Research Doodling Experiments

I am sorry about the quality of the images on my blog, but I am going to keep on experimenting with the best way to upload images of whatever I am working on. The above image I took on my cellphone at nighttime and the one blow is at school scanned as a PDF which I then took a screen shot of using the snipping tool as I didn't know how to change the file to a jpeg! Sorry. 

This first doodle I started on at a friends place while I was bored using some felt tip pens on scrap paper. I was thinking about... toxic landscapes, pollution, a very hot sun, creation, (blue web thing reminds me of a chicken beginning to form in a yolk), coral reefs, green bubbles and algae.

What if the world becomes so polluted and the ocean covers the land because of global warming? Will it be like the beginning of creation with only basic plant life forms, how will humans survive. Should I put some human figures in the front of the picture looking on like rukenfigure? This would make the scrappy looking drawing 3D.

I added the title "TOXIC WASTELANDS...my brother... toxic wastelands" in army colours to turn it into protest art as I think the war of our modern age is environmental pollution.

I can for see expanding on "toxic lanscapes" as a series of experiments layering up thin and gloopy flourescent paint. Perhaps using cheap two dollar shop art materials and adding glitter.

At the moment the composition is unbalanced and I want to keep on layering up the image playing around with swirls, dots and bleeding colours. Maybe I will add some metallic pen too.


Last week I bought a package of felt tip pens. (I felt so guilty buying more plastic this planet doesn't need, maybe I can later make a sculpture out of the spent up felt tip pens? About raping mother earth is one idea). After being at the shops in town I sat down on a park bench at the Otepuni Gardens and started two doodles on computer paper using the pens I had just bought.

After a while it started to rain while drawing in the gardens and a few spits got into this drawing making splotches. An idea could be to leave a well inked up or dyed piece of paper in the rain and see what happens. Then when it dries draw over the top with new inspiration...

For the above doodle what I like/dislike about it is: I like the original first scribbly lines that were energetic and lyrical that have filled the page. But other than that I only like the well worked up pattern in the middle that I worked up from cloud/mountain/cliff to sea forms. The rest are just little tests on the side of the page.

I don't like the ivy looking scribbles done with a dried up green felt tip as it clashes with the other bold colours. However that mistake gave me something to draw over the top of, following the lines.

How I could improve it: By building on it more, repeating patterns I like. For example there is a weaving and climbing stair-like case thing I would like to do again to make it stand out more in the composition. Make it expand out like mould growing.

What I've learnt: To bleed the edges of the felt tips, to layer up, to use pointillist marks and sometimes to leave some white paper showing.

The next doodle I started at the Otepuni gardens also with a different colour theme this time. I just put down a few brief sketchy marks with pink felt tip of some grass growing along the bank then added patterns to patterns, bleeding the edges together. I was inpired by nature and tried to create plant-form-like patterns a bit like the artist Seraphine de Senlis. I would like to keep adding to this page too in order to keep covering up the rough sketchy lines.

When editing this photograph on the computer I added a filter which subdued the bright colours. I think it looks interesting with the beige background also. This method of altering the first drawing on the computer could give me new ideas for a painting.

Above: before beginning a watercolour and ink painting I could create a background that is dark in the centre and lightens out at the edges before beginning the details in the pattern, perhaps?

The scanned version:

After starting all these doodles I realise I need to keep testing out different grades of paper. Is computer paper too scrappy for exhibiting when it starts to wrinkle from the ink? But it is also effective in bleeding as it might not be as absorbant as watercolour paper. I need to know the answer.