432 Doodle and Paint

It all started when I stumbled across a blogpost about mandala coloring pages. I have no clue where it was, but it could have been any number of places as there is no shortage of mandalas on the internet (though make sure you have an anti-virus installed if you plan on Googling images ... trust me). I tried downloading some images, but they didn't print up with enough clarity.

I put them to the side and moved on.

After a few days I started thinking about it again. Really what I was looking for was something to "color". I wanted to just let my brain shift into neutral. I wanted to take crafting and art to its simplest form.

I am IN LOVE with Alisa Burke's sketchbooks. You can see a few examples here. I knew I wanted to play with my watercolors. And so I broke out some watercolor paper (I stole this Strathmore pad from Katie), a ruler, and a Bic Mark-It ultrafine point. The watercolors are the Koh-I-Noor Watercolor Wheel, and a water flow brush.

And I started to doodle. I traced a circle with a bowl, and I started filling it in.

And I just kept doodling...

I liked it, but I never know when to leave well enough alone, so I kept going ...

And when I realized I could hypnotize someone with my doodle, I stopped. But I was afraid I would mess it up by adding paint. So, I took a picture of a small section and added color in Photoshop to see how it would look. It took much longer to do on the computer than it did when I got up the nerve to use my real paints.

Actually, before I painted this particular piece I drew two others to play with, but I did them on larger paper. I did a heart...

 and a peace sign (Katie loves peace signs)....

I did finally get up the nerve to paint that first doodle.

I might be slightly obsessed with these. I am working on another right now. I am loving getting back to the simplicity of coloring. It is nice just to lose yourself in the details and repetition. Very calming.