the various garden ornaments and bought two of them. They’re both visible from the window over the kitchen sink.
Labor day with hot dogs and corn on the cob and watermelon. Food and celebration go together.
Finding treasure under a bathroom sink - a long lost spritzer of leave-in-conditioner. Isn’t it wonderful to find something you forgot you had….and actually decide it’s something you want!
Black swallowtail caterpillars. They showed up on my parsley plant. Earlier in the season, I might not have celebrated. But I enjoyed photographing them and they’ve already made their cocoons --- and I still have about half my parsley plant left.
Getting rid of stuff via donation. I almost filled the porch on the pick up day. It’s good to clean out at least once a season.
Talking to family on the phone. I started out calling one then another called me almost as soon as I hung up from the first call. For a family scattered all over the country - it’s good to catch up on what’s happening in our lives.
Finding out that a friend who had been very ill is better. It’s scary when a friend is seriously ill…and cause for celebration when they improve.
Doodling oninterfacing-like fabric). I have been doodling on scraps of paper but discovered some scraps of interfacing as I was cleaning out. I celebrated the results of sharpie and interfacing doodling!
I did so many doodles in August. Looking at the Zentangles site, looking at botanical print books from the 1800s and book illustrations from the early1900s (which have been scanned and made available online) gave me so many new starting points. So - I did some culling from the pile and came up with some groups to share. The collage below is the ones that have a botanical theme; they also show a beginning influence of Zentangle type drawings.
My overall favorite of the month is a "sun."
The ones I liked the best from some of the illustrations from the early 1900s were corner or border elements. they have a bit of a botanial look...also lots of spirals.
Doodle posts from previous months are here.
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article:
NASA images reveal massive forest die-off from tiny beetle - Before and after satellite pictures of Colorado
Movement Along Fault Line Threatening Cliff Palace At Mesa Verde National Park
Video Sampler Introduces You To The More Than 20 National Parks In Virginia
Zentangles - Get more out of doodling!
Black Drink: Evidence of Ritual Use of Caffeinated Brew at Cahokia - made from a holly tree that grew hundreds of miles away
10 Green Ways to Improve Our Cities
Sky-High Design: How To Make A Bird-Friendly Building - tweaks to make modern architecture better for birds
How Olympic athletes' bodies have changed over the last century - an infographic from NPR
The Bison: A National Symbol for All Americans - From National Geographic…the first post in a series about the American Bison
Chart: the world's endangered mammals - From the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The primates are faring the worst with 49% of the species being ‘threatened’ - which means that they are threatened with extinction. Overall - 21% of mammal species are in ‘threatened’ status.
Pictures: Surprising Effects of the U.S. Drought - From National Geographic
I’ve started experimenting with some different kinds of doodles - ones that go beyond just putting a pen or pencil to paper. This month I’ve been working with slices of cardboard tubes (from paper towels or toilet paper) and stapling them together into a 3-D doodle. I’m still adding to it but will eventually decide it is ‘complete’ and attempt to paint it. The photo at the right is what it looked like at the end of July.
The slideshow below is a selection of pen/pencil and paper doodles from the month. Enjoy!
The slideshow below is a selection of doodles from June 2012. The theme for my June doodles is dots or points. I got the idea after browsing through the 1978 exhibit book for the Point at the Philadelphia College of Art on the Internet Archive. Enjoy!
The slideshow below is a selection of doodles from May 2012….using other pens and papers than previous months (when they were all done with gel pens on black paper). The May 2012 group is on all kinds of paper and cardboard - some gleaned from the recycle bag - and pens (felt tip, highlighter, ball point). They are also grouped: colonies of creatures, feathers, mazes and shells. The feather doodles are the largest group - probably because I spent so much time watching the heron nest cam!
I've scanned my favorite doodles from April 2012. They're all made with gel pins on black paper.
Previous doodle posts: Initial and March 2012.
I’ve scanned my favorite doodles from last month into a slide show (below). They’re made with gel pens on black paper in a spiral notebook that I found in my spring cleaning this year.
Doodling has no constraints. It doesn't have to look like anything at all. Sometimes it reflects what I'm thinking about - sometimes it is made on autopilot and reflects nothing at all. I've named the doodles after the fact and that is displayed at the bottom of each image.
Previous doodle posts: 3/6
I found a spiral notebook of black paper and some gel pens as I did some house cleaning (spring cleaning is just getting started at our house). The collection had been left behind when my daughter went off to college several years ago. I was surprised that the pens had not dried up completely. I couldn't resist some doodling.
These were so much fun to do, I think I'll use up the whole book with doodles over the next month or so! In the past I've doodled in situations when I was bored - in a class or meeting. Now, I'm finding I enjoy doodling all on its own.
I'm glad the spiral will keep the doodles in the order that I create them because I think there may be some trends that develop. Stay tuned!
Celebrating the whole of life....
Thanks for visiting my blog! Enjoy the photo picks from last month:
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