Today I am giving thanks to my mother who gifted me with her color sense, her love of elegance, and who passed down the gift of intuitive knowledge through her family lineage. Thanks, Ma!

The Duchess – © Sue O’Kieffe 2009

I have been busy preparing for my first Black Friday/Cyber Monday both off and online, getting my Etsy shop as ready as can be and talking to local shop owners about carrying my mandala prints and cards in their shops. Last night I was sooooo tired I crashed into bed at 6:30.  I still had energy to play, and I just wanted to drift on the page.

I got out my neocolor crayons, layed down some color, then got out my brush and water and played. I’ve always loved watercolors, and neocolors allow me to do artwork in bed with out making a mess! Pretty soon The Duchess appeared.

This morning I’m hearing the Beatles’ tune:

Her majesty’s a pretty nice girl but she doesn’t have a lot to say.

Her majesty’s a pretty nice girl but she changes from day to day.
I wanna tell her that I love her a lot but I gotta get a bellyful of wine.
Her majesty’s a pretty nice girl someday I’m gonna make her mine,
Oh yeah, someday I’m gonna make her mine.

I get so silly when I’m tired. And it feels soooo gooood. Oh yeah.

~SueDoodles

Rainbow Critter © Sue O’Kieffe 2009

Our rainbow colored friend is VERY grateful that no one will eat him for dinner. No one eats each other in Rainbowland.

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Thanks to all of you who responded to my question about dealing with imperfection.  So often it seems we present our best faces here, and I loved to read two other posts the same day dealing with the subject of personal insecurities. I love knowing how much we really are all connected to each other in this energetic/synchronistic way.

I have decided for the rest of this month to speak about gratitude on both of my blogs.

Today I want to thank Laura Bly for helping me transition out of a challenging situation and for encouraging me to value my doodle art. Big hugs to you, dear woman of fire.  Many blessings to you always!

~SueDoodles

Way back at the beginning of the month,  I made some comments about creating an intention of being imperfect during this AEDM month.

Perfectionism can be a  crippling mental disorder that has, at its core, the fear of making a mistake. I heard this definition on Oprah, and it really rang true for me. I recognize this as a part of my emotional set. I am by no means debilitated by this, but I do know when my mind is holding me back by this fear.

(It’s hard to write about this stuff without it sounding like I’m being hard on myself.)

Doodling is one place where my perfectionism is quieted a little.

A couple of years ago someone told me about Zentangles, and I tried to adopt it without really learning the different *tangles* (patterns).  And then  I developed my own doodling style, which by now is pretty recognizable, like handwriting.

And it was good.

But I’ve been getting a little bored, and so I thought I would venture back to the world of Zentangles. I’ve never bought their little kit, but I do get the Zentangle newsletter. And they have new patterns in most of their newsletter issues which are archived on their website. So I copied the patterns onto a word document, printed them out,  then got out my sketch book and practiced.

yincut and beeline tangles

SeZ (this would make a nice pillow, I think)

paradox and jonquil tangles

eye-wa, swarm, pepper, munch in and jonquil tangles

AEDM Zendala © Sue O’Kieffe 2009

I played with these tangles for about five days, and like any kind of learning curve it felt awkward. And that’s sure ok.  It’s good to stretch and try new things and feel new. I’m glad I did this and will try to play with these tangles some more before the month is over.

So regarding perfectionism. How many of you out there struggle with perfectionism, and what do you do to quiet those voices?

~SueDoodles

Something Colorful  – © Sue O’Kieffe 2009

I colored this doodle with crayons. I needed me a hit of that crayola smell.

A story of some kind usually emerges while doodling, but today I got nothing. Can you help?

Something Colorful at Night – © Sue O’Kieffe 2009

Playing with it in Photoshop, inverting the colors and altering its placement on the page, was fun. I think I see a shy animal now. A shy, two headed animal? What see you?

~SueDoodles

KAW-LING

I took this photograph a year ago for Day 3 of AEDM2008

Two Crows

This is my rendition for AEDM 2009. I’ve been wanting to do this contour drawing for about a year…no time like the present eh?

~SueDoodles

Sore Feet Revisited – © Sue O’Kieffe 2009

My lady with sore feet has come to life. I love her colorful, eclectic taste in clothes.( If you didn’t see her first incarnation, you can meet her here.

I had some fun memories with this, remembering long ago dreams of designing clothes (my Barbie had beautiful ball gowns decorated with hand-sewn beads). I must say, I do love my lady’s beautiful black leather heels with red leather and grey suede trim. Killer!

And that’s why her feet hurt!

Do you think she needs a background?

~SueDoodles

Transformed ~ © Sue O’Kieffe 2009

My dear friend with the sore feet from yesterday’s post had to sit down cuz her dogs were barkin’. While she was resting, I borrowed a little piece of her and created this here mandala

I borrowed the idea to create a mandala from one of my doodles from my friend Dana of Nine Tomatoes. If you’ve never seen her artwork, it’s definitely worth a look-see.

For those of you who don’t know, I am a mandala maker first and foremost who began doodling two years ago during AEDM 2007. It has become a gift to me of both relaxation and confidence building.

Please feel free to copy and download this mandala if you want to color it and post it on your blog. I’d love to see your vision of this mandala transformed!

~SueDoodles

Sore Feet – © Sue O’Kieffe 2009

Sometimes my characters crack me up.

So how I doodle is I just put my pen down on the paper and meander around the page to create the basic shape I’m working with. Then I start laying down the detail. (I know a video would be really helpful here. Someday that will be part of my skill set.)

Anyhoo, it wasn’t long before this snazzy woman who has probably spent too much time in spiked heels showed up. She told me she had sore feet, and I believe her. Poor baby has her other foot all bandaged up. Can you spell B U N I O N?

I’m going to spend some time with her(and maybe find her a good podiatrist) for the next few AEDM postings to see what else she has to tell me.

Happy creative bliss days, everyone!

Cosmic Dolly © Sue O’Kieffe 2009

I’ve just had one of those mornings where technology has not been on my side. So let me try this again.

I’m back for my third November of AEDM, the community building, no pressure  creativity encouraging annual November event begun by  Leah Piken Kolidas. I’m looking forward to focusing on trying new things, just having fun, and practicing imperfection during the next 30 26 days .

I actually created Cosmic Dolly last month, and she was lots of fun  to bring to life, with her colorful, mandala-inspired clothing and springy blonde ringlets. I think she’s fun and powerful, what with her snake and bluebird allies and spiral shield decorated with Christmas tree lights.

I ran into a snag when it came to drawing her face and found Milliande’s video on the subject really helpful. I’m having some trouble getting the video to  post on my blog, so I hope you will go to the link and take a look at her great suggestions.

Im going to practice faces this month, and play with my doodles in different ways and who knows what else I might try? I want to play some more with my photography, and maybe try my hand at writing haiku.

This is gunna be a fun month. Yee-haw!

~SueDoodles

Convo © Sue O’Kieffe 2009

I bought a new sketchbook on Friday made by BeePaper. I like this premium recycled paper. Sharpie marks lie down well. Prismacolor doesn’t go on quite as smooth as with  the Canson sketch book I had before, but that’s ok.  The book is a little bit smaller, which makes it easier to hold onto, cuz I mostly doodle in bed.

When I color my doodles, what I really like is imagining the conversations the colors are having with each other. Ultramarine shouts out Hey Violet Blue, you look pretty mysterious. Wanna hang out for a while? Aquamarine gives Neon Pink a high five and cheers Smashing. Lavendar whispers to Turquoise Here’s looking at you, kid.

Can you hear them too?