I think I mentioned before I’ve been doing some doodling. Well, actually, by “some” I mean a fair amount, because I was doing it as a Christmas present for my chosen sister, Rachel. That is also why I didn’t mention the extent of my efforts, until she received my present. Now that’s out in the open, I wanted to share images of all my doodles to date. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with them — they keep building up — but, hey, here they are (beneath the fold). If you like coloring and want larger/higher quality images of these to print and color, let me know. I’d be happy to share; also, I can always scan again with better color resolution.

A couple comments: They’re scanned in greyscale, which is why they’re kind of dull, but I did them all on nice paper with a fountain pen and permanent, archival black ink. After a while I got a drawing board and a T-square (still hanging around from my technical drawing class in high school!), which improved the straightness of my lines substantially, as you may notice, but I try to have fewer straight-edge lines and more freehand lines. Images are displayed in no particular order, but you can see I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about suns, moons, trees, clouds, and rain. Perhaps because I’ve always been interested in weather, these things pretty much never bore me to draw.

Why am I doing this? In part, as I mentioned, as a gift. But also because when I passed my Series 65 test, I needed something to calm my mind that was totally different from reading or the kind of thinking I’d been doing. I find this kind of doodling is something I can do while listening to the radio or talking with a friend (as long as they don’t mind my lack of eye contact), and it feels calming and meditative. I never know what’s going to come out when I start; sometimes I have a plan, but often I don’t. I just start with a blank sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 paper and see what happens. I always try to just embrace and incorporate any errors (the black ink means there’s no undoing once I put the nib onto the paper), finding some way to redeem the mistake rather than fretting over it, because nothing in life is perfect, and I might as well accept that with my doodling as with the rest of life.

A lot of these look nicer on the page because the edge of the paper adds the sense of white space. I’ve been learning as I go what kind of balance of busy detail vs. white space feels right. Many of them are a little too busy, but then part of what I find soothing is drawing in this tiny space, many repeated but not identical elements, so that’s definitely not going away.

This window one is my favorite. I dredged some of my technical drawing skills back up and I like the straight line/curved line contrast as well as the content contrast.
Sun & Moon through Window

Pictures beneath here:

Organic Growth

Nautilus

Moon & Willow Tree

4 Random Quadrants

White Space & Seasons

Sun & Moon & Trees 2

Sun & Moon & Trees 1

4 Triangles, 4 Seasons

Willow Tree & Rain

Thunderstorm

Sun & Poplar Tree

Planets 1

Planets 2

4 thoughts on “Doodle Portfolio

  1. beautiful work,Katie you very talented.nice enough to frame and hang on the walls. Congratulations to you for your hard work!

  2. I love looking at your doodles. I just stare at them. They are meditative not only for you as you create them but for me as I carefully observe them.

  3. Your mom shared these with me Katie…love your partitions of pattern and joyful gyrations! Sorry for the gratuitous alliteration…these are so fun!

  4. Katie,
    These “doodles” are truly works of art. You are so talented! It is fun studying them and discovering meanings of my own for each one.
    Love,
    Nana

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