Doodling

 

My entry to Doodle Day for Friday.

I like this kitty and want to draw him/her so more to get to know him/her better.
A cat that dresses up for the weekend is OK by me.

A whole lot of links

I wrote a post over at the Sub It Club:
"The Monthly Goalpost for October: Science + Wisdom (yup, that's right)".
I love the 3 minute video at the end.
Here's the link: bit.ly/1bo1EUu

While you're over there, you can check out the latest Postcard Post featuring illustrator, Hazel Mitchell:
Link: http://bit.ly/18GNV3j

And why not peruse the archives?
Link for the Postcard Post archives:http://bit.ly/10oEFy
and the Monthly Goalpost archives too: http://bit.ly/1eX9UeI

I made a doodle for Doodler's Anonymous' theme: Draw Your Dream Class. 

Fun stuff. I'm almost ready to go public on an event I'm planning for SCBWI France. Can't wait!

Heads Shapes and Characters

To get in the spirit of doodling every day, I went to Alison Kipnis Hertz's blog and copied the character head shapes from a page from Christopher Hart's HUMUNGOUS BOOK OF CARTOONING. Not sure I followed the directions faithfully but I had fun. I tried to draw as fast as possible and go with whatever the shape brought to mind first. Here's what I came up with:

 I see some characters emerging. This just may feed into my writing.

Sunday is Market Day in Brest

These are some random sketches and photos from Sunday when I took the tram into town to pick up this and that for lunch.

This is pain au cacao. OUi! Chocolate bread. Not cake or pastry but organic bread made with cocoa powder and a few chocolate chips. It is divine which is fitting since I did buy this on a Sunday. The little loaf behind it is pain au conté et noix (cheese and walnuts). It's good too but it's hard not to take second billing to cAcaO!

After buying fresh turkey breast and a beautiful stainless steel pot and lid (opportunity knocks and you've got to answer), I headed over to the little square where parents take kids to play. I sketched.

 

 

 

 
While I was strolling around, Gemma was running a 5K with her friends from lycée to benefit breast cancer research. Bravo les filles!

This café sketch is from Friday when I had a day on the town with my friend, Sue. We hit the art supply store and I tried out my new colored pencils right away. Sue tried out her new pencil called "The Shaker" and a crisp new pad of drawing paper.

Improvising

These drawings are all from a sketch book wherein I decided to use marker only and ban erasing. That's right, no erasing allowed. I just wanted to have fun feeling the ink slide on the paper while I drew anything that came to mind. I love black and white, contrast and texture, so I played with them.

When I was a kid, we used to do what we called "designs" all the time. We'd fill the space with a freeform shape and use every crayola in the box to color it. Here's a grown up black & white revisitation.

It was fun so I did another.

Oops! Color! I had a set of color ballpoints that I'd always wanted to use and this ban on the eraser
proved the perfect moment to break them in.

Lace, buttons... I love them.

Guess I had candy on my mind. No surprise there!

Bowties! Noeud papillons here in France which means butterfly knots.

Neckties. Cravates.

Picture Book University

Pam Calvert, author of Princess Peepers, is taking us through the ins and outs of picture book writing this summer. Whether you're a beginner writer or experienced, this free picture book mini-workshop is too good to miss. Storyboards, character driven picture books, analysis of successful books and more... great topics! I'm revising some of my manuscripts right now and these point-by-point blog posts are reinforcing what I know, reminding me of things I've forgotten and enlightening me with Pam's insight. Just click on over to her blog. You can catch up on past posts at your own pace. No pressure!

 You can click on this logo or the PBU Participant badge in the sidebar to get going. See you there!

Over at the Sub It Club

 I've been busy over at the Sub It Club. Here are the links to my two monthly columns there:
 
The Monthly Goalpost for June at the Sub It Club

The Postcard Post for May with illustrator Jennifer Thermes

The Monthly Goalpost is where I keep myself motivated and try to motivate others. Whatever your goals are, there's something there for you too.

The Postcard Post features an illustrator each month. It's an inside peek at an artist's self-promotional tools and how they made them. Worth a detour just for the artwork alone.