{anatomy of a doodle}

Happy Monday friends!

I've had questions here and there about my doodling process so I thought it would be fun today to give you a peek into how things go from start to finish.

For the piece I'm sharing with you today, I actually began by researching quotes online. The friend who ordered this gave me a lot of freedom with the design, but wanted it to follow the theme of "green and growing," so I spent one evening looking for quotes following that idea.

I found this quote and altered it a bit for my doodle...

It depends on the type of doodle I'm working on, but if it is a more involved piece I typically start with a pencil sketch. Here is phase one of this piece with my pencil sketch...

And a random football....can't avoid floor photos with toys mixed in at our house. :)

Then I grab my pen and "ink" it in as I've heard other artists call it. I usually don't stray from my original sketch very much during this step, unless it is accidental. In that case I just "make it work"...as Tim Gunn would say.

I am playing around with a new lettering technique on this one and really like it...kind of a cursive bubble font if you will. After I'm done with the ink, and it is dry, I erase all of the pencil.

And then for the fun part...color! On this doodle I'm using my Spectrum Noir markers which are very similar to Copics if you are a marker aficionado. They are alcohol based, and work great for blending/ombre effects.

Here it is almost completely filled in with color...

These greens and blues just make me giddy...they will forever be my favorites.

You'll notice that the background and tree aren't colored in yet. I don't have markers in quite the right shades that I want. And to be honest, I'm scared to start coloring them in for fear that I'll ruin it!

So, my next step will be to scan the doodle, and use Photoshop to digitally color in the rest. I love using Photoshop for this because if I make a mistake it is super simple to remove the color and start over!

Sorry to leave you hanging, but I'm not quite to the finished product with this one. I'll be sure to share when it is done though!

XO,