This Is Art!!!

Peggy (or Peg, if you prefer) wrote me about creating a new header for her blog.  She said...
I have a blog that has been giving me fits with my header. All of a sudden today the photo is off and I can’t get it centered again. I have even tried to change the photo all together but it is not cooperating with me. I have had it!!!  So I have decided that maybe you can doodle me a blog template instead to elevate this problem all together.

Here is the photo I love that I scanned. I love it because it so captures some of our life.  I don’t care that the photo’s looks like us as much as a photo of a woman, a man and a dog. That is my life. What I love about this photo as I said it is just so us.  My hubby loves to fish and I love to sit on the boat and drink wine while sunning and keeping him company.  But our young lab comes with us now.

Peggy (or even Margaret, if you're the kind that prefers that) also sent me a photo of their lake house, and of the lake where all this fishing, sunning, and alcohol consumption takes place.  

In addition she sent me this peculiar—"who is that masked woman" photo of herself.  She didn't care if the characters in the illustration looked like her, but I liked having something to work off of.  Nice eyes Peg.  I did a little research on her blog and discovered that her husband was a Yankees fan.  Then I went to work.  This is what I came up with...

I liked how this one turned out.  Peggy apparently liked the results too.  She wrote...

Hey Rick THIS LOOKS FABULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Wow.  I don’t recall sending you anything with me and you got my hair down.  (Apparently she forgot about her fairly unrevealing photo)  All of it man. It is perfect. I just called my husband upstairs and he was blown away! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I will tell everyone on the blogs about you and give them your link!!!  God I am so exicted it is like Christmas in April. “Doodles” my ass – this is art!!!!

Now THAT'S the kind of response that I like to get.  Did you see all of those exclamation marks?  Over the top, I'm telling you.  Peggy quickly made it her blog header.  It fits there very well.  Please click over there and leave a little comment or two.  We bloggers, as most of you are, love receiving those comments.

Thank you Peggy for your MOST kind comment about the doodle (or "art" if you prefer).  I had fun putting it together for you.  I hope it graces the header of your blog for many days to come.

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In other news:  I appreciate all of you who have voted for my blog at BlogInterviewer.com. Many are telling me that it often won't let them vote everytime, even if the required 24 hours has lapsed, but many are getting through.  Supposedly you can vote once a day.  The contest goes until the end of April.  I'm in second and catching up on first, with third not far behind. So, keep on clicking.

New Blog Header

After three years of just using the standard blog header for this space on the internet I finally took some time to create a new customized header for myself.  I started on it early Monday morning and could hardly put the project down all day.  I'm happy with it—quite happy as a matter of fact.  I wanted something colorful, something fun, something doodly...  My one fear is that the title, "Organized Doodles," get's lost in the mix.  What do you think?

I Know This Face

In terms of doing caricatures, Tonya's face has got to be the one that I've illustrated the most. She's a very busy blogging young lady, and this is the forth time that I've recreated her face with pen & color pencil. Not that I've minded (Tonya) it's just a matter of fact. I KNOW this face!!

In addition to her personal and crafting blogs, Tonya has a party organizing blog as well. She also has some very specific taste when it comes to doodles. Which, I must add, I don't mind, because I want to please my customers very much.

So, with some general instructions from her, I went to task on creating a(nother) Tonya doodle. This was what I sent to her first.

Tonya's response was kind, but there were some things about it that didn't quite meet her expectations. She liked the concept, but the colors were a bit too bright for one thing. She said that she was wanting it to look a bit more "classy"—her word. So, that evening I went to "classifying" her doodle up a bit. That's hard for me, because I'm kind of an un-classy guy.

Now, here's the funny part - hee, hee. I spent the evening working on the doodle, and then I get an e-mail from Tonya around mid-night telling me that she had changed her mind and that she liked the one that I had already sent her.

(I'm not complaining Tonya. I just saying...)

By then it was too late. I had "classified" all over her doodle. This then is what I sent her next...
Can you see the differences?

1. I muted the colors a bit.
2. I added greenery to the flowers - always a classy touch.
3. I put a shadow effect behind the lettering.
AND!
4. I put a gray swooshie thing behind the entire header.

VERY classy! Wouldn't you say?

It turns out that Tonya liked it. I think she was just trying to be nice about my first try. I was glad that she was happy. Another satisfied customer, only this was the fourth time for her.

Go and check out her blog and make note of the one attempt she did to "classify" the doodle herself. Tell her that you like it—regardless! It's only nice.