Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Doodle Day Update and a NEW Challenge

Doodle Day started May 1st and never stopped! It was all May long with a new prompt and a new blog post daily and the group of participants on (Facebook in the Doodle Day May group) just grew and grew. We were at 60+ doodlers by the end of May. Doodlers continued posting their daily doodles throughout June and the number of participants continued to grow (even though the challenge was technically over). In July, (at the request of many doodlers) we started posting prompts again. All new, every day! Thanks to the fabulous and dedicated doodlers, I had guest posts for more than half the month. These fantastic guests posted doodle prompts, samples, reference photos, and suggestions on my blog and theirs and our group of doodlers continued to grow. We are now 21 days into August and the Doodle Day participants is at 106! If you are interested in doodling with us, there is a list of August prompts posted in the files at the top of the group page on Facebook. WOW! More than a thousand doodles have been posted with many more locked in the privacy of doodler's sketchbooks. (You are not required to share to be a recognized participant in this challenge.)

As Augusts is coming to a close, we have a new drawing challenge approaching. I have been giving hints and talking about it all summer. This new challenge will run from September 8-21 and here it is...

Character Challenge
which you can call ChaCha! (pronounced Kah-Cha)
 
 
Here's how it will work -
On Sunday, September 8th - We will kick off the ChaCha with a post and a drawing exercise to help you prepare for creating new characters.
 
On Monday, September 9nd - I will post the first Character Prompt. This will be a specific age group to focus on. You can create male or female characters at this age - we are focusing on humans for this challenge. We can work on animal characters at another time. You are not expected to create final, portfolio quality characters. This is an exercise in creating new characters. First drafts, sketches, loose drawings. You will have two days to work on this age group. After you sketch out a view you like, try the same character from the side or the back, 3/4 front or back if you have time.
 
On Sept 11th, 13th, 16th, 18th, and 20th - I will post a Character Prompt with a different age group to focus on. You will have a couple of days to work on each character design/age group. I will not post new prompts over the weekends so you can spend time going back to the characters you were developing on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of that week. In each blog post, I will give suggestions for how to approach drawing a character of that target age. This information may include tips about body shapes and head shapes, websites with reference information, book suggestions, video tutorials from other artist about developing characters, etc... For this challenge, we will be focusing on characters who are younger than 40 years old.
 
At the end of this challenge, you should have at least 6 new characters you have worked on.
 
If you have questions, please post them in the comments below and I will address them. If this challenge sounds like a TON OF FUN, let me know that, too.
 
Until then...Keep Doodling
 
Hope to see you at the Character Challenge!
 
 
 
 


Thursday, August 1, 2013

My Doodle Day Journey


I just finished the Doodle Day July drawing challenge. We had also hosted the Doodle Day May challenge. More than a hundred other doodlers from around the world were creating a daily doodle along with me - including my five year old. What a fantastic experience to see my own drawings improve as well as the sketching abilities of other participants. We shared our doodles on the Facebook Group page as well as our comments, suggestions and praise. Participants posted links to websites and blogs, etsy shops with doodly products, art tutorials, how to draw books, videos, and more. Thank you to every single participant. I looked forward to your posts each day and found myself checking Facebook several times a day. If you would like a t-shirt, hat, or notebook with the Doodle Day logo on it - check out the selection at the Café Press store.

Consider joining me in the Character-a-Day Challenge (where I will be posting a type of human character to develop on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for 2 weeks) at the end of August. At the end of that challenge, you will have designed 6 characters ranging from baby to teen.

At the end of May, I posted a look back so that I could see my doodles all together. You can see that post HERE.

Below is my look back for July. I didn't include every doodle because some days there were 4 or 5 pages but here is at least one for each day:

JULY PROMPTS:
DAY 1 - DOODLE the word "DOODLE"
DAY 2 - SKYLINE

DAY 3 - MANDALA



DAY 4 - SPARKLE

DAY 5 - SWING

DAY 6 - SAD




DAY 7 - STORM

DAY 8 - NOTAN




DAY 9 - DUCKLING

DAY 10 - PICNIC

DAY 11 - CRUSTACEAN





DAY 12 - ROBOT

DAY 13 - CAR


DAY 14 - CLOUD



DAY 15 - DANCE

DAY 16 - WORDLES

DAY 17 - ROCK





DAY 18 - BOOK


DAY 19 - KITE

DAY 20 - HAIR

DAY 21 - BOX
 

DAY 22 - MONKEY

DAY 23 - PUPPY







DAY 24 - TOTEM POLE

DAY 25 - WISH

DAY 26 - WIGGLE

DAY 27 - ANXIETY

DAY 28 - COW


DAY 29 - SCHOOL

DAY 30 - FLIP, FLAP, & FLY

DAY 31 - SCRIBBLE (activity with my kids)



Keep doodling!

If you post a summary of your Doodle Day July doodles, share your link in the comments below so others can enjoy seeing your work.