My Doodle Collection #7

7. A very fascinating number, in my opinion. For one thing I was born on the 7th (of Sept.), 7 is a prime number, and there are 7 dwarfs in Snow White. I don't consider 7 my "lucky" number, really, but I do consider it one of my favorite numbers. It's a challenging number that isn't tamed easily. But when you do, it gives such interesting results (You get 35, 42, and 133 multiplying by 7, and 1/7 as a decimal number is 14.28). But hey, you didn't come here for math now did you? You came here for art! Well excuse me for exercising both hemispheres of your brain.

<--- For starters, here is a doodle I did almost 3 YEARS ago of a playground at some park. I've forgotten how good I was way back when. It's fun to look into childhood archives and find treasures like this, isn't it?

---> And now, with a snap we come back to the present, and I do this. I first outlined this on the 7th of March (7 again!), using my fine new French Curve tools. Then I thought, "Well, that doesn't look so pretty all black and white. I'm gonna just color the whole thing!". I used coloring pencils. Coloring is a very meditative activity, I find, especially if you color in large spaces. In this experiment, I can see forms of dinosaurs, and waves. What do you see?

<--- I never did put a date on these 2 seashells. Gosh, why didn't I date them? Future or fellow artists, learn from my mistakes; date your artwork!

--->

<--- This one I drew on the beach. Just like last week. It was just before we had to go home, and I captured the moment as best as I could. The waves were very big, and I went swimming twice yesterday. If you can't see the buoy, the seagull, or the faraway boat, click the picture. (Sorry that it's so big, I'm not sure how to fix that exactly.)

Now that I'm done with this, it's on with my day. I need to figure out the meaning of life and hang upside-down for a while. See ya!

My Doodle Collection #6

Behold! A new doodle post! The first four sketches are a few months old now, but the last one I created just 2 days ago. You'll see.

---> Here is one of those sketches that I copied upside down so it comes out more accurate. It's titled "Portrait of Leon Bakst", and I drew it way back in July of '08, which was, let's see...8 months ago. The original artwork was created by Pablo Picasso, and I copied it from the book "Drawing on the Artist Within".

<--- This one has no name, and it was made on the same day as "Leon Bakst". Basically I took a line for a walk, and then I stopped to see what it looked like, and I saw a bunch of faces without eyes. So I filled in a bunch of eyes everywhere. I'nt it neat?---> Now this sweet little house is on the cover of a book called "The Willoughbys", a story about 4 old-fashioned children who think it would be a fun idea to be orphans, while their parents think it would be a great idea to abandon them (like in Hansel and Gretel) and go on a vacation. There are big words, a nanny with a Mary Poppins-like character, and a melancholy millionaire who finds a baby on his doorstep. I tell you, great story for kids. If you notice, on the date it says 1-21-08, when I actually mean 1-21-09! My bad. <--- And now this one has a similar problem, namely I dated it 12-27-09 when I actually meant 12-27-08. Am I wacky or what? Anyway, the unicorn is lamentably not an original of mine, but an illustration I copied out of my mom's old high school yearbook. I think it was one of her friends that drew it. I dream someday of being my sister's illustrator for her story that she's writing, and one of the characters happen to be a unicorn, so it was a fine way to practice.

---> Finally, this sketch was drawn on Sunday at the beach that I go to. I drew a portrait of my friend Gigi's baby brother, Jovee (pronounced like Jovi, but spelled with 2 e's at the end). My friend didn't come to the beach though, so I just asked the mom permission to draw her baby. Jovee is now 5 months old. Have you ever drawn a baby before? It's not a task for the faint at heart, you know, what with all the squirming. But in the end, or maybe sometime in the middle, it feels worth it to capture the round, chubby shapes and the alert eyes and the tiny fingers and toes, on paper. I hope I did Jovee justice.

Thank you for viewing! It's so much fun putting up my favorite drawings on Blogger. It inspires me to draw more masterpieces. Now that the SATs are over (hallelujah!!!) I won't be too busy to do a doodle.

Isn't that cute? Do-a-doodle? Oh well. See ya soon!

My Doodle Collection #5

Surprise! I'm not going to wait another day for my doodles to go up on my blog, so here are 5 more of my favorite works. These pictures were all drawn in pencil, but I edited them in Adobe Photoshop so that the backgrounds are all bright and the outlines are all dark. I like working in Photoshop; so many cool effects and filters! Anyway...

<--- This is a zebra.

And this is a giraffe. --->

Both were drawn on November 16, 2008. I copied them out of a book called "The Cartoon History of the Universe: Volume 1". It was a world history book in comic form. Everyone should be able to learn history and read comics at the same time!

Now the rest of these masterpieces were all made on the same day: March 2, 2009. That saves me a lot of jumping around memory lane, doesn't it?

<--- This one I drew first. It is an "Annette Levy Original", called "Guy with a bird on his head". I was inspired after watching a movie called "The Tune". It was a very surreal and well-animated story about a song-writer who's trying to write the perfect song for his slimeball boss Mr. Mega, so he can keep his job and his girlfriend. As he rushes to work, he gets lost and ends up in a town called Flooby Nooby, a Wonderland-like place where he meets an Elvis-impersonating dog, a noseless cabdriver, and the Wise One (a confusing guru who speaks in words that make no sense) as he tries to get to Mr. Mega's office to deliver the song. I just thought that drawing a guy with a bird on his head would be pretty fun to do.

---> Right afterwards I still felt the drawing urge, and so I drew my eraser. I concentrated on the light and shadows, and you know, it got me to really see the eraser. It wasn't too hard either. Usually I think drawing light and shadow is pretty hard to do, but if you see the subject, and you draw what you see, it just kinda pops off the page, you know?

<--- Finally, this is a vase of flowers. The vase I based on real life, the flowers I came up with by myself. The flowers that were actually in the vase were a little bit tough to recreate; too many petals.

These things were so much fun to make. I've shown them off to my family, and they are so supportive of me, and so I'd like to thank them publicly.

Thank you family!

I love drawing because all through the day I really look at things, and think about who designed them and how they came up with the idea.

For example, when I go to the supermarket, I notice all the brand names on the candies and cookies and chips, such as Tostitos. Did you ever notice how the 2 Ts in the middle are sharing a chip, and the i in the middle has a bowl of salsa on it? I wish that I came up with that!

Anyway, ciao for now! Bye!

My Doodle Collection #4: Characters

Here are my best doodles of well-known characters and/or cultural icons. I would like to say that I did all of them on my own without any picture reference in front of me, but then I would be lying. I created all of them while checking them against a picture on the internet or a picture in my house. I hope you like them.

---> July 26, 2006. The Little Prince. I loved reading this book. There are also a couple of movie adaptations, but neither of them are as good as the original story by Antoine de Saint Exupery.

<--- August 9, 2007.

John, Paul, George, and Ringo on the cover of the album Beatles for Sale. I forget about how much effort must have gone into this work, but I'm still impressed with myself. The faces all look unique and distinct from one another, don't they? Their jackets were also an interesting challenge I remember.

---> Somewhere in December 2007. The Road Runner. I copied this off of a DVD cover. He is such a cute character, isn't he? I love the fact that he's a bird. In fact, he's my favorite Looney Tune bird ever! He's not greedy like Daffy, or loud like Foghorn Leghorn, or too cute like Tweety. He's just right. Plus he can't talk, so he crosses the language barrier easy.

<--- October 9, 2008. Jack Skellington. When I was little, I remember being scared of the beginning of "The Nightmare Before Christmas", but now I love the whole movie. I love how Jack gets so excited to the point of distraction when he learns about this new Christmas thing. I love the music and the animation of the movie, plus I like Henry Selick's work. He was the director, just so you know.

---> One day after drawing Jack Skellington. My very own rendering of Alfred E. Neuman. MAD magazine is the best! My brother Adam bought a 2-year subscription (I think) for me and my sister's birthday. Isn't that so nice? It's the gift that keeps on giving. Right now I am waiting for the next issue of MAD. If I don't get my MAD very soon, you're gonna see me get MAD! How confusing. Even this logic is driving me MAD. I want my MAD! >:( Just kidding. I don't even know how to get that mad. () :)

My Doodle Collection #3

Hi-dee Ho! (Just something I came up with just now.) Welcome to my 3rd Doodle Collection! (Just look, don't touch. We wouldn't want your computer screen to be smudged up, now would we?)
---> This, if I do say so myself, is a very cute cartoon version of me that I made about a week ago. I know, I know, dots for eyes. I don't know how to draw eyes that look like mine, so I just made them dots. A good excuse as to why they are so tiny is that I'm a little nearsighted, so I need eyeglasses for when I'm driving or if I want to see something far away. Just a little tidbit I thought you might like to know.

<--- This big lug over here is an original of mine, drawn only a few days before "Sketcher Girl". At the time I was studying a book called "Drawing on the Funny Side of the Brain", and it was all about what the career of a cartoonist is like and how to make pretty good cartoons. Not that I want to be a cartoonist when I grow up, ("Hey Annette, keep those drawings coming, you've got a deadline, let's go, let's go!") but it was very fascinating to read about them.

---> Over here is a doodle I made last summer. Why does it look so good? Because I copied it from a book, and I used blending tortillions on the background to give it soft look. The book that I copied this from was about how crazy the English language really is. It's called "Crazy English" by Richard Lederer. Check it out if you want a few laughs.

<--- I have no idea what to call this actually. I doodled this fish-like creature a looong time ago, in 2007. Oh my goodness! 2007?! How long it's been! *ahem* Moving on.

---> Finally, this last one was drawn in late August of '06. *shakes head in disbelief* It's a short strip about 2 clowns, one of them is a traffic officer, and as the lights change, so does the color of her nose. Yes, yes, the perspective is all wrong, the driver has a very environmentally-unfriendly vehicle, and the officer's nose is so small you can barely notice the effect, but hey, I was only 15 at the time. (Now that I think about it though, I was only about to turn 15, my birthday's in September after all.) Not that that's a good excuse, but still. I'm so glad I've gotten much better at drawing since then.

Well, I hoped you liked viewing some of my original works of doodling. In my next doodle-post, viewers will be able to look forward to some of my depictions of well-known cartoon characters. You'll just have to wait. Too bad.

Monopoly Guy!!!

I'm a winner! Big Time!! I kicked butt (not literally)!

I played Monopoly with my brother and sister for over 2 hours, and I bankrupted them by building hotels on those 2 purple properties and the gray properties! Do you know how much a hotel on Oriental Ave. costs for the poor soul who lands there? $550. Neither Bettina nor Adam could pay me, (I'm being the "meanie" landlord here) so I won! Bettina eked out a close 2nd, with some green houses on the pink properties, but they were no match for my red hotels!

Okay, one last bit of gloating before I get too full of myself; here's a picture of the cute old man on the Monopoly box, which I'm quite proud of.

(You see? I'm a stuck-up, thinks-she's-all-that braggart! Hey, I don't get much chance to brag in the real world, so I'm doing it here. Ha!)

My Doodle Collection #2

Hello, hello, hello! Annette Levy here! Check out my doodle collection #2!

<---This right here, with the mannequin parts in different poses, was the first page I filled out in my sketch book. My aunt got both the sketch book and the mannequin for my 16th birthday. Thanks a million Lisa!

--->

This one over here was done in early June, when I was reading "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". It talked all about how objects have "negative space", and if you notice the spaces around a subject, it's easier to draw. Imagine a Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs runs through a wall, and all you can see is the hole he made in the wall; that's exactly what negative space is! There's a nothingness, yet there's something there, you know? Whatever.

<--- Now old Charlie over here I copied from Google Images. (I dearly hope you know who Charlie Chaplin is, although he was famous many decades ago). I didn't know how to do his eyes, so I just filled them in. I hope it doesn't make him look spooky. I'm especially proud of how I did his jacket; I used a graphite pencil and some blending tortillions. You can buy those sorts of tools at any good arts-&-crafts store.

---> I made this cutie just a couple months ago, I think it was one of those times when I wasn't feeling happy with my art. So I made a seahorse, and that made me feel much better. Seahorses are so cool, aren't they? Did you know that there are over 32 different species of seahorse?

(so says Wikipedia.)

<--- Out of this collection, this is my latest one, drawn only a week ago. Pretty kitty was started with just a simple "smiley", like this:

^,^

And then it just grew from there. Drew it from imagination as well as the seahorse. I don't own a cat because that would scare the feathers off of Sasha and Sammy, and Hazel too, but that doesn't mean I don't love cats as much as the next person. They're so coy, and plushy!

Well, that's all for now!

Signed, The Funny One.

My "1,000 Word Story"

Hey dear readers! Last night, I had the most amazing time with the coolest of writing websites,"Write or Die"! I wrote a 1,000 word segment in less than 45 minutes! I showed it to my brother and sister, and they thought it was funny and cute. If you feel like it, you can check out my story below. For all of you "would-be", "wanna-be", or "sooner-or-later-will-be" writers, take it from me, you have just got to check out "Write or Die", as soon as you possibly can!

The Girl Who Wrote 1,000 Words in 45 Minutes

One day, a girl decided to write exactly 1000 words. She had no idea what to write. But once she wrote the beginning, it got easier and easier. She just decided to write about the first thoughts that would undoubtedly pop into her mind. She wrote and wrote, and suddenly found that in no time she had written over 60 words!

"Wow, that was really much easier than I thought" she said to herself. "I wonder how many minutes it took me. Too bad there's no timer to keep track." She listened all around her and typed as she was listening. She listened to her mother talking on the telephone, and her dad made a funny fart.

"Mm-hmm, Mm-hmm, Mm-hmm" The girl heard her mother say. "What if I could hear what my Aunt Lisa was saying on the other line?" the girl wondered to herself. "Whoa! Almost 150 words now!" She thought in amazement. "Okay, I've got to stop myself. It's silly for me to keep word counting like this, it only distracts me from the actual typing that I should be doing" the writing girl thought to herself as she typed every word she was thinking almost automatically.

Then she thought, "This is really kind of cool." Her fingers seemed to fly across the keyboard, each seeming to be part of a team, with no leader to speak of. She thought to herself, "Which finger would be the leader or brain if that was at all possible, or practical? Hmm." Maybe the Thumb? Nah, too short. The Middle Finger, perchance? "Too rude," she pointed out.

"Why should I be pointing out things to myself if there's no one to talk to besides myself? Am I two different people? Maybe it's the two hemispheres of my brain that are talking to each other". She imagined. "What a funny way to think about such things, although at one point or another, I seem to believe it myself."

The girl who was a writer heard her brother enter the house, and now he was in the living room, talking with the girl's twin sister. But suddenly, he was behind her, asking to go on the computer. "Probably to play some game online," She thought to herself. "No Adam, I'm writing." She snapped after he had distracted her. "Fine." Adam said grudgingly. "I didn't mean to be so short with him," the girl worried to herself, hoping she hadn't upset him even a little bit. No, he was with the twin again, looking through library books, apparently happy and occupied.

"Okay, back to me." The writer refocused her mind and started another train of thought. "If the thought I am typing right now was a train, and all the words were freight cars, I would have over 460 words right around now." She thought, amazed at herself. "How long have I been sitting here I wonder." the girl wondered.

"Hey, now I'm just being repetitive, I'm saying 'the girl' and 'she' and the 'writer girl' too often. I'm starting to run out of anonymous identities for myself!" she realized. She decided she would just finally type her name and declare it as her name so she wouldn't have to beat around the bush when it came to telling what she was thinking. To put it another way, (because that last thought was probably too convoluted to understand completely,) she introduced herself formally, although there was no one to introduce herself too, because everyone around her knew what her name was.

"Oh well, I'll just introduce myself to myself then." Annette decided, finally using her real name after writing over 600 words. "Hi Annette, my name is Annette. How do you do?" the writer imagined herself saying. "I really am getting quite used to having my thoughts being typed out as I'm typing them now, it's almost become second nature to me!"

Amazed at her newfound talent, Annette then wondered, "I wonder if I'm making any sense at all. I haven't checked my grammar or thought any of my, well, thoughts completely through. I think I'll make perfect sense to myself though, why wouldn't I? I'm the one who's writing all of this." Funnily enough, Annette didn't have the time or patience to see that what she thought actually made little sense after all.

But what did she care? She was having an excellent time. watching her fingers fly across the keyboard. "I've already said that, but what the heck." She shifted in her seat and proceeded to type away some more.

She only had less than 250 words to go to reach her lofty 1000 word goal that she had set so hastily. "I must be writing for a very very very long time. I wonder if I've written for an hour yet? Maybe I've written for 2 hours even." she imagined. Annette then caught a little of what her mother Shira was saying on the telephone. "She's talking about me and Bettina's blogs." she thought proudly to herself. "Adam's behind me right now," thought the girl writer, whose name was Annette (don't wear it out).

Shira in the meantime seemed to have gotten disconnected in the middle of her conversation and had gotten back to her chat, shmoozing about both her daughters most recent favorite book, "Twilight".

"I just wanted to mention right here, if nowhere else, that I love the name Edward." Annette typed, thinking about the character from "Twilight" and also from the movie "Edward Scissorhands". "Oh I love both movies so much." she thought.

"Oh wow! I'm almost done with my 1000 word goal! I'm now on word number 942! I'd best choose my last words very carefully." She thought and she thought, but the longer she thought, she realized too late that what she was thinking was being automatically typed by her furious fingers. "Stop!" Annette commanded, and her fingers slowed down. They only moved to carefully type out the last words, which were,

"The End. Goodbye."

Pet Post #1

Welcome animal lovers! Today, I'd like to introduce 3 of my family members to you. Please welcome Sasha, Sammy and Hazel!

Here, they are all eating banana. I find that it's easier to photograph animals if you give them something to eat. Sasha and Sammy are our first cockatiels, and we've had them for about three years. We got them from a breeder rather than a regular old pet store because A: it's more cost effective, and B: the animals seem healthier. When we bought Sasha and Sammy, the breeder told us they were girls, but since then we've found out that they are really both boys. Usually you can tell the difference between a girl cockatiel from a boy cockatiel by the amount of yellow in their faces: boys are brighter, and girls are grayer, unless you're dealing with young'uns, in which case they're all gray-headed. Even though Sasha and Sammy look alike, their personalities are usually good indicators of who's who (just to be safe, my sister and I know the differing markings, so we can reliably tell our birds apart).

<---Sammy is the out-going one. He's a messy eater, and he's easy to put back into the birdcage.

Sasha on the other hand, is the cautious one. He's a much neater eater (hey, I made a rhyme!), and much more difficult to put away. He only goes back on his terms, if you know what I mean.--->

Neither Sasha nor Sammy are able to talk, but they can whistle and make "kissy" noises, and when they are hungry or want to be let out, they can really scream! But mostly, Sasha and Sammy are very mellow, and very sweet. They watch movies with us, read over our shoulders (while sitting on our shoulders), and best of all, they love a good neck rub! Sasha especially shows his appreciation when he gets a good scratching behind the ears (the red cheek-spots are actually a cockatiels' ears). The look of bliss on his face: priceless!

But enough about that. Now here's Hazel the Hamster!--->

Technically she belongs to brother Adam, but the whole family simply adores her, especially my mom; she loves to give Hazel a bit of spinach or something and kiss her on the head. Actually, that's what she does for Sasha and Sammy as well. Anyway, Hazel is the 4th hamster we've ever owned, and we've had her for a little over a year, but sometimes it feels like we've kept her for longer than that. She has the brightest eyes, the perkiest ears, and the glossiest fur. We got her from a pet store, because an employee told us she was pregnant, and so for 2 weeks after buying her, we didn't take her out of the cage or touch her even once! We never found any tiny hamster babies in that amount of time, though, so we figured that we got "jipped" by that pet store, or just the employee. Since then, Hazel has become, in my opinion, our most darling hamster ever. She scares Sasha and Sammy though; if she gets anywhere close to them, their crests go straight up and they both fly away. Hazel is also the most creative of the hamsters we have owned; she makes the coziest-looking "nests" out of the paper-towel and newspaper that we supply, and she looks simply precious when she's asleep.

My pets inspire me in my art: Here are a few sketches of Sasha, Sammy, and Hazel.

Pretty good, no?

I love my feathery and furry friends very much, and I hope that we keep them for a very long time.

My doodle collection #1

I love to draw. I don't get to do it so often as I would like, but when I do, I have a lot of fun. Here are some of my handpicked favorite doodles out from my sketchbook.

<---This one is the oldest in this collection. I drew it back in May 3rd. I made it by copying from a book upside-down. It's a technique that really works! Drawing something by copying it upside-down makes one really focus on what is being drawn, and the final result is awesome!

--->

This one was drawn on May 7th, soon after the other one. At the time, I was studying different drawing techniques from a book called "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain", and one of the lessons was to draw my hand in any pose I choose. Real cool, huh?

<---This one is one of my favorite animal drawings. It makes me imagine that the horse is tired of being a carousel horse and wants to be free.

--->

These were made a lot later, around July, right after I watched the movie "Wall-E". I love Pixar, I love robots, and I love big eyes, so put 'em all together in one well made animated movie, and you've got me hooked!

<---These were made just today, by copying pictures from the internet. I've only recently become slightly obsessed with this adorable little guy and his adventures. I've read the first 3 Sholastic graphic novels cover-to-cover in Borders. Not all at once though, the first book I read a week ago, and the other 2 I read yesterday. I can't wait to read the rest of the stories, that Jeff Smith is awesome! Fone bone sure took a while to put onto paper, 3 times, but I think it was definitely worth it.

Whenever I feel like I'm not a good artist, I just flip through some of my "masterpieces", and it cheers me up to see how much I've got to show. Plus everyone else (my brother, sister and parents) thinks that my drawings are great, so I'm contented. Hope you've enjoyed viewing my doodles. Ciao for now! (Oh, that reminds me, time for lunch!)