Rolling In On Fido!

Greetings. It's great to see you! As I write these words, a gray day covers Seattle and a sporadic wind is carrying in mini downpours. A brilliant pink camellia tree is blooming outside my window.

Apr 29, 2024

Sometimes, it would be nice to catch a ride on a rolling Fido or at least imagine this happening. This is so much more appealing than sending a text to get a paid ride with a stranger in a an unknown car. I have never been comfortable doing this and prefer to drive myself whenever possible.

Looking Downward This Week

Painted crosswalks are not usually exciting but in this case, WOW!

Luckily, I was in the small town of Langley on vacation and there is minimal traffic at intersections. If I had been in Seattle, I definitely would not been looking down but fully making eye contact with drivers!

Character delight filled me as soon as I saw this and I could not wait to get home to create something with it!

Let’s call this art “Ghost Sheep” and my first sketch was in Procreate to try some new brushes. That scratchy one for the clouds is amazing and gave the same look I like when sanding paint off my illustrations. I prefer to create analog art but that is not always possible so Procreate is a wondrous stand in.

For this second piece, I changed the inspiration photo to be a poodle and included that delightful small shape in front of the character to be a butterfly.

If you are always looking around (or down), the world does show wondrous inspirational moments in unexpected places!

A New Creative Inspiration To Share With You!

Tray Full Of Cloud Rocks

You are probably thinking that I’ve lost my mind showing you a tray full of rocks!

When I beach comb up on Whidbey Island, finding unusual rocks is my thing to do. These white ones with random shapes or are what jump out at me these days.

Why is the descriptive cloud used? When we look at clouds, our beautiful imaginations see different things. These rocks are like clouds and hold a plethora of images that each person sees in their own unique way.

Let’s see a couple examples of these cloud rocks in doodle sketches!

Penguin And A Special Friend

Can you see this specific rock in the top photo showing the tray of rocks? When I picked this one up and turned it over, a penguin character and little bird like friend formed in my imagination.

Cloud Rock Critter And The Little Bird

This is a made up character using the shape I saw but the little bird was a clearer motif. The rock on the left had some designs that can make a good pattern so I doodled a few of these out.

Wing Sketches Using Cloud Rock Inspiration

Wing Doodle Sketchbook Page

The above sketches were from two cloud rocks I found beach combing. They were such fun shapes, that I switched to my black ink brush pen and did 2 large sketchbook pages shown below. I took some creative liberty and added some quirky details to the characters.

Which one is your favorite? I’ll do a small painting of the most popular one so please leave your choice.

Earl The Dog Loved To Play Ball

You can guess what this dog’s favorite toy is!

Cat And Moon Pondered The Brilliant Star

For some reason, cats and moons go together in my imagination.

Forest Friends Pattern Design

Art we create can be used in many ways. Sketchbooks are such an important resource to gather ideas to develop further. The cloud rock characters seem to be popping up now in my designs. The gray creature above is not specifically identifiable but felt like he should live in a forest.

Creativity allows us the freedom to make up worlds and what inhabits them!

The birds are everywhere here in Seattle singing with joy! On my daily walk, I saw this especially scruffy little dog and could not resist putting a very large colorful bird on his back for a ride

Thanks for being here reading this newsletter. I appreciate each and every one of you! Have a beautiful week :)

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