I recently spied a package of multi-colored fountain pens at my local bookstore. I’ve looked at them several times, and finally decided to purchase them on Monday. They are called “Color Write Fountain Pens”, made by Ooly. This company makes a variety of fun art supplies suitable for the hobbiest. There are eight pens in the set, and they retail for $14.99. That’s about as cheap as it gets for a fountain pen, under $2 each.

When my MIL passed away, we found the ZIAs and Zentangles she created later in her life. One of the things in these was a box with a tangled alphabet. Today is brought to you by the letter “Q”, as tangled by Twyla! Zentangle drawn on white card stock using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil. Tangles: Quabog Quipple Queen's Crown Quiltz

Yesterday’s progress.

Many… MANY… (like, probably, 45) years ago, I had this idea for a painting. I grabbed the nearest paper (a brown paper lunch sack) and a ballpoint pen to sketch it out before I forgot about it. After about 15 minutes, I had all the shapes drawn. I also had color notes on the back of the bag. I have the bag around here somewhere. If I find it, I’ll post a pic of it.

A while back, I told you that I was making a new art journal. It’s now bound and the covers have been added and gessoed! In the pic above, it’s show with the binding towards the bottom of the image. This journal was created from a pad of Stonehenge, Hot Pressed Watercolor paper. The covers (front and back) are cut from the backing board of the pad. The only piece that hasn’t been used (yet) is the hot pink cover.

If you recall, yesterday, I showed you a page in my pocket sketch book where I was trying to work out how to draw the tangle, Peanuckle. As you can see here, I did finally figure it out! This was after doing the “Peanuckle Lesson” from Eni Oken! This lesson was part of her Art Club. This little page is later on in the same pocket sketch book as yesterday’s page.

I was looking through my little sketch book for other things I use it for, and I found a couple more Emberley sections. So here’s one. But that’s not want I actually wanted to talk about. I wanted to show you that I use this little book to work out tangles that I’m having difficulty with! In this case, it was Peanuckle. I tried for a long time to work this one out.

In the last Ed Eberley doodle installment is the Planet of Zort! This comes from the “Big Green Drawing Book”. This wonderful book is full of things that can be drawn by using the following simple shapes: triangle, square, I, C, D, O, (, ), and scribble! If you can draw those things, you can draw any of the things in this book! (Does this sound familiar?) There’s adorable Práta People, Snakes from every angle, Racing Cars and animals, Greengrin, Pine Island and Zort.

Last Friday, I introduced you to a style of doodle drawing created by Ed Emberley. Today, I am continuing that journey. On this page in my little 4” x 6” sketch book, I’m illustrating some the various places that might live in the imagination in the “Emberley Style”. So grab your pencil, or colored finliners and create your own imaginary world, or tiny story! When you post it, make sure to use the tag, #doodledoit!

If you haven’t already met, I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce you to Ed Emberley! Mr. Emberley is an artist and illustrator of children’s books. Of interest to us here are his kid’s instructional drawing books. Of these, my favorite is “Make a World”. This book shows you how to use simple shapes to create everything from an astronaut to a castle by combining simple geometric shapes.

Yesterday, I showed you some dangles that were on a page in my small sketch book. Today, I’m showing you some more dangles, but these are a slightly different style. These are more like the style illustrated in “The Art of Drawing Dangles: Creating Decorative Letters and Art with Charms” by Olivia A. Kneibler. This style is a bit less abstract, choosing to create dangles illustrate items from nature and real life.

Doodle Dangle it! Yesterday’s doodles were a variety of animals. Today, we’re going for a variety of decorative, dangling elements that,together, create a composition. The modern dangle concept illustrated here comes from Joanne Fink, first shown in her book “Zenspirations, Dangle Designs”. This is a bit more structured doodling that can be a lot of fun! Give it a try. Don’t forget to tag your post: #doodledoit! #doodledoit

How do you doodle? Just about everyone does it. Maybe you doodle around the margins of your notes in school. Perhaps you like to play with your pen when you’re on the phone. How about while you’re waiting for an appointment? Doodling helps to pass the time. It engages the brain. And it’s good practice for motor skills. If you don’t doodle, maybe you should give it a try!

As I was cleaning up and rearranging this weekend, I came across this tablet of really nice watercolor paper. I had purchased this to make some Zentangle tiles, but it turned out that this paper didn’t work well for that purpose. So I’ve decided to make a new art journal from the remainder of the paper. To keep this fairly simple, I’m just folding each sheet of paper in half, and using two sheets to create a signature.

Fountain Pen Ink

  fountain pen

Every time we get a new ink for our fountain pens, I use a pen and write a sample of it into my journal in the back. That way, I have a running list of the inks that we have, and can see what they look like. I also record which pen I used to create the sample because inks perform differently, depending on the nib and pen used.