Just living is not enough…one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.
-Hans Christian Anderson
Good morning! Hope everyone finds a little flower somewhere today.
Love, Mary
Flower Power
Pigeons, Pubs, and Doodles
Brooklyn Pub
While I’m not really inclined to think Pub for brunch, I was really pleased to find that my favorite old pub began serving brunch with their new management. There’s a host of new characters running the place with British accents and they’re all very sweet. The cook offered us free Bloody Marys since breakfast took longer than expected (some sort of miscommunication…they are brand new to brunches). We declined but were really pleased by the offer since there are a number of brunchy places in the neighborhood who wouldn’t even apologize for taking a long time. Anyway, the French toast with fresh peaches and yogurt was worth the wait. I didn’t take any photos of it because I just dove in and devoured it.
So I’m back in the doodling groove. This British Brooklyn Pub had some really great music and there weren’t too many people there yet. They seemed to be okay with me taking my time with my coffee as I drew and let my boyfriend take his time searching for his Fantasy Football team. Here’s a peak inside the pub…
I completed my Black and White Photography class this week so I was pleased to find that I could sit, relax, and focus on my doodles again. For the past month, my mind has been filled with projects, places I needed to photograph and I was awake at all hours trying to optimize the best lighting. I’m going to actually miss the Photo Lab. I stayed for many hours after class working on my photos because I tend to throw myself into projects. Now, it’s over!
Brooklyn Flea (Market) and Pigeons
Walked over to the Brooklyn Flea and found a booth called Carrier Pigeon. They were selling illustrations for $50 each and put out a magazine publication of illustrations. Took their card and bought an Apple Ginger soda and a donut from one of the vendors. was immediately surrounded by pigeons. Seems as though I am constantly encountering pigeons so I figured I would try to draw one. I shared half my donut with them and broke out my sketchbook. I experimented with continuous line drawing where you try to draw something without picking up the pen. It didn’t always work but I managed to draw one of the pigeons. See below…
It was a good drawing exercise and it kept me entertained. The pigeon seemed to just know it was being drawn and photographed because it started to pose for my camera.
I know they’re not the most popular bird in NYC but I think this one was particularly pretty.
We bonded…and then my donut was gone and it flew away.
Hope you’re enjoying your weekend.
-Mary,
*~Chief Doodler at Brooklyn Doodle~*
Peace.
How Caffeine Can Unintentionally Affect Your Art
The creative process is not controlled by a switch you can simply turn on or off; it’s with you all the time.
-Alvin Ailey
I like this quote because it emphasizes the creative process rather than the finished product. I haven’t been completely in love with my finished products lately and it might just be too much coffee. Yesterday, I struggled a bit to find a way to be in the zone to create any doodles worth posting. As many of my blog readers know, caffeine plays a huge roll in my process. I like to find a decent café and a good, strong napkin to doodle my creative energy away.
However, my usual place to draw has become packed with people. What the heck?!?!
I figured that I would have to start branching out to other neighborhoods again in order to find the right creative vibe. Here’s what I managed to create very quickly at the old local diner until a line of customers gave me the stink eye because they clearly wanted my booth:
Dealing with Gentrified Prices for Scrambled Eggs
Usually, I dig the vibe at Megabites Diner and they let me stay a while to casually drink my tea or coffee while I draw. That was before a line of patrons have begun to form at the door to the front of the building. It could be that the college crowd has returned to the neighborhood early. Maybe it was the Brooklyn Flea crowd or the Ft. Greene Farmer’s Market people. I have another theory.
The truth is, the Fort Greene neighborhood has attracted a brunch crowd and the local restaurants have increased their prices. After the novelty wears off for the locals, many people really don’t want to spend $12 on some scrambled eggs just because they want to enjoy the general splendor of the restaurant’s atmosphere. That’s why I think more and more people are headed to Megabites Diner where the prices have remained reasonable on a block through which tour buses have begun to make the rounds. I decided to take a bit of a walk down DeKalb Ave. toward Fulton Mall (and beyond) after breakfast to Ft. Greene’s neighboring communities.
Court Street Coffee
Somewhere between Downtown Brooklyn and Brooklyn Heights is a very long street called Court Street. I think it’s considered Boerum Hill. I dig the area for it’s vast number of bookstores, cafes, pubs, independently owned shops, and people/dog watching. Due to the rain, I ran into a local Barnes & Noble bookstore where I ordered my Doodle Revolution book by Sunni Brown and drank a bit of tea in their café. I took a few napkins and drew this:
So, yeah. This one’s eyes are bugging out and proportionally it’s all out of whack. Maybe it was due to the rain. Maybe it was the additional caffeine. Whatever it was, I wasn’t in the right zone for doodling. I was trying to force it, I think. I hadn’t drawn on the regular in a while. I rushed. Maybe I was stressed and now all my freaking portraits looked like George Bush on the day he told the American people that the economy was about to tank. It stopped raining and it was time to move along through Court Street.
Coffee-induced Bookstore Rampage
I am not sure why books and caffeine tend to find each other; One relaxes me and the other does not. However, I was on a hyper roll with the bookstore thing and had a really massive coffee high now so I decided to go into The Community Bookstore which is owned by a laid back French man who has stacks of used books that are pretty cheap. Most people have to squeeze around each other to get through it. It feels like you’re playing Twister with strangers with the threat of books falling over at every turn. Great place for serendipitous finds though! With my caffeine high, I knocked book stacks onto the floor several times before I called it quits and sat on a bench outside to doodle on a napkin in front of a Blue Marble Ice Cream store.
I will never be Frank Stella.
It still feels off. I mean, a doodle doesn’t have to look amazing but I wasn’t achieving that quality zen-like focus like I do when I’m in a good zone.
Too much frenetic energy gave my little doodle a nonobjective abstract look. It looked like it was trying to be inspired by the artist, Frank Stella but all the shakiness of the caffeine just got in the way. For more on this fellow New York artist, click HERE. He’s a pretty interesting guy and Wikipedia rumors claim that he’s still living and working in New York City.
There’s even a great 10 minute video on Frank Stella here:
So the moral of today’s blog post is, switch to herbal tea and try to find your inner Frank Stella. Hope you enjoy the rest of this weekend.
Doodles and decaf,
Mary
Scribbled Portait
If I create from the heart, almost everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.
-Marc Chagall
Overcoming Artistic Blocks
Something about making art has to do with overcoming things, giving us a clear opportunity for doing things in ways we have always known we should do them.
-David Bayles, coauthor of Art & Fear
Good Morning, All!
Feeling Blocked
Sleeping late on a Friday is the biggest luxury on the planet, in my humble opinion. Woke up to some fresh Italian Roast coffee and opened my sketch book. I drew a blank. Had no idea where to begin. I have been so immersed in my Photography class this month that I feel like I forgot how to simply put a marker onto paper. I remember something my 2D design professor said about some artists feeling overwhelmed by the blank page or canvas. He mentioned how one artist would throw charcoal dust over his paper and then “draw” with an erasure in order to get started. So, I decided to not think about it too much and just draw a few lines. A half an hour later, a frog appeared.
The Importance of Scribbling and Unfinished Works
Every now and then though, I don’t have patience to sit for a half an hour to draw so I’ll end up with something like this…
It’s basically scribbling but I encourage you to get it out of your system so you get used to just the process of just starting. Not every line needs to be perfectly rendered. I created that one at Megabites last Sunday and even attempted a new doodle but never finished it.
How to Handle the Unfinished
The act of simply doing means you are still actively engaged in creating but maybe you are simply brainstorming. I have a tendency to leave my doodles behind but it’s good practice to hold onto all sketches, even the ones that disappoint you because it might evolve into something else that you haven’t considered.
To Keep or Not to Keep ‘Bad Art’
I remember sketching outside with an earnest attempt to capture the essence of a pigeon but I lacked some of the skills to really do it any justice. When I was younger, I would never dream of letting anyone see it but as I got older, I found a certain charm to it’s unique renderings. While I’m a fan of skill involved in realistic renderings of still lives (or in my case, not so still life), there’s something to be said about the “bad art”. The Dadists would have loved “bad art.” One of my older sisters has her Master’s in Fine Arts and she was a big believer in having Bad Art Days. We would try a new artistic medium without any expectation of knowing what we were doing. By calling it a Bad Art Day, we got rid of any fear or expectation of doing anything ingenious and sometimes our artwork would surprise us. So, in honor of all the “Bad Art” out there, here is my poorly drawn pigeon.
It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.
-Pablo Picasso
Books Dealing with Artist’s Block
- If you ever feel like you’ve felt blocked as an artist and couldn’t create anything, there is a great book called Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland which I can highly recommend. If you’d like to read a review on it, Click HERE!
- The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron has always been my go to book to help me find my artistic direction, no matter how quirky. More on her HERE!
Now go get some art supplies you’ve been meaning to try and go play!
Cheers!
Mary
Planting Fields Arboretum
This is the first week that I have fallen behind in my napkin doodling. My summer Photography class has monopolized a lot of my time. In fact, this sketch is inspired by one of my class’ trips to the Planting Fields Arboretum located in Oyster Bay, New York. We had to take some abstract photos of the flowers and plant life there. If you are ever on Long Island, it’s worth finding your way over there. Click HERE for more details on getting there.
My class will be over in a couple of weeks so there are a lot of projects due. I will certainly make time for some tea and coffee now and then. I will stock up on some markers.
The year of napkin doodling around Brooklyn shall continue! .
(Although, I may have to consider a photography blog)
Peace and Doodles!
Mary
The Empress
At Megabites for the Usual
Back to the familiar diner routine and napkin doodling!
Yesterday, I felt the need to veg out on the couch in my PJs, read a book and some blogs, drink hot chocolate and do absolutely nothing related to art. That’s not entirely true though. When I accidentally woke up at 4:30am and saw how the light was in my apartment, I started to take abstract photos for my next photography assignment. Then, I went back to sleep and vegged.
I think downtime is important though. Today, after my usual Earl Grey tea and breakfast at Megabites, I took a stroll to the Brooklyn Flea Market on Lafayette Avenue. It has become a popular destination for foodies (plenty of artisan food stands), antique collectors, and clever things made by local New York artists. For me, it was a great place to get inspiration for interesting abstract photography shots.
So, if you are ever in the Downtown Brooklyn area (5-10 minute walk from Atlantic Terminal), go check it out. Click HERE for more info on it.
Enjoy your Saturday strolls and don’t forget your sharpies!
~MKF~
The Brooklyn Doodle
Bittersweet Doodles
It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.
-William Shakespeare
Looked through my old sketchbooks and remember playing around with pencil sketches on the regular. So much has changed since then and it makes me wonder what my future holds. Hopefully, I’ll have a hand in directing the course of my future towards my own artistic goals.
Switching Mediums
It’s funny how switching mediums can completely change your style of drawing. I’m more inclined to using Sharpies now so no more drawing with an erasure or a blending tool. This summer, my medium has switched again to photography. I capture my subject in so many different positions and angles. I ‘paint’ with light.
And yet, today I discovered that maybe my style is somewhat consistent during my critique in my Photography class. I seem to go for drastic contrasting colors. At least, that’s what I realized when my work was placed up against all the others. Most people went for subtlety. Maybe I watch too many old black and white films or something.
Emptying My Head for New Projects
So much effort went into displaying 3 black and white photos out of nearly 200 taken at different locations, different times, and different natural lighting for my critique today. I spent so much time at the Photography Lab classroom this week working on a number of the pieces on Lightroom 5 that I started having dreams about lighting and paper. The assignment was to take photos of paper interacting with light. Now that it’s over, I have a new photography assignment but I have to empty my head of the last one. Time to grab coffee and create a napkin doodle. Found my moment of zen at a local café this hot afternoon.
Early in the morning and especially on the weekends, there are lines out the door for the incredible coffee and pastries in this small cafe. The thing that makes this place noteworthy are the dog treats that are sold up at the front register and dog dishes full of water waiting outside for their canine patrons. There are a ton of dog owners in the Ft. Greene, Brooklyn neighborhood so you’re likely to find 15 dogs parked outside Bittersweet awaiting their owners’ return with an expectant stare toward this establishment. It’s always fun to pass by them!
Luckily, I arrived around 4pm (they close at 5pm) and it was pretty empty for a change. Got myself an iced mocha and popped a squat on one of the stools around the one empty communal table. Here’s what I drew today…
This doodle of a concerned girl with what appears to be a tree growing out of her head reminds me of a Japanese Animation Short called Mount Head directed by Koji Yamamura.
*Spoiler Alert*
The main character accidentally swallows a cherry pit from some cherries he ate. A cherry tree proceeds to grow out of the top of his head. The short 10 minute film shows how he deals with it. Worthy of your 10 minutes to watch it.
My second doodling meditation as I cleared my own head of the seeds of knowledge planted there…
A nice slow zentangle inspired turtle!
A good reminder to slow down! Hoping to clear my head so I can fill it with another Photography assignment this weekend. More than likely, I will be doodling quite a bit to ground myself before moving forward. Until then…
Go forth and doodle on,
Mary
Beat Tired, But Still Creating!
I am beat tired.
However, I drew a lot this weekend so I’m going to tell you my story and post my doodles intermittently. I drew on stoops, diners, cafes, at a BBQ, and at Prospect Park because I’m in this weird creativity zone these days. Above this paragraph is a drawing that I created at Café Dada in Park Slope off of 7th Avenue. Best oatmeal ever and the place is covered with artwork. It was worth the bike ride over there (see my trusty bike in the background below). And of course, continued my meditation drawing education in Zentangle design while hanging out on my beloved stoop.
Ok, admittedly, the stoop was not entirely wonderful yesterday. One of the tenants moved out and left 12 stinky bags of garbage near our stoop for 3 days in this hot, hot summer. Flies were feasting and dumpster divers would come by and search through them. All I can say is, thank God the garbage men arrived this morning. I tried to sit high on the stoop away from the stink but even in my zen like state of doodling, I found it distracting. So, I gave Prospect Park a chance instead and tried my hand at zentangle again. Peace was achieved with ease. ::sigh::
Finding a Zen-like peace was a bit exhausting when you live in Brooklyn during the summer months. It was time to head out to Long Island where the air is a bit gentler and beaches are plentiful. Besides, I had a mission.
This weekend, I was given a project to do for my Photography class. I had to take 100 photos of natural light interacting with paper. I was really excited about it since I keep taking photos of my napkin drawings anyway. I figured, I got this!
::facepalm::
I started by driving directly to Fire Island lighthouse from my class to utilize the light under the boardwalk and see if I could get some interesting photos of it by the water. It was over 90 degrees outside so I ended up with the worst sunburn known to man.
ALWAYS WEAR SUNSCREEN, PEOPLE!
I gave up on the beach and headed to one of my sisters’ houses to take photos of some paper in her pool. It was going great until I knocked into my camera bag and out rolled my 75mm lens, ahem, sorry, my boyfriend’s lens! I jumped into the pool with all my nice clothes on in order to try to “rescue” it but I was too late. The lens was ruined and I was soaking wet. It was a very expensive mistake (a new lens was bought) but at least I got some decent photos.
Here’s a napkin doodle that I created while I was at my sister’s house when she started up the BBQ…
I was ready to be back in Brooklyn and just work on my photography at home. I drove home in traffic and collapsed into a deep sleep by midnight. However, I woke up at 4:30am the next morning and proceeded to the nearest park to find the perfect shot. And I did. I have one where the paper is in a puddle with the sunrise and trees reflected into it. However, it’s a Black and White Photography class so it didn’t matter. Toward the end of the morning, I had a few great angles with a lot of depth but then people in the city woke up and photobombed my photo. Oye!
Exhausted, I made my way to good old Megabites’ Diner and drew this…
I ended my weekend riding my bike to Greenwood Cemetery, a Historic Landmark, to conclude my photography journey. It’s a marvelously peaceful place with winding pathways and dramatic headstone statues dating back to the Civil War.
Photography is allowed but I get the heebee-jeebees every time I go in there. In total, I took nearly 200 photos of paper. I was really proud of some of them and was excited about class today. Turns out, we’re only going to be selecting 3 of 20 that we choose to work on and critique. It makes me feel a little sad. I worked so hard to get all those shots and we’re only developing 3 of them?!
My class ended around 1pm today but I stayed in the photo lab until 4:30pm experimenting with Lightroom 5 on 20 photos. Everyone went home. Even the lab tech guy went out to get something to eat. When I was ready to go home, I forgot how to save my work on my external hard drive from the software. I tried my best and am hoping that all my work is there, somewhere.
I feel like an idiot.
I guess I’ll try again tomorrow. On a happier note, I’ve discovered that one of my nieces is a prolific doodler like her crazy Aunt Mary. I thought I’d end this by sharing her fabulous 3D zentangle doodle.
To be continued…
Best Napkin Doodles of the Past 100 Postings
Sweet Owl
I want my Mummy!
Birds of the Same Feather
Butterfly Impressions
Amorphic Firework for Blobs
Monster Blob oozes her way across my table at Megabites.
Drawn on a napkin at Mullane’s Bar and Restaurant
Bubble Castle
Bauhaus in East NY
Ahoy Sailor!
Tree of Life
Victorian Frock
Electric Plug Tardis
Totem Barn Owl Takes Flight
Pow Wow!
Psychic Landscape
Buddhist Buds
Russian Tea Room
Firefly Flowers
Interchangeable Doodle Tiles
Am I a Butterfly Dreaming?
Lunchbag Forest Above Ground
Lunchbag Forest Below Ground
Candle for the Unique Soul
After the Protest
Underwater Sea Flowers
Patterned bow and dress
Prolific Mustache
Design Cluster
Maggie Brown’s Flower Heap
Lampshade Beauty
Doodle Spirit
Sparkling Flower Circus
Painting Sea Drifts
Line Landscape
Trench Coat
Above it All
A woman, a flower, and a snake
For Basquiat
Sea Monster
First Cherry Blossom
Swirling! Swirling!
Murky Trees
Craving Colors
Riding Horseback
Frazzled Bird
The Peacock’s Frock
(B)urp Invasion!
Banshee
The Alps
Lost in Patterns
Make a Wish!
Ophelia’s Ghost
Mournful Broccoli
Doodle Tryptic
Moon Goddess
Cock-a-Doodle Doo!
Year of the Horse
Vulture
Thirsty Flowers
Intense Birdie
The Rose Haired Belle
Masked Cabbage
The Flower’s Eye
Moonlit Forest
Botanist’s Beauty
Totem Fire Bird
Beanstalk
Brooklyn Doodle Bee
Edward, the Vampire Bat
Brooklyn Doodle 