Doodle Discussions

I forgot I loved to paint

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Last fall I became a member of the CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) as part of my investigating a new direction to take my art. I then attended the CHA Winter show and met fantastic people, learned countless new things about the art licensing industry and was inspired to get back into my creative self… and start creating.

Part of my involvement with this organization is a Yahoo group that shares ideas. About a month ago, another member of the group, Linda Chilcott, suggested we do a group painting project. The idea is to have multiple artists contribute to a single canvas. Without any other idea of what would be involved I signed up to participate. We’re each starting with our own canvas and then passing it on… each contributing to each others projects as we receive them.

So this week I painted mine – it was the first time in eons I’ve painted a picture. I had forgotten how much I enjoy it.

Group project painting part 1 by JGoode


This is crafting acrylic paint on a 9″ x 12″ canvas board.

I’m looking forward to seeing the transformation of this canvas and also joining in with what other’s have started.

If you’re interested in learning how to paint for yourself, I highly recommend the Learn and Master painting home course series by Legacy Learning

IF: expired – my unhappy banana

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This week’s Illustration Friday topic is “expired”. I was thinking an old wrinkly carrot would be fun, but the more wrinkles I added the more I really wanted to stay away from vegetables for a while. So instead, I came up with the good and bad bananas. On the bright side, the seemingly “bad banana” makes the absolute yummiest banana bread ever!

Food is always an analogy for me, so why not in my quick thought doodles… what do you think of with the word “expired”?

Good and bad banana - illustration friday's expired

Speaking of doodles, I saw a book at Barnes and Nobel tonight – a doodle book. It was a notebook filled with partially finished drawings and sketches, etc. One page I passed was a quick zipper sketch that was half way unzipped with the comment “what’s stuck in the zipper?”. What a cool brainstorming tool! If only we had these fun and quick little thought jogging resources for everything we do.

IF: Subterranean

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All week I’ve been trying to come up with something other than smilie worms for this week’s Illustration Friday topic of “Subterranean”.

Then this morning I thought “fine, I’ll just draw the worms”. As I started to doodle, this tree grew instead…

I had a colored version I started to play with, but the black and white is almost more of a message to me.

I’ve recently decided that sometimes simple is a good way to go as far as imagery is concerned, and not all of my art has to have a grin on it. I’m just happy I unstuck myself from my worm hole.

What do you think?

A little extra smiley love to you today – Happy Valentines Day!

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Whatever makes you smile, I hope you find it in abundance today. Share the grins and hand out hugs…

Happy Valentines Day to YOU!

The greatest happiness of life
is the conviction that we are loved,
love for ourselves,
or rather love in spite of ourselves.
~Victor Hugo

Every time I try to draw something serious and grown up, I end up doodling and goofy grins come out, taking over the page. I used to fight it. Adults need to be professional and serious and spend their working hours being productive so they can continue on knowing they’ve accomplished things.. right?

After years of trying to move ahead and strive for professional greatness, I realized it didn’t matter how much money I made nor how much others enjoyed what I did if I wasn’t happy… I wasn’t happy. The little grins of every day life make me happy. The silly songs we invent and hum as we go throughout our day or the images we see in the clouds as we glaze out the window, these are the things I remember when I drift off to sleep. Deadlines are just deadlines, after a while they all blend together. One task will out prioritize the next and it will happen 10 more times next week.

Real happiness is enjoying the moment, who you’re with, and why you are there.

As I get older, I am slowly starting to weed out the things I don’t love to make more time for the things that I do. This is what really makes me happy. Are you allowing yourself to enjoy more, do more… be more of who you want to be?

If you’ve read this far today… YOU also make me happy, thank you.
(You probably make me happy regardless, but I figure you just earned an extra star and I should let you know).

Adrift – a moment to relax and let life float slowly by

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Another Illustration Friday, this time visualizing “adrift” and I’m happy to report I was able to sit and doodle, again!

I was originally thinking happy turtle and the swamp (probably and after view from watching the Frog Princess last weekend), but then between drawing and cleaning and nagging my 2 year old about potty time, the bathtub just happened to doodle itself right into the page.

After yesterday’s muddy moment, I think a bath is a bit more fitting anyway, don’t you?

Adrift in relaxtion by JGoode

Oh how lovely a nice long, hot, quiet bath sounds… joyful

Little frozen penguin

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Winter is fast approaching, at least here in Colorado, and now is the time people seem to start thinking of the penguins again.  Although we associate penguins with cold and snow, the majority of the world’s penguins live in warm climates such as Australia and South Africa. This fact inspired one of my first penguin characters, Winter Penguin bundled and ready to tackle the frozen winter days.

If you lived in South African all your life and then came out to play in a winter wonderland, you’d probably want to wear pants too, don’t you think? I think this design fits perfectly with this week’s Illustration Friday topic of “Frozen”.

Winter Penguin by JGoode

This winter penguin is available to purchase on a variety of products through my online store.

JGoode Halloween coloring pages oh goodie!

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I recently created two Halloween coloring pages for Willow an Artisan’s Market shops located in Littleton and Boulder.

Coloring pages are available at both locations. If you return the finished colored pages to Willow by October 31st, you will receive a coupon for 20% off any one item, good through November 15th.

Coloring pages for Willow by JGoode

As I was creating this art I realized it’s more difficult to create uncolored art and accept that it’s a finished piece… and unexpected lesson learned.

Getting into a Penguin Pattern

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This week’s Illustration Friday is “pattern”. I started out with a completely different design… a true pattern of swirlies and florals, but then side tracked myself thinking of penguins and t-shirts. This is the end result of that mental excursion… The penguin pattern:
Penguin pattern by JGoode

This is what happens when my mind tries to find a single focus and can’t decide on a color. Sorry, I intentionally left out the argile penguin.. too much of a hint on prim and proper for me today.