Coming Soon ...

Phew!  Been busy drawing and coloring and almost missed getting this posted on the 18th (since that is the number I drew today ...)  Totally missed getting this up on the 17th (coincidentally, the number I did yesterday).  Hmm ... but was I smart enough to actually put together the post yesterday in preparation to getting it up today?  You guessed it!  LOL!

So, you have probably heard of "Zen Tangle" or "Zen Doodle" by now.  There is a blog called Rainbow Elephant that has an associated community called the Line Weaving Community.  [http://www.rainbowelephant.com and http://www.lineweaving.com] where Cindy shares downloadable pattern sheets that are a fantastic resource for those interested in repeat patterns;  Cindy also has some very good vids over at YouTube.  There are also many other resources (on the internet and in books) related to the Zen Tangle/Doodle art form.

I have only one problem with this art form -- many of the patterns have been around for a long long long time.  And I have a little bit of a hard time accepting that someone recently "invented" them.  However, what they have accomplished is breaking down the shape into steps that make it easy to reproduce and repeat that pattern.

I have been doodling since 1971 -- back in grade school, in science class.  We had to keep a notebook of lecture notes.  The teacher expected us to write things down and he collected our notebooks each quarter to make sure we did take notes and even graded us on them.

**HUGE SIGH**  The teacher tended to wander the room as he talked.  I watched him and listened and ended class with lots and lots of ... blank pages.

I don't mention his name because it is embarrassing to tell this about him -- he had some kind of white gunk at the corners of his mouth and it stretched as he talked and I spent my time watching to see if the line of gunk would break and smack him or splatter and it was gross but fascinating to watch.

So, I decided the only way I would ever take notes was to stop watching him.

I picked up my pen (a Bic ballpoint, a Flair or, if I was lucky to have one with me, a Bic Banana felt tip pen -- am I dating myself there?) and stared at my blank notebook pages.  And made a mark and added another and when the teacher said something interesting, I moved to a clean spot on the page, wrote that down then went right back to adding lines to the other set of lines on the page.  My art form was born.

In an "understanding art" type course at the University of Minnesota in 1996, each student had to stand up in front of the lecture hall and present something about their art form.  I held up a paper airplane, made from paper I had doodled all over.  It was a poorly constructed airplane because, well, I was never very good at paper airplanes to begin with and for some reason I had totally forgotten about the assignment until about 2 hours before class :-(  And declared that my art form was "Conscious Doodling" because I make conscious decisions concerning the lines and shapes that I use together.  And the airplane symbolized a hope that the art would one day make its way to others.  Hmmpf.

My series of Dover ClipArt books and other source material where I found inspiration for the shapes I used have gotten lost.  [I let hubby shelve them somewhere in the many bookshelves he has set up in almost every room of the house;  I have no idea where they ended up last and neither does he.  **sigh**]  So I am happy to find the Zen Doodle/Tangle resources on the web.  Though I often, recently, tend to return to the same few design elements in my doodling.  I need to spend just a little time every so often looking at the design resources available to me to feed the creative juices.

Ah, you ask, "What has all that malarkey have to do with a 'coming soon' type announcement?"  Great question.  :-)

As I have stated in previous posts, I have really gotten 'into' digi-stamping.  I really need to post more of my cards, rather than just the 2014 Christmas Challenge from DigiStamps4Joy site.  But I also LOVE drawing fish and owls, monograms and names and other things.  So, in the next two weeks I will be opening my own digi-stamp store.

In the meantime, I am offering a fish that was drawn sort of in a hurry today, as a freebie for you.

First, there is the plain fish -- just the outline -- ready for your tangle or doodle or just to color in as you see fit. Second there is a doodled up fish.  Neither of these have a watermark on them.  They are at 96 dpi.  (Later, the 300 dpi version will be added to the store, but for now the freebie is at 96 dpi.)  You can right click the images, open in a new tab and then right click that image to download it.  I have not come up with my angel policy yet.  I will ask that you not claim the drawing as your own, though you can take credit for what you do with it.

For now, I will not ask for credit but if you do use the image and post it on the web anywhere, it might be nice to link back here -- send people here to get their own copy rather than give it directly to them (even if it is free).  THANKS!

There is a third image -- the one I colored in using Sanford Prismacolor pencils and Faber-Castell Polychromos colored pencils;  I think there might be the stray Royal and Crayola colored pencil in the tin too and may have added to the finished fish.  I made an alteration to the fins since I prefer smaller areas to color in rather than larger areas.  This does have a watermark since I hope you will prefer to color your own fish.

If you want to share your colored fish, I would LOVE to see it.  I was at a blog recently that allowed pictures to be put into the comment box but looks like that can't be done here at Blogger/Blogspot.  So, come back and leave me a link to your colored fish if you post it anywhere on the Net, or email me a copy at suseadoodle [at] gmail [dot] com.  If you email me a copy or come back and leave a link to your colored fish, I will include it in a future blog post.  :-)