This Week in Doodles!

This image blog will document doodles created during the week. Likely while I should be working. Stay tuned for partial excitement. Updates on Mondays*

[thisweeksdoodles]

BONUS: Practice Sketches (revisited)

Additional sketches done for secret Santa art exchange. I agreed to be a backup. This was the idea that came to me. I sort of prefer the sketch to the actual finished product (and this is a frequently a problem for me). I like when my imagination wonders and I feel like this shows it well. Sincerely, This Week in Doodles

[thisweeksdoodles]

BONUS: Practice Sketches

I am not dead, but I am dropping off some sketches done for secret Santa art exchange. Updates will be eventual / not at all. Sincerely,  This Week in Doodles

[thisweeksdoodles]

HEAP # 1 (June 26th to July 2nd)

Apologies for the lateness; it’s been hard to keep track of the days, and I hadn’t realized it was Tuesday until I’d just woke up earlier (from a nap, of all things). These doodles date back to 2014-2015 period, coming from a scratch pad I had at my work (hospitality at the time). In the top right, here, you’ll see a Silkie chicken, adorable little so-and-so’s. They’re considered useful as they’ll attempt to hatch just about any kind of egg. In the top left is a cat shaped scribble and a sketch for an idea I had: While attending classes, I had a professor who said “We live in a world of visual culture”. I immediately thought about the subjective nature of vision; also those who don’t get visual feedback at all. To me, I liked the idea of that phrase being shouted from a loud speaker. It probably didn’t help that at the time we were deep into Pop Art movement as a topic. I still like this idea. The bottom two sketches are more for fun. On the bottom left is a sort of theoretical UN observer’s helmet. This was done for a game I played with people, where I had a tendency to focus on inane details. The top mixed ballistic mask with a reinforced visor; the bottom’s visor can be pulled down over a larger display screen to offer additional protection. Both have a Kevlar/enforced mesh hood that wraps around the neck and is secured under an armored jacket. Of the last, I only have this: Bill Hicks -- Moon is Smiling I probably have another week or two of older drawings in me, before returning to the weekly update. Hopefully, this will be entertaining, if nothing else.  Sincerely, This Week in Doodles The Heap

[thisweeksdoodles]

This Week in Doodles! (June 19th Through June 25th)

These are just a few scribbles from the week’s work. Mostly its a soft, melodic playlist of music that caught my attention during the week. It was a stressful one. This weekend I spent moving, and during the week with the associated tasks to order before moving. That hampers my abilities somewhat, it seems. This makes me want to retreat into mellow music, hoping that I can maintain my own mellow by listening. These are a couple songs that caught my attention:

mt. marcy -- i miss you

sweetbn_ -- i love you

sweetbn_ -- Row Flip

killedmyself -- but until then

So for a while to come, I will be without a stable source of internet. I plan to continue to draw -- but also, in order to update weekly, I will be using some older drawings of mine (2010 to 2016 period?). I hope to spend a little more time talking about the drawings themselves, and I feel like the distance (time) between me and these doodles may be sort of healthy for that. I plan to call this “The Heap” ; I feel like the name describes the physical presence of these drawings quite well. Truth be told, this blog was never as much about drawing as it was about just trying to ‘present’ something every week to the “Public”. I find it difficult to separate myself from my drawing (just tell me where exactly the difference is?), and like even less talking about myself to this degree that I do. I don’t tend to share things out of fear and shyness (extensions of one another, really). This project is designed to change that, so I do not plan to hiatus anytime soon. I wish you all a great week ahead of you! See you soon.  Sincerely, This Week in Doodles

[thisweeksdoodles]

This Week in Doodles! (June 12th Through June 18th)

More religious imagery! I also got a set of markers, again advertised as ‘artists’ markers. I can’t claim I am doing well, though I feel like my mind is starting to wrap around the concept. The Mother Mary is also not horrible, though the colored pencils also need some (alot) of work. Thanks again for taking a look! See you all next week!!   Sincerely, This Week in Doodles

[thisweeksdoodles]

This Week in Doodles! (June 5th Through June 11th)

When posting these images I just select all sketches from the week and add them. How the photos choose to orient themselves has always been a little bewildering; typically I will rearrange these images, but I can’t be asked to this time around. More experimenting with those artificial boarders. I recently had an idea concerning a fantasy cleric (read as D&D style priest, complete with heal-y powers), who is a mercenary. He bloody-mindedly applies this mercenary sensibility to his craft. While his duties would typically involve tending to the sick and injured, and his profession would demand universal compassion, he won’t apply his knowledge without promise of payment (or more likely gold in hand). I imagine he has a kind of esoteric reading of his chosen god’s creed; so I have a mental vision of him scavenging battlefields, pulling coins from half-dead soldiers, smacking them awake to ask if they want to live. You banish them skele-manz, you crazy diamond you.  That’s probably a dumb idea. But I like it. I imagine this will end up being a coming D&D character or maybe, I dunno, an NPC or something. I wish that pose was a little less effete Decapitation, getting to one of them-there images, is a reoccurring theme for me. It’s been a while since I’ve touched on it, but well... It also peripherally touches on my fascination with religious iconography. Christianity, I think, it generally equates with various martyrs or saints. I remember reading an interesting article that discussed the placement of halos in the case of saints who had been decapitated -- It can be placed at the neck, where the head once was. Or, be placed behind the severed head. This raised interesting questions on where the soul is thought to reside; or at least it made me think about it. Again, I don’t really buy into a soul conceptually. To me decapitation is more a metaphor for Ego-Death. The head is the seat of our personality, our ambitions, and wants (maybe the groin could be used interchanged in some of those cases). Maybe also because decapitation as a form of punished is sort of special; even in the case of recreational man-slaughter (murder?), you could say the same. Not every schmuck gets their head chopped off. By extension, when there is talk of destroying a group frequently it will be accompanied by similes of a body having its head removed. Removing a head is a certainty of destruction. “Although millions of cephalophores are marching past my door They're invisible to me except for one cephalophore “ --They Might Be Giants, You Probably Get That A Lot  Sincerely, This Week in Doodles

[thisweeksdoodles]

This Week in Doodles! (May 29th Through June 4th)

I’ve been experimenting with creating artificial borders to my drawings. One of the first lessons I remember taking away from drawing classes; try to engage the edges of your picture plane (ie the paper you’re drawing on). Its a natural sort of thing for me to want to just splash images around without much thought of the actual image i’m making. Like holding your breath in a fight, its a natural impulse which doesn’t inherently make it the right one. I also spent the week binging on Poirot; a Belgian contemporary to Sherlock Holmes. Art deco is pretty neat. Its pure nonsense but I like the style. In any-case, have some doodles. And more in the coming week!  Sincerely, This Week in Doodles

[thisweeksdoodles]

This Week in Doodles (May 22nd to May 28th)

More productive than in prior weeks I must admit. I cannot say what so inspired this, though you may note that many of these images were done on Friday. It had been an unusually slow day Friday the 26th. I swear, one day, I will figure out just exactly how it is women are supposed to look when put together. Procol Harum -- A Whiter Shade of Pale In any case, I hope to continue to have doodles in weeks to come. Please enjoy and have a wonderful coming week!  Sincerely, This Week in Doodles

[thisweeksdoodles]

This Week in Doodles! ( May 15th through May 21st)

This past week I finished an excellent documentary by Ken Burns on National Parks. Its a boring topic, but man can that dude frame a documentary. They discuss Ansel Adams for a time, and it made me regret having misplaced a book of his work I used to have. Oh, well. I took some time to just doodle from some random sources. I have a few books of animal poses and anatomy. I also a ‘Medieval Combat’ manual, which I find endlessly fascinating. Same time next week!  Sincerely, This Week in Doodles

[thisweeksdoodles]

This Week in Doodles! ( May 8th  through May 14th)

Crime and the City Solution – The Adversary

I’m not proud. Or tired… Until next week!  Sincerely, This Week In Doodles

[thisweeksdoodles]

This Week in Doodles! ( May 1st through May 7th)

Some of you (None of you) may have noticed the change at the very top of this page. ‘Updates Sundays’ has been amended to say ‘Updates Mondays*’. All the asterisk indicates is this has been changed. There by, this post is no longer late. For the next few weeks, at least, it’d be beneficial for me to begin posting on Mondays, as opposed to Sundays. This may, or may not, be a permanent change. In the future I will try to make a post on its own announcing this decision. May First, or May Day, is apparently a day where people are meant to organize and congregate on worker’s/lefty pinko commie issues. Why does this feel like news to me? At work our conversation devolved drastically; stable benefactors of capitalism and faceless corporate conglomeration generally don’t take these ideas seriously. The fist is a result of this conversation. That is a chunky arm and a strange hand. At first I sort of thought the hand was ‘good enough’, but the more I look at it the more I know I can do better. The middle image I don’t have much to say other than I should have spelled it as “GRANATE” instead of “GRENADA”. I played a lot of World War II themed FPS games in my formative years, instead of reading.

“Life Styles of the Rich + Famous Some Die with a Name, Some Die Nameless” Wyclef Jean, Canibus – Gone Till November

May the 4th happened, so I felt vaguely compelled to indulge in some Jedi themed imagery (really its just a light-sabre, isn’t it?). While I don’t much care about the Star Wars series (sorry?), it has become part of our cultural memory. It’s influence is too vast to calculate, its part of a collective experience that will have impact on story-telling for generations to come. That doesn’t mean I have to like it, damn it.

 Sincerely, This Week in Doodles

[thisweeksdoodles]

This Week in Doodles!

( April 24th through April 30th )

This week is late again. I am going to blame this on hectic last minute family engagements being more taxing then initially realized. I spent part of the week watching documentaries about World War 1. In part that is the explanation of the upper left-hand doodle. A mix of French, Balkan, and German General’s uniforms. At least, my half-assed attempt to recreate them. Then also a good ol’ WWII GI helmet. Between this and the last doodle (which I also want to discuss) are some thoughts regarding Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds “One More Time with Feeling” music-film (”Object of Pity” and “Pain + Art > Thread?”). I’m not terribly sure how to explain it; it’s powerful particularly if you’re aware of events surrounding its creation.  In summation, this is a movie promoting the release of the album Skeleton Tree, which Nick Cave was working on before and after one of his twin boys died tragically. If you’re familiar with his work, or I suppose his demeanor, this feels very ominous and, as you might expect, crushing for two parents together. The movie addresses this event in a kind of glancing manner; talking about it in general terms, letting it loom over then entire film. At one point they’re speaking with  Nick’s wife. Susie Cave, an actress and designer. She talks about burying herself in her creative work, to help endure the death of her son. She has a particular line that spoke to me: “...people have said to me that’s what... creativity, where it comes from. it comes from all the time from pain and from some terrible situations and ...” This reminded me of something I had heard when watching an artist stream over youtube sometime back (I don’t remember her name, sadly). The live chat had something to the effect of wishing they could draw like her, to which she responded with: “This is what I did instead of going to parties or doing anything cool.” It was more nuanced then that, but I think there is a thread here. Largely I suspect its people escaping into creativity -- and pain is good motivation for escapism. Pain comes from a lot of places, and its never equal between people, but it is there. And this escape into creativity is likewise not equal across the board, but it is there. The final image I liked, as I deem the large be’tentacled thing as a kind of representation of myself - at least as I feel socially. I like to think I’m generally a nice guy, but that doesn’t make me pleasant or tolerable. What I think about myself doesn’t mean a hill of beans to the people around me. Of course, as I am writing this, I realize this is simply my perception of how other people see me. Again, my point of view overriding others. Fuckin’ white people... In any case, let’s hope for a timely release next week!  Sincerely, This Week in Doodles

[thisweeksdoodles]

This Week in Doodles! ( April 17th through April 23rd )

Late again, Late again. This does not bode well, particularly as I am not busy as to warrant this late of a post. None the Less, she is here and she is late. There are the typical work sketches: assorted doodles of unknown inspiration and dubious quality. I wish I would spend more time actually thinking about what I draw instead of just allowing it to happen. The last two images are home doodles; a partial sketch of my desk as she stands now and a second set of doodles with... a shark person? In any case, I will attempt not be such a lazy so and so next time around. Thanks for your continued interest!  Sincerely, This Week in Doodles

[thisweeksdoodles]

This Week in Doodles! ( April 10th through April 16th )

I spent a lot of time this week listening to The Residents; hence Mr. Eyeball(s). I am kicking myself as apparently I couldn’t be asked to look at an actual photo of them. I tend to default to these suit and ties, for fancy wearin’, rather than the proper penguin tuxedos. As a child I spent a lot of time listening, or perhaps being exposed, to The Residents. They’ve always sort of stuck with me, but in retrospect I admire their body of work and singular vision(s) in approaching their craft. There’s a short article that was posted this week, which I found interesting even if not super informative. Art collective or just a terrible band? You decide. Of this last week, I’ve been returning a lot to The Residents Wonder of Weird album. Like a lot of the things I like, I don’t generally like to recommend them for human consumption. If you check them out, well, give them a couple chances at least. Some of you may have noticed a perforation in one of my sketch books, accompanied by a red dot. Out of pure destructive boredom, I took my work scratch pad (I have several), and pushed a thumb-tack through it as far as it would go. Then, lacking any other inspiration, I took a red marker and attempted to let it soak as deep as it could into this hole. I am not a clever person. In any case, the tack and the ink both failed to go through the entire pad; so here we see it end. Another dead-end artistically -- damn it. In any case, happy Easter all. Or at least to those of you who subscribe to this tradition. If not, just have a happy Sunday! See you in (1) week’s time. Sincerely, This Week in Doodles

[thisweeksdoodles]

This Week in Doodles! ( April 3rd through April 9th )

It has not been a productive week in terms of drawing. I took some time to put together a little more on the previous week’s weaker image. I must make an effort to draw more, as indicated by right image. Sometimes I like the bleed-through of marker on this really thin paper. Sometimes. This is not so much that; the bleed I feel like distracted me from drawing in open space. Though the squirrel critter (that’s what I choose to see him as), I had a lot of fun just scribbling:

“SAY WHAT YOU MEAN +

SAY IT

MEAN”

Scraping Foetus Off the Wheel -- Ramrod

Things will hopefully be wrapping up this week in  terms of stress. Maybe, of course, maybe not. In any case, be here in one week!  Sincerely,

This Week in Doodles

[thisweeksdoodles]

This Week in Doodles! ( March 20th through April 2nd )

I did a little bit of personal, away from work, drawing. Just a little. I very much want to try to go back to color some of these images. One of them prominately features the phrase "I'M A BAD PERSON". This isn't something that I very much want to talk about; I've said in the past that I think of my drawing as a auto-biographical --- isn't all drawing auto-biographical --- and its not something I like to address. I very deeply do not like myself, which is part of the reason I flee to drawing. Buh, I'm just going to gloss right over that. I don't think I am nessarily my own best critic. However, thats not nearly as glossy as I would like. Music that appeared during my week and thus is appearing here:

Dimmu Borgir -- Puritania

Emune -- Gretchen

Monma – Breakfast

I only really want to talk about the image "MIASMA"; someone breathing in deeply of a miscolored gas. There was something in this thougt about media and how it can posion your mind. It depends on what you ingest, its content and contexts. The only reason the image to the right of it is included is to show that the orange color in the bottom is actually on the page below this one. I used a pen to cut away the paper. We shall continue forward into the future, a week at a time.   Sincerely, This Week in Doodles

[thisweeksdoodles]

This Week in Doodles! ( March 20th through March 26th )

This was not a productive week drawing wise. I've largely ignored my own advice, and retreated to the comforting warmth of the highlighter and office pen. I feel like there not much else to say in terms of what this is about. Mostly just forcing things onto paper. Hopefully, more with next week!   Sincerely, This Week in Doodles