Going Dotty

The other day when I was looking at elvie studio by Lori Vliegen I saw her post about the mighty micron and watched the video - The Making of "Hero"- a drawing of Miguel Endara's dad "composed entirely out of 3.2 million ink dots." Did he count as he was dotting away or did they do some kind of mathematical estimation?

Hennyway, this reminded me of a dotty picture that I once started but never finished

Why didn't you finish it? you may ask.

Well, way back in 1989 I was having a great time dotting away with my 0.1mm pen. Stippling, as it is called, afforded me time to ponder deep and meaningful things and I loved how the picture developed one dot at a time. I stippled at home and I stippled at school. This dotty picture was (was) to be my major work for 3 unit Art in the HSC and I spent a great deal of time on it.

One day I was called out of Biology to go to the principal's office. That was not a normal occurrence for me and it caused me a great deal of stress just wondering why on earth I should be called. I soon found out. The principal solemnly declared that something terrible, something devastating had happened - someone had spilt photographic chemicals on my major work.

I didn't burst into tears. I stood in stunned silence. Maybe I was in shock.

Then the principal said something that, to this day, I cannot fathom.
He said, "Would you like me to do the art work again for you?"

"WHAT!?!?!?!?!" (That's me now. Then, I just said, "No thank you.")

I don't remember if we brainstormed ideas then or later but no idea that the principal came up with was good enough for me. My picture was wrecked and I didn't want to do it all over again. I didn't want to do anything else either. In the end I just did some sketches and some paintings of various animals, mounted them on black cardboard and handed them in. It was done and I was disappointed.

Today, when I went to look for my dotty elephant I had a momentary panic, thinking that I had thrown it out in a fit of ruthlessness. And that might have been fine except that I knew that I didn't have a photo of it. It's okay now. I have a photo. I have a blog post.

So there you go - one random blog post by someone I do not know helped me remember something from a long time ago. I'm still a little bit sad about it.

A Doodling Update

It has been a while since I showed you inside my book that I carry around with me. I made this book at the beginning of the year and filled it with some paper from a spiral-bound notebook that Susannah didn't want any more. 

One BIG problem - the paper is uninspiring. Actually, I would go so far as to say it sucks any artistic feelings I might have right down like quicksand or sludge.  Nevertheless, I have waded through this negative occurrence and managed to get something on to the ugly green paper.

I was so excited when I learned how to do basket-weave the easy way thanks to TanglePatterns.com

There came a point where I just couldn't keep going with the ugly green paper and I fished out a Smash Book that I'd had for a long time. I decided that its beauty far outweighed its weight and that I would rather carry it around than the journal I had made. (I miss the journal I had last year that was made from a 2009 diary)

This one here is totally inspired by Alisa Burke

This one is inspired by a real live friend from church.

A work in progress

Started today on the train. Also a work in progress.

One day I will make my own smash-type book with the collection of papers, both odd and interesting, and maybe I will like it.

Sandoodling* at Sandringham

Today we had one of those days that can be described as "the best" - a day that just ambled along in a very relaxed manner. We joined some homeschooling friends (9 kids, 2 Mums all together) and went fishing at a little spot in Sans Souci.

When the wind became a bit of a bully we headed off to find a more protected spot to fish from. My friend knew exactly where to go - a little beach just next to Sandringham Baths.

With the wind slightly thwarted by the buildings behind us we soaked up the sun that had reappeared and cast the lines in again. No fish were caught but some of the kids have been bitten by the fishing bug and would like to give it another go real soon. Apparently K-Mart sells rods for $5 - how do they do that?

Susannah started making a sand castle and while she was scratching something out of the sand it suddenly occurred to me that we could doodle - on a grand scale - right there on the rain- and tide-flattened sand.

So we sandoodled - Susannah, my friend, her daughters, Caitlin, and I - all over the beach. SO much fun.

Here's a selection of photos. I say 'selection' because there are way more, believe me!

While we sandoodled the boys did some of their own sand art.

I love homeschooling. And Autumn. And friends. And doodling. And...



*Sandoodling - I made that up. :)