Doodle Illustration 2 / Illustration Friday ~ Yield

"Yield" Doodle Illustration

Illustration Friday

2012. Graphite, Watercolor, Colored Pencil, Digital.

This post and illustration relate to my last one: Doodle Illustration. Technically I don't know if this illustration counts as a "doodle" since I planned a bit more than the last, but I made sure to just "go with the flow" and "have fun" throughout the whole process...which to me is "doodling." (I forgot to mention that yesterday's post was done on PRINTER paper...and today's was done on wmart card-stock! If you tape the paper down, the warping generally goes away.)

Doodling Part 2: I have found doodling to be a fun and 'safe' activity that requires no pre-planning and most of all NO STRESS. Doodling is one of those things that just flows, and I've noticed that it often helps me focus in classes, at church, etc...but it wasn't always this way to me.

Doodling started off as fun, spontaneous and exciting activity, but this began to fade once the bulk of illustration, as a career, hit me. I found myself feeling that EVERY single sketch and drawing HAD to be significant, follow ALL the art rules, and most likely be something I could use as or part of an illustration. This mentality was EXHAUSTING.

One of the ways I battled this mentality was I started a 5x7 sketchbook and titled it, "I don't care." The whole purpose of the book was to free my mind and just create drawings for fun, without satisfying some sort of means...just pure random fun! It took filling a couple sketchbooks before I found myself relaxing as I once had been. Since filling those sketchbooks I have found many ways to make my doodling more constructive (for my career), but still being vague and often pointless, to those who might look at it. I feel that true doodling is essential to an artist's health.