Category Archives: doodles

Black Book January: Update #3

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I’ve been working on this one mandala for several days now. I used white posca pen for contours, and had a lot of trouble with it.

It did not want to work and I started to shake it and then the paint came out of it on top of my drawing. I managed to clean it up with black colored pencil, so it did not do much damage. But I am rather upset with posca pen. Why does it stop writing when there is still paint inside? It’s not that I abused it, such as dipped it into the wet acrylic paint or used it over a particularly rough surface, no, this one was used only on paper or on top of coloured pencil, it should not have cause damage. Anyway… I get upset because these pens are expensive and I am pretty sure that the cost-benefit analysis is not favorable for me, and I get even more upset because those pens are not easy to get in shops, I have to order it online and I did not have a spare because this one was new and, you know… I wanted to finish my mandala and the only thing I could do is press the tip to the paper in order to get paint out and then dip the tip back into the paint and use it as a dip pen on my drawing, which produced uneven lines I was not happy with, like this:

 

This morning I started doodles on top of it, but could not finish, this is how it looks now:

I had to stop and pack because we travelled today to a place close to Austrian-Hungarian border, which is called Rojtokmuzsaj. It’s a village with a most amazing old castle spa hotel. We were here last winter too, and decided that we need to come again.So, it’s four days of swimming pool, sauna, walks in park and a shopping excursion (because an Austrian outlet is close by, so we can’t miss it, right?).

Of course, I have my Black Book and my pens with me, so I will continue with my mandalas during our stay here, of course.

Black Book January: Update #2

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This morning I finished the mandala that took several days to do:

 

There were large areas to color with color pencils and then doodles also took awhile. Color pencils make the surface waxy and slippery, so doodling with ink on top is not very easy. I made lots of mistakes, but I am rather happy with the end product. It looks quite good.

Today was another freezing cold and beatifully sunny day. I went skating anyway, because I felt like going crazy from inactivity. It was very nice on ice, not cold at all and not crowded, probably due to low temperatures. Now, however, I can feel the skin on my face burning and I have a mild headache. I hope the headache will not develop into a migraine. That would be really bad, because I want to go skating again tomorrow.

Yesterday we went to the local tropicarium and watched sharks and fancy fish. It was very pleasant distraction from the winter outside. Afterwards we had coffee and cake and then we had trouble falling asleep because the coffee was big and strong. But it’s all fine, because we do not need to get up early or be anywhere.

That’s it for this Monday. I am off to make buttery popcorn and install myself in front of the TV. Orange is the new black is on.

Black Book January

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I did this challenge last year in January, I was probably inspired by #carveDecember and wanted to try something new and do it for a whole month. I called it Black Book January. Even a friend from Instagram joined and did several pieces. The goal of the challenge is to create something on black background. I bought a Derwent Black Book and did the challenge for the whole month last January. I did not create 31 pieces, because these are a little bit more complicated and time consuming than carving a stamp every day, but I quite enjoyed exploring what can be done on black paper.

This year I am repeating the challenge. I will be doing mandalas, because I am currently inspired to do them and I have already tried some supplies that can do wonders on back paper. I finished two mandalas until now. The first I did with white UniBall pen, Carad’Ache Luminance 6901 pencils and Liquid Pearls.

 

For the second I used UniBall pen and Sakura Metallic Gell pens in gold and bronze.

In parallel I am also doing the first lesson of Life Book, actually not the main lesson, but the warm-up. I did the meditation and for the first time I actually saw a symbol and an animal. I decided that I would include them in the painting, so it’s not really a simple warm-up exercise, but a whole thing, with the animal and the symbol. So I am a bit stuck, because my animal (which was actually a fawn in my meditation) does not look anything close to what I saw, meaning that it’s as far from the fawn as at all possible, but I am accepting it, as there is no choice, it’s either that or nothing at all. I think I will finish during the day… I keep wondering why I cannot draw cute animals… Maybe I should make it a challenge… Maybe in February…

Anyway… The weather is beautiful and sunny, but so horribly cold that I think I will not go out today. Last two days I went ice skating and enjoyed it enormously. Yesterday was also nice and sunny, but very windy and the day before was snowing and that day was actually much more to my liking even though it was cloudy, because the snow made it so calm and charming. So, off I go to nurture my muscle fever and wrstle with the ‘fawn’ 🙂

Have a nice day!

Mandala: 25 December 

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I finished it several days ago but waited for some light to take a photo. It was raining in the morning but it cleared now so I grabbed my phone and made a shot.

It was a nice Christmas Eve but a bit too much food, as usual. But that’s ok 😊

I hope you are enjoying your holidays!

Mandala: 4 December

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This is the mandala I was working on for past several days. I finished it yesterday, but could take a photo only today.

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I am very pleased with it. It was done in my Black Book with white Posca pen, black Edding marker, Luminance6901, Sakura gel pens, and Rotring Isograph with white acrylic ink.

Otherwise, it was a very good day yesterday – I did not go to the gym, but I did something even better – I went out for a run! The weather was great, sunny and not so cold, so around noon it was perfect for going out. In the morning I went to the market to buy food and had breakfast and coffee in my favorite cafe. In the afternoon we cooked dinner and watched Netflix, what else… And I did loads of art. Beautiful day. I hope to repeat it to a great extent today…

Mandala for Coloring: 29 November

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It’s been ages since I did any line art intended for coloring. This is actually the very first mandala I drew using compass and ruler. Kind of predictably repetitive, but nice anyway. If anyone feels like coloring it, go ahead. I know I will… As a matter of fact, I may decide to draw a weekly mandala or other coloring page and make that a regular post, which was my original intention when I started the blog. Let’s see…

I watched Fantastic Beasts yesterday and it was surprisingly good, as was the popcorn and the whole movie experience, which I always  enjoy, no matter how the movie itself turn out to be…

The weather is still sunny, but really freezing, so no running this morning. My gym pass is valid from 1st December, so that will probably be my next exercise day. I hate winter 😦

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Watercolor-Ink Doodles: 27 November

Posted in doodles, Mandala, Mixed Media, Ornaments, Watercolor by

Today I am travelling back. My holiday is over and I am not so happy about that, of course. I think I could have stayed here forever and would not miss civilisation at all. No use thinking about what cannot be at this point in time, so back to reality.

Here are several doodles in watercolor and ink I did over the last several days:

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It’s a beautiful sunny day here, and I hope that at least half of the way back will be nice and easy to drive. Back in the continent it will probably rain, but even rain is better than snow, right?