More Doodles

Time for another quick break from photography to share some of my recent drawings. I haven’t been drawing much lately. At some point last year I lost my stylus, and I really don’t like drawing on the iPad without one. Fortunately my wife recently bought one, so when I recently downloaded a new app called Paper, I pinched it when she wasn’t looking to play about.

By default, the app only gives you a pen to play with, but you can unlock paint, pencils and markers to improve your artwork.

I’ve always been more of a cartoonist than an illustrator. These days I’m far more of a doodler, drawing whatever the hell takes my fancy. Sometimes, however, that will lead to me drawing something more ‘traditional’.

Of course, when that happens it’s only a matter of time before things start getting silly.

Once I’d found my stride, I started trying more technical doodles, starting with a simple cube.

I also tried to draw Jedi Master Yoda, but it didn’t turn out great, so I tried to pretend it was always supposed to be that way, which is my usual technique.

Some attempts, however, weren’t even this successful.

For the most part, however, I drew characters. I like to just draw characters, and being able to colour them in added a great amount of depth to the pictures.

After a while, I began to get a bit creative, and draw characters with a little more of a purpose. This guy was the bloke hypnotised by the Hypnotist Yoda.

This was just an angry ginger person.

This, in turn, led me to draw the ‘ginger ninja’, with the idea that he’d have a shock of red hair undermining his attempts at disappearing into the background.

This was followed by another completely random idea.

And I’m not adverse to a small amount of shameless self-promotion.

If there’s one complaint I have about this app, it’s that there isn’t an easy way of erasing pencil sketches without removing the ink on top, which is why the drawing above (as well as the black hole image and perhaps a couple others) both have visible pencil lines.

Ultimately, however, I just love drawing comic faces – especially the eyes. When just doodling for no purpose, I’ll often just draw a set of eyes and a nose and leave it at that. So I took that theory and expanded it a little.

I did, however, often finish the faces.

After seeing what I was drawing, my wife made a request of me. Could I, she asked, draw a dinosaur for her?

I gave it a go.

It wasn’t very good. So after regrouping, I had another go, with far better results.

This is by far the most successful drawing in this batch. My wife already has had it printed on a mug which she cherishes, and made a felt version the this dinosaur from scratch, hence his name: Feltosaurus. I’m pretty pleased with it too. It actually looks a lot like a stuffed animal I had growing up, which I think I’m going to have to see if I can find.

As quickly as my bout of doodling began, it has since stopped again. For a couple of weekends you couldn’t stop me drawing, but I’ve now not drawn much in over a week, making it very much a creative splurge (groan). Perhaps I should buy my own stylus so I can doodle at will again.