Organized Doodle Fini!

I finished this doodle up a few days ago. Basically I just doodled around in the empty space, or as we artist call it, the "negative space", in an attempt to fill the page. If you're so inclined you can scroll back two post ago and compare the differences.

Every time I look at this piece I will think "Olympics" because this is what I was doing while my wife and I watched the games.

My New Zealand, blogging friend Chris liked the doodle so much that she purchased it from me. That was a surprise and a blessing. (Thank you very much Chris.) So, pretty soon this doodle will be off to it's new overseas home.

Maybe you'd like to know why I call this blog "Organized Doodles."

(If not, then we're pretty much done here and you can moving along to the next blog.)

I named it that because that's what I've called my drawings for a long time. When people have been so kind as to compliment my work, my reply has often been, "Thank you. They're just organized doodles."

It is my contention that most graphic illustrations are just a collection of familiar shapes that everybody uses almost every day of their lives. And all that anyone needs to learn how to is to organize their doodles in a way that makes them look like a familiar object.

I do cartooning demonstrations for school classrooms very often. I try to teach the children how to take a cartoon and brake it down in their mind so that they see letters and number, and punctuation marks, and then use those familiar shapes to draw something - organized doodles.

For example, all that a normal heart shape is, is a couple of "U's" and a "V" holding hands. You can draw that!

The next time you're sitting in a meeting, bored, try looking at an object, or an illustration and try to see it as a collection of familiar shapes and then put it on paper. The proportions might not quite match, but the object will becomes familiar as you put it on paper. Then you're well on your way to becoming a world famous artist like... well... not like me, but like somebody that is world famous.

Hey, remember, especially when it comes to cartooning: It ain't brain surgery. Enjoy the moment and try to learn to express yourself in art.

No need to thank me now. Just remember me when you sell that first piece for a million.

P.S. I past 20,000 hits on this blog - counting from mid-January last. Thank you all for giving this doodler the ego strokes that he so desperately needs and craves.