Doodling with Watercolor and Pens

Mixed Media

If you have followed my blog in the past, you would know that most recently, I have spent a lot of time working with clay. My Etsy shop is full of items made of clay. I do love working with clay and creating little houses and ornaments and I plan to continue to make some of those things.

But, I have also written about my experiences with acrylic paint, watercolor, and other drawing materials. Recently I have missed working with two-dimensional materials. More specifically, paint and pens and pencils. As things slow down a little in the summer, I am taking advantage of that time to work more with my painting and drawing materials. I do not know if this will just lead to experimenting with supplies or if I will change directions with my art. I do know that I HAVE to take time to explore my thoughts. I believe that is the best way to stay fresh and continue to learn and evolve in my creative process.

Daily Doodles

In April I decided to commit to the 100 Day Project again. (It's really more like a 6-9 month project for me.) I tried it last year and got about two-thirds of the way through it. But I got very busy in my Etsy shop and just could not keep up the daily commitment. You would think that after that I would remember how difficult it is to do something every day for 100 days. I don't have a problem with working with my art daily. But the challenge is to work both with clay and a painting or drawing medium at the same time. Switching back and forth from 2D to 3D is a huge challenge in itself. It requires a mental switch. Apparently, my switch gets stuck in one position.

Even after my premature end to my project last year, I still wanted to try it again this year. I wanted to create daily doodles. Easy enough right?

No.  Not for me.

I tend to make things complicated for myself. It is a bad habit. I need to learn to tame all of the ideas that run through my brain!

I started with some small square black line doodles.

The idea is to work on something daily for long enough to make it a new routine or habit. It is supposed to be something you can do in a short time period. But I try to make them all perfect and think too much about them. I will say that the more I do, the easier it is for me to relax and not be such a perfectionist.

 I also feel like it should be a collection, therefore they should all be the same size or similar in some way. So I work better in sets. I sit down and work on 3 or 5 at a time. Sometimes more. If I'm in the right frame of mind and creative space, then I really can spend the whole day working on them.

The doodles that I started, at the beginning of the challenge, have evolved from black and white doodles to the color ones that you see here. They do make cute little cards and gift tags. I decided to create little sets of some of these and list them in my Etsy shop. You can find them here: Hand painted name tags  I will be adding more as I work on this challenge.

If you are interested in how I created these little cards, you can read more about it soon on my Art Class Blog here.

Enjoy!

Beth♥