When Drawing...

  Everyone always say that drawing isn't about how well you do it, its about how much fun you have. WRONG! Well, at least in my opinion, anyway. Personally, I get discouraged in drawing unless I'm doing a good job. If you're like me, keep these drawing tips in mind when you are Just Doodling.

1. Always know what you're about to draw. You don't have to plan out everything, just know what you want to generate some self-excitement.
2. Draw out everything in pencil. You don't have to worry about being neat, just do a quick outline.
3. Go back with a pen or marker and retrace your sketch in all the places you want.
4. Erase your pencil marks.

Of course, if you mess up with the pen, whip out your handy white-out pen. Have a great day, and see everyone next post.

Ultimate Pen Pack- At the Bargain Price!

When doodling, I like to have a bunch of pop-out colors at my disposal. This awesome pack of Papermate pens include an almost erfect range of fun colors to draw from. Plus, they dry quickly, and don't rub off like a pencil or crayon! This specific pack of pens actually had two pens per color (except black), but if you don't want to buy such a large pack of pens, I'm sure they sell in smaller packs. (The other pens, I used to make my writing draqfts more colorful!)

This is a white-out pen from Better Everyday that I bought from the dollar store. I like the price, but it does take a bit of patience to work with. It tells you to store it upright, but I have found that this slows down the ink flow evey time I open the pen. So, I recommend storing it upside down. Plus, every time you use it, be sure to shake it up, and test it every time on a piece of scratch paper to encourage the ink flow. Why would you need to use this when doodling you ask- well, besides covering up mistakes, you can also use this to make white designs on the paper, unless its white. I do it all the time! Oh, and one more thing: this ink takes like 20 seconds to completely dry, so plan ahead!

Pretty colors, huh? Yeah, glitter pens are super fun to use when doodling. They kind of make your drawings more magical! I got this pack at the dollar store, and it still works great. The only thing I'm concerned about, however, is that the ink is really thin. The result that goes on the paper is dark and glittery, but just a small draw relieves 2 millimeters of ink! So, I have to use it wisely. Plus, I'm looking around to find more colors to buy! I store these in an upright position to reduce unnecessary ink flow to the cap.

I saved the best pens for last! I loovee journaling pens! These particular ones are from Elmar's and I got each separately for $2.50. The tip is thick, but have a thin edge to them. The thin edge is thin, but not especially fine. However, I rarely use the pens because, they're so precious. :) When you first get them, you have to shake pretty the marker pretty well and do this often to get a consistent flow of ink. PLus, the first time you use them, you have to press down a bit to encourage the ink to go down. The thing that I love about them is that they produce such an amazing color- so vibrant and dark that they actually look like they've been printed! I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEE this effect. The silver pen dries pretty quickly (you can actually see the color get lighter when it dries), shimmers, and is a pretty light color. The black pen takes 10 whole seconds to dry, but produces awing, print worthy marks. Here's a picture of the inks in thick and thin line:

Here are the different thicknesses. There are a bunch more, and I guess you just have to experiment a little to find the perfect font. Plus, I store these upright to prevent unnecessary ink flow to the caps.

This was a super long post, and whew- we're done! Have a drawable day, and see you next post!

Just Doodling!

I recently saw a picture-animated commercial on T.V., and was immediately inspired to keep a doodling journal. It's just like a journal where you record your thoughts with words, except you have to draw what you're thinking of! I had a really fun time stretching my creative juices to come up with fun scenes to draw! Above is a page I drew in my first page of the Just Doodling journal. You can see (if you look closely- I'm not that great an artist! :) a fish in a car, a clapping ketchup bottle, a crab reading the newspaper, a cloud blowing out a candle, and because it's in all great doodle journals, a unicorn jumping from cloud to cloud. I generally used one ink color per scene (I got a marvelous 7- color pack of pens for a gift), changing colors whenever I switched a scene. And, much like the doodling formats I see everywhere, my pictures are splattered all across the page.

This was a very fun project, and I'm glad I started. I'm definitely continuing! Hope you guys are inspired to start your own doodle journals! More posts about this to come, See everyone next post, and have a drawable day!