The Doodologist and the Prince

The Prince's Trust:
My doodling business The Doodologist is developing quite nicely and I am officially allowed to say that This business was initially helped by the Prince's Trust.They obviously have to be quite strict about how their good name is used and you can't use their logo, without paying a hefty sum. This is to protect the charity from unscrupulous people.

What is the Prince's Trust?
The Prince's Trust is a charity set up by the Prince of Wales (Charles) in 1976. It does a lot of great work with young people, covering many different aspects of life. I found out that I could receive help with my business idea, when I was making some general enquiries about business start ups. They have a program called the Enterprise Program, which helps you decide if self employment is for you and if your business idea is sound.

They do a thorough job of turning an idea into reality, well they make you do the hard work and hold your hand along the way. You have to prove that the business can make money, and that it has potential for growth. The type of businesses that they support have changed over the years and they have allowed small businesses like mine to sneak in.

Once I launched the website and facebook page, and starting getting commissions, that answered the BIG question of "Will it work?", as they had never seen a doodling business in their midst before and were concerned that the business wouldn't work.

They asked lots of valid questions, like:

1. What do you sell? It may seem obvious to say 'doodles', but what type, what size etc.
2. What do you do if someone doesn't like it?
3. How long does it take you?
4. How much and why?
5. Are making enough money to sustain and improve what you currently have?

and you can't just give them half  hearted answers, you have to really know your stuff. 

Once I had satisfied all the criteria, from the 'Will it work' section, comprehensive business plan, Insurance to opening a business bank accounts, they then submit it all to a panel. The panel then look over it all and call you in for a meeting.

It is hard not to think of it as a 'Dragon's Den', even though they assure you it is not. I am not lying at all, when I say I was very nervous! Luckily they were absolutely lovely and although they ask difficult questions, I was well prepared to answer them all. They then send you out for a short while, whilst they deliberate and then call you back in with the verdict.

In my case the verdict was..... Positive! They seem to really like the idea of the business, although with some concerns. That means that I was also awarded a business mentor for two years! and some pocket money in the form of a grant. The mentor is a professional successful business person, that volunteers their time around once a month. They match you with someone that can help you, were you need it the most, in my case we are focusing on marketing and some other general stuff. With the grant you have to spend it strictly on the business, providing receipts/invoices for stuff that you need or have already purchased.  If you are entering into this process *just* for the money, then I think you are missing out on tapping into some valuable knowledge. 

So although I am not a royalist, I am very happy that his royal highness decided to set up this charity and I look forward to paying some of help back by donating my time, as and when it is needed.

If you have any more questions about the process, please do ask! 

Latest Commissions:
I am very thankful that people took a punt and commissioned me before the business was a fully formed being, it gave me the confidence that I needed. It is also gave the business people the proof they needed, to show that this was a viable business. I will always be excited about the next doodle project, but these first few ones are special to me. Here are the latest ones for you to look at, watch the slideshows to see how they were created.

Somerset Sally: This is a snapshot of the county Somerset for Mike Camp, who is an excellent quirky doodler himself.


Grandma Rocks: This was commissioned by the lovely Lisa Ceaser, who commissioned it for her stepmom. This was my first international commission, as it flew across the pond to America.



Joey's Dream: This is the lovely Joey commissioned by p3dro , who provided some awesome photographs of Joey, for me to work from.




What am I doodly doing now?

Working on some awesome new doodle commissions, which I will blog about as and when they are finished. I am also creating some new doodles for art and craft fair type events.I decided to venture into the world of Arty farty crafty fair type things, as I way of meeting clients/potential clients face to face and to sell some original art and limited edition prints. I thought it would be cool to meet new people and have a conversation in the real world and get some first hand experience of selling (scary stuff).

Please keep your eyes on The Doodologist facebook page and blog to see where I will be in the next few months.

Any questions? Leave a comment and I shall endeavour to answer.

Reasons to be a Grumpus

Uh oh I have been neglecting The Grumpus, which is not the best thing to do... so this post is mainly about the green and furry one.

The Grumpus recently asked the worshippers/minions that like the FB page, what made them almost Grumpus like. The Grumpus was saddened by a rather lacklustre response and had to prod minions to ignite their fury. It produced results at last and one particular minion came up with the perfect reason to be a Grumpus.

Heather minion was infuriated that other minions where not looking after their furry hairy masters properly by not picking up their poop for them.

 The Grumpus says that if you are furry or especially hairy, obviously someone else has to pick up the poop. Minions (humans) evolved those thumbs things so that they could pick up after the masterful furry hairy creatures of the world.
Poop on the floor (or anywhere) is NOT a good thing, especially when you are green, furry and barefoot. Imagine getting the poop out from inbetween your toes? So minions, please remember, pick up your shit! or get a designated minion to do it for you.

What makes YOU a Grumpus?

If The Grumpus agrees with you, the head minion will turn it into doodle like form and you can glow in the satisfaction of being as miserable as The Grumpus.

Other news: The Doodologist bulletin

The world of doodle has been doodle mad lately, as I work on The Doodologist business. There is SO much to do, but it is so rewarding and I have been getting great feedback.
My first official The Doodologist parcel was well received and you can see the doodle being created in a lovely slideshow below.

The Doodologist website does have a blog section, which I update, but for some reason the feed isn't validating properly, something is wrong with the timestamp and I have no idea how to fix that. So the latest posts are Lady Jean and What does one doodle with.

What else?

Some how over four years have whizzed by since I first stumbled upon the magical world of twitter!

I have made some most excellent friends via the world of twitterings and had to mark this occasion by whoring out my new business like twitter account @TheDoodologist, heh. On a more serious, or tweerious, note, twitter has made the world smaller in a good way.

Sometimes I wonder if I am going too Social Media/Networking crazy? But as a small business, that works in dark cave on their lonesome, I see Twitter, Facebook and Blogging as my own little shop window and a place that gets conversations started.

Cough The Doodologist is also on facebook Cough

I am just an evil capitalist now.

Defining Me - The Doodologist and Doodology

Doodology dú-dŏl'ə-jē
Doodologist dú-dŏl'ə-jĭst

I have realised that I have never explained my switch from therapist in training to The Doodologist, especially confusing for those that have been reading this blog for quite  a while now. In this interview, I explain myself somewhat, if you care to read it: Interview with me, myself and I.

So moving on, I have survived my first week as a businesswoman, so I decided to get a tattoo as a reward for all my hard work.

It is bloody hard to photograph ones own wrist

Only bloody joking, I am not getting a tattoo...yet! A facebook page that I 'like' called Creative Boom mentioned these dudes called Roood Boogie Temporary Tattoos, I was intrigued, as I love all things tattoo.

Awesome Roood Boogie (latest WIP in the background)

So I wandered over and discovered that not only were they cool temporary tattoos, but you could also create your own bespoke temporary tattoos, using your own doodles (designs).

You can read more about this over here 'What to doodle do? Get inked!

Question: If you had a 'The Doodologist' temporary tattoo, where would you put it?

Shout out: 

My good chum TJ,who is my doodle mentor/creative partner in crime has been a freelance illustrator for over six months now, wow that time has whooshed by. She magically rambles on about it in this blog post Magical wiffle waffle. Also she has finally set up a facebook page TJ Lubrano's Illustrations ( which you can like, after you have liked The Doodologist and The Grumpus, hehe).

Other stuff:

I have added a blog section over on 'The Doodologist', I think this helps with the googly moogly type stuff. I also thought it would be cool to have a business blog. My head may explode with all the social network/media things that I have to update now, but every little helps? Right?

A big THANK YOU for all the support I have had so far, from people blogging, twittering, facebooking links and wishing me 'good lucks'. 

Please keep offering thoughts, opinions, criticisms and all that fun stuff, it really has been invaluable! Over the weekend I will be asking for input on business card designs, so keep your eye out for that. No rest for the wicked and all that.

George, Grumpus, Barbara and The Egg

Meet Barbara, she is one of England's last dragons

There she was, just minding her own business, when a pesky bee decides to pick an argument with her! How bloody rude. Normally a dragon like Barbara would have just cremated the flying pest, but her fire glands were swollen, due to hay fever.

Unbeknown to Barbara, a pesky little man named George, was sneaking up on her, ready to make his name in the dragon killing world.....

With a fatal stab to heart and wallop of his axe, poor Barbara lost her head and that pesky little chancer would hence be known as Saint George the patron saint of England.

Meanwhile lurking in a cave, The Grumpus had found a rather large egg and was contemplating a mahoosive omelet for his tea.

So yet again, poor Grumpus misses out on Sainthood and will this be the last we hear about that mysterious large egg?

Grumpus on Facebook: Like him!

Grumpus on Twitter: Follow him!

The Grumpus has a Easter message for you...

Happy Easter minions!

Business news: 

I have created a series of cartoons to illustrate various parts of the new website, so as soon as they are painted, uploaded and titivated, I should only be a few days away from the site going live!

Animal mad aunt and stuff

Well I was going to do a "Grumpus visits his Mother" post, a nod to it being Mother's day in the UK(tomorrow), but he doesn't like her and refused to cooperate. Now some people would assume that that was just a flimsy excuse about not being prepared and time catching up with me, but we know better, right? Anyhoo I can always backtrack and make him visit his mom for the US version of Mother's day.

So the question still remains... WTFWGGN?

The creation of a doodle for my Aunt's birthday.

News:

Soon I will be opening for doodle business, it has been in the works for a quite a while now! I just wanted to mention it here and put the feelers out, as I will be wanting opinions from the people that have been a great support to me (you lot). Well not just a support, this blog is the thing that inspired me to pick up a pencil again. So I will be writing more about this when I am at the next stage, which will probably be the webiste launch and facebook page shenanigans. When I have created more examples and the website is done, I think that will allow me to explain what type of doodliness I will be offering. I am excited/nauseous/excited about it all and have been lucky with the help that I am getting to set things up. It is a long process from market research to marketing to selling and more. As I take a giant leap into the unknown (for me), it is nice that I will always have this place to brain vomit on.

Random thoughts:

Waffles (potato) and tomato sauce, has evolved into Brie and fiery hot chutney on crackers.Just a thought that popped into my head, as I was munching on the crackers. Brie use to be a horrid cheese that my parents loved, now I think it's awesome. Actually the highlight of my night was eating that brie and crackers with a mug of hot chocolate. What is happening to me!

Grumpus and The Snakes of Terror!

Grumpus has run into trouble again, his heavy drinking session with Patrick led to all sorts of Shenanigans and a whole island full of snakes attached to him!

Grumpus continued his wandering around the world, after spending a happy, but flatulent, time with Dewi, he now found himself with his old chum Patrick in Ireland. After a Guinness or twenty, Grumpus foolishly suggested a game of 'Toss the Leprechauns', and for some reason, the wee fella's did not take kindly to being hurled through the air. So without so much as a kiss of the Barney Stone, the leprechauns whacked Grumpus on the head, with their magic Shelagh, and Grumpus disappeared!

Hours later Grumpus wakes up and finds himself covered in snakes! Luckily hairy beasts of terror, like the Grumpus, are not afraid of snakes. All that Guinness and magical travel had made him quite peckish, so he ate the snakes, which tasted rather like chicken. With a sigh and a longing look across the sea, to the Emerald Isle, he continued on with his endless wanderings. The Grumpus doesn't like to ponder too much on things and he certainly didn't want to piss off any more leprechauns.

So Grumpus was banished to Grumpus Island, a horrid and cruel place, later to be known as 'England' (strange name, eh?). Grumpus was slightly annoyed that Patrick escaped the Leprechaun wrath, Patrick even got all the credit for ridding Ireland of snakes and was made into a Saint! Bloody typical.

Top of the Morning, Noon and Night to the lot of you (especially my Irish side of the family). Yes I know it's not actually St Patrick's Day anymore, but I just woke up from a Guinness binge*

*No actual binge drinking happened, not even a Guinness this year! Sorry Grandad.

WTFWGGN?

Grumpus and the Damned Pancake

Tis Pancake Day! Otherwise known as Shrove Tuesday and Grumpus does NOT like pancakes. He normally loves all things bad for you, but not these edible circles of doom and fat. In fact, just the thought of pancakes is making Grumpus even greener than he already is! The pancake hatred started when Grumpus was just a wee furball and Great Grandpa-pa Grumpus put a hex on his pancakes, so if anyone tried to eat them, the pancake would come alive and slap you in the face. As you can guess, Great Grandpa-pa Grumpus, was not allowed to Grumpus sit very often.

Instead of pancakes,Grumpus dreams of living the life of his cousin Le Coeur Méchant, who is currently living it up at this year's Mardi Gras Day festivities in New Orleans. The Mardi Gras brings back a lot of fond memories of the days when people wore less clothes and were generally more naughty.

What is next for Grumpus? Guess or Die*

*Death is not guaranteed or in fact expected, but would be appreciated.
ermi guessing would be appreciated, not death.

International Women's Day

In other news, today is the 100th year of celebrating International Women's Day, which I have blogged about before in 2009, but subsequently forgot about, whoops! I could pass off Grumpus as a very hairy woman (he might be!) and dedicate the post to all the hairier than average women out there. 

Instead I shall direct your attention to my other project, which is 'Self Exam Doodles'. That is most definitely a project about women and trying to go international, by translating it into as many languages as possible. The project also fits quite nicely into the 'arty' theme of this year's International Women's Day. Just like you can get breast cancer any day of the year, you can also look around you any day of the year and see inspirational women. You don't need an awareness day or month, but reminders are always nice. So a rather mixed message of feel your breasticles and take note of the women in your life that inspire you, from me.

Grumpus and Dewi

After Grumpus's disastrous meeting with Valentine, he felt a wee bit bad about the decapitation, stoning and shooting through the heart thang. So from that day forward he decided to play nice with all the other saints, in the hopes that one day he would get to be St Grumpus and have a holiday of his very own! Erm I mean he wanted to be nice and stuff like that, in a truly altruistic way.

The Grumpus came across Dewi whilst he was up on a hillock, talking to a bird. The bird twas a dove perched upon Dewi's shoulder. Turns out Dewi was a vegetarian, who liked to party in Glastonbury, so after a few wild nights, Grumpus went on his way. Dewi was nice on all, but what with all the leeks and being vegetarian, I am sorry to say that Dewi had more than a little wind problem. 

Happy Saint David's Day to my Welsh Chums!

Dydd Gwyl Dewi hapus.

Factoid: The welsh leek has a flower much like a daffodil (which is quite a bit easier to find around the world in March), so many use daffodils instead

What will the Grumpus get up to next? I wonder if you can guess?

Random Doodle Update

I hope you liked the epic Grumpus tale " The Grumpus and Love" ? Because I am currently working on a LOT of new Grumpus ideas.So if you have any Grumpus story related ideas, specifically related to holidays that you celebrate, please leave a suggestion in the comment section. So whilst I get on with sketching, painting, scanning and titivating, I thought I would update you on some of my more current doodles for various people.

Trumpasaurus Rex:

This was inspired by an awesome little chap, who at the age of four already has an awesome sense of humour.

The crabheaded man:

Inspired by a particular arsehole/asshole who cooks and is obsessed with some weird herb/spice combination I have never heard of. He seems to make passable food though and has a very cute little daughter (how did that happen?). Check out his blog (with awful design template) Cooking for Assholes and on twitter he is @cookingasshole.

and If you 'like' Self Exam Doodles' on facebook, you could win a doodle like this lady...

Her name is Zeta, named by the dude that won her "Mike's World"

The Grumpus and Love

The Grumpus and love, it is a tragic tale, but what do you expect from someone called The Grumpus? This tale will also make very little sense, but that is not the Grumpus's fault.

Many many many many (x ten) years ago:

The Grumpus was minding his own business as he plodded around the jungle, when he all of a sudden noticed this beautiful tropical walled garden, the likes of which he had never seen before. So he passed through gates made of gold and was given the obligatory Fig Leaf  to cover his naughty bits.

A rather suspicious looking large purple snake persuaded Grumpus to take this luscious looking red apple and give it to the fur maiden of his choice. Surely nothing bad could happen now?

Au contraire! From the moment that Grumpus took that bloody red apple, he was destined to be unlucky in love and he would pass this fate on through the ages or something like that.... Any fool knows that a lady Grumpus hates apples!

Fast forward through time:

The Grumpus was the official ambassador for the Grumpi at the annual Lupercalia festival, it was a right bloody laugh, there was singing, dancing and nakedness. Surely there was a chance of him getting lucky with someone/thing here? Well there was until a strange bearded fellow by the name of..... Valentine showed up! History becomes clouded around this time and somehow Valentine ended up dead and a saint! What a bastard.

Just who killed Valentine (Hallmark?)

Next we see Grumpus swayed by an alluring ankle, covered in ample green fur and toenails of the most beautiful yellow and brown tones.

This drove Grumpus crazy with desire and he was willing to try anything, so he did what all the cool kids were doing in them days and wrote a postcard to his beloved. Which of course failed miserably, as the silly bugger had no idea where to post the thing.

Nothing was working and poor old Grumpus was getting rather desperate, so he reluctantly decided that he would give the lady Grumpus his heart. Not really understanding what this strange sentiment actually meant, this confused the Grumpus. How could he give his heart, but still be alive and finally get some Grumpus on Grumpus action? As he was pondering this matter, in wanders Snuffles, the pet cat that had kept him company for many a year.....

What finally worked it's magic on the lady Grumpus? Was it love? Was it bollocks! The thought of making someone's life a misery forever was all the aphrodisiac she ever really needed. So they are now miserable together, forever, until one dies (or is murdered).......

Happy Grumpus Day! 

It's the holiday for every holiday that annoys the shit out of you.

Hat tips to people that sparked off an idea: Timethief for Edenish, Juliana for Valentine, Jenn for Vintage/Victorian, Talegends for ball and chain. 

For a far happier magical Valentines day, please wander over to TJ's blog and read/look at  Preparing to find a Valnetine

Doodle House

Thanks to the wonderful world of twitter, I got to doodle a wee little house for the wonderful  "It's good 2 give" Charity.

It’s Good 2 Give (registered charity number SC041416)  officially came to life in April 2010 and already we have raised over £70,000 for local young people with cancer and their families. We’re little and local and 100% of the money you donate will go to the cause. No rent, no wages, no waste.

I was asked by @LeePeyton sometime last summer (summer! what a joke) and of course I said yes! The idea behind the doodle, was child's idea of a holiday cottage with their family. I can easily tap into my inner child, so it wasn't too difficult a challenge.

Doodle process: Lessons Learnt! 
As the new site for the charity was taking time to come together, as they do, I decided that I didn't like the doodle you see above and could do a much better job. When you are learning new doodle stuff all the time, you tend to look back at some stuff with a slight tinge of horror. So I cracked out the new paints and paper and proceeded to doodle a new house. If you watch the slideshow, you will see how it progresses nicely, until I over ink the piece and turn the little blonde stick doodle person into a menace! If anyone is interested, I was thinking of blogging about the main doodle lessons I have learnt so far, including the materials I use?

Doodle Slideshow

So glad that they went with the original doodle and that I will doodling some new things for this charity soon! A big thanks to @leepeyton for asking me in the first place, he is such an inspirational man, a fireman, husband, dad and an adventurer (crazy sports event dude), always raising money for charity. Check out his website Breaking Strain . It is GOOD to give, even if its a daft doodle.


Self Exam Doodles : Is my chance to learn more doodling skills and raise awareness using those doodles, whilst the focus is on the Breast Self Exam doodles, we will always be linking in with other great causes. 'We' is myself and the very cool TJ Lubrano (@TJLubrano)

Every Friday someone wins a doodle from one of us, so if you 'Like' us, then you could win one yourselves.

Doodle Adventure

For my EPIC four years of blogging post back in November ' I am a Tetradite Blogger' I ran a doodletrific competition, which consisted of just leaving a comment on the post. Then at an allotted time I would pick a winner using a random number generator.... (number was assigned in relevance to number of comments)

Number six was..... Mr Adebond.

In an effort to add more fun (get MOAR comments) I added a second chance to win a doodle, by providing this awesome clue/question:

What is the work of fiction that I have read the most?

Apparently that was far too hard a question, so I added an extra cryptic clue.

Clue = Jaundiced Ed Ripper (first correct comment wins). 

Mr P3dro quickly swooped in and unscrambled the anagram into... Pride and Prejudice, yes I really have read that book a LOT... ummm britches.

Now onto the prizes! I didn't want to doodle any old thing, so I had Mr Adebond and Mr P3dro pick from these:

1. Dragon or Troll?

2. Clothes or Naked?

3. Mermaid or Unicorn?

4. Castle or Boat?

5. Sun or Moon?

After their selections, I stalked looked at their blogs, flickr and twitter streams, to get an idea of what I wanted to draw.

Adebond choices were: Troll, Naked, Unicorn, Boat and Moon

If you look at the 'troll' you will see the first incarnation of my Grumpus character, after I doodled this piece, I loved that character so much, I decided to evolve him into something hairier and grumpier.

P3dro choices were: Dragon, clothed, unicorn, castle, moon.

Bonus time, Mr Adebond took a beautiful photograph of his daughter, when she was a Flower Girl, I loved the picture so much that I decided to draw her as a little Flower Fairy and give it to Mr Adebond as a surprise.

I had a MAHOOSIVE amount of fun doing these doodles and had the pleasure of meeting the guys yesterday to hand them over. It is great having such cool and creative people that live relatively nearby. It just goes to show how effective a tool Twitter really is, if you use it with an open mind. You can connect to all sorts of cool people, that may live round the corner or thousands of miles away. Alison, Adebond and P3dro are just a few of the very cool people that I have connected with over there.

Now ye gang o bastards, if you like my doodle style and would love to win a doodle of your very own, then get your arse over to my Self Exam Doodles Facebook Page, you have a chance every Friday! Once a week Tahira Lubrano and myself take turns to doodle something for someone who has 'liked' the page, this week it is my turn.

Leaving Liverpool - Miles to go before I sheep

The tale of a dragon leaving a city she loved....

Sometimes a doodle just pops into my mind after hearing/reading a conversation or thinking about a certain thing for a while, plus lots of coffee (LOTS).  The above doodle is an example of just that, I was thinking about a tweet chum of mine leaving Liverpool and her twitter avatar happens to be a dragon. Alison Gow is her name and editing is her is game,she is off back to her country of birth, which is Wales. I have been tweet chums with her for ages now. I think she was Grand Poo bah of Liverpool in the tweet stats and that is why I originally began to follow her (no idea really). She is fountain of social media knowledge, with a journalistic twist, as seen in her blog Headline and Deadlines. Alison is also a super nice person and said many a nice thing about the mumborg, which I wont ever forget. I was so pleased to get the chance to meet Alison and hand over the doodle in person. Hopefully she will back soon, then I can doodle a 'Return to Liverpool' piece, with a happy dragon.

The 'Leaving Liverpool' doodle also introduces a new character.......... Baa Wid

Baa Wid was conjured up by the mumborg, after she rather quickly and callously cast aside my original idea of 'Widdy the Wool'. In hindsight 'Widdy' leads to Anne Widdecombe on google, so sod that for a monkey's badger, 'Baa Wid' it is. Why a sheep in the first place? It is an homage of sorts, to my heritage,but it mainly pokes fun at the nickname people from round these parts are given. That being said, I could have easily drawn a three headed swamp donkey mutant, if I followed that thinking.. /raises eyebrow at certain people.

Who knows where Baa Wid will go next? Who else will crop up? Baa Lee, Ma Baa Wid, Da Baa Wid, GranBaa Wid and GranBaaBaa Wid, are all possibilities.. Yes I am quite mad, ewe can believe that.

Help Me:
I would like/love some suggestions, especially from my Liverpoolish chums, about what buildings/places/landmarks, you think are doodle worthy in Liverpool? Where do you think Baa Wid would like to visit? I would, in fact, love input from anyone that has visited Liverpool or wanted to visit.  Imagine, if you will, an illustrated guide to Liverpool, from an out of town sheep's perspective ( In the style of above Liverpool waterfrontish dragon doodle). Much obliged for your input as always (preemptive thanks, as I *know* you leave some great suggestions).

Coming soon: What do you get if you cross a unicorn/troll/dragon/castle/boat/moon/naked/clothes doodle?

Also check out my wiffling on Twitter, Naked Ladies on Self Exam Doodles with DOODLE GIVE-AWAYS on it's FB PAGE and favourite musical listening on Other Bits and Pieces.

Evolution of the boob doodles

For those that don't know, last October I set up another blog called 'Self Exam Doodles' . If you read this 'About' page you should be a little more informed on how this project came to life.

The 'Self Exam Doodles' site has been an awesome way to teach myself how to doodle better, although it definitely can be a frustrating process at times!

Doodle Process:
Sketching out original ideas, working out arm/hand positions (tricky!), what paper to use, what pens to use, what colours to use when you start painting, scanning the images, fixing bits in editing (I use Picnik), adding words, uploading to flickr and then finally sharing with the world.

I still predominately call my stuff doodles, even though I suppose they are not, what with the painting an all? I like the term doodle though and most, if not all, of my doodles are sketched straight from brain to paper to painted. 

From the diagram below you can see how the doodles have evolved over the years, from using crayons and my left foot to .. Okay not really. In 2008 I was just using what ever crappy paper I had lying round (printer paper) and ordinary colouring pencils. The next incarnation was from last October, these were created using proper watercolour paper(from TJ) and a mixture of watercolour pencils and watercolours. The most recent versions were again created using proper watercolour paper and this time just water colours. I am rather chuffed at the improvement, but it's not happened overnight and I still have a lot to learn!



Whilst you are all here and paying attention, I shall take this opportunity to welcome TJ Lubrano to team 'Self Exam Doodles' /round of applause. Please check out her blog 'A look in a creative mind' and gaze at all her beautiful illustrations.

Check out the latest news on the "Self Exam Doodles" site, The French Connection and Breast Self Exam- Francais . Which tells you all about the new French versions of the Breast Self Exams and the collaborative work I am doing with TJ. There is also a facebook thing, please click it/like it/love it! Because I nearly punched the computer in the process of setting it up.

Slideshow time for those that don't hop over to the site:



Sidenote:
I wont be using the term 'Doodle for the cure', although I was tempted to start after reading this article on Huffington Post. Ever wonder why people are SO turned off donating to big charities? Read that post for just one of the many reasons why you hear chants of "Pink stinks". Self Exam Doodles is about fun, doodles and raising awareness. It is not going to save any lives, but hopefully it gives you a smile and you at least think about giving your boobage a feel.

Coming Soon: For once I have a shit load of stuff to blog about, so I might actually be blogging more than once in a blue hairy moon. Next few posts will contain dragons, sheep, unicorns, trolls, castles, boats and Grumpuses! Check back often and bring all your friends.

PS: I would REALLY appreciate peoples input on this project, as in the Breast Self Exam Doodles ^, as I would like to know whether its something people enjoy/get something out of. I am feeling sorry myself, waahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (whinge alert) and I really do enjoy any comments I receive, all suggestions are always banked for further use and ponderation. It is not about patting me on the back and saying the doodles are wonderful, although that's nice.

Also check out my wiffling on Twitter, Naked Ladies on Self Exam Doodles and favourite musical listening on Other Bits and Pieces.

Pain in the neck

Things are rather busy here at doodle central, which I will explain further in a near future post. In my last waffling's 'Grumpus and The Slanket of Doom', I asked for favourite love quotes/poems/sayings etc. These are being used for an ongoing doodle project, which will also become clearer in that near future post. Anyhoo I also asked my Twitter chums for their input on what type of Valentines cards they like, which is a question I should have also posed here. So feel free to leave me some input in yonder comment box!

In the comments on the last post, the quote suggestions I received where great! But it's interesting when I posed the question differently on Twitter and mentioned Valentines cards, the responses veered away from romance and headed straight towards funny, sarcastic, cheeky and a little bit naughty (a lot naughty in some cases).

I received several ideas, but the one that I decided to work on first, is called 'Pain in the neck', inspired by Mr @deftnetmedia. He likes the funnier romantic side of Valentines and for some reason pictured dinosaurs with their necks intertwined.

I like funny romantic cards. Two dinosaurs spring to mind.

Veggie with long necks intertwined

Sometimes ideas or suggestions work straight away for me and immediately I see the doodle in my head, other ideas take a lot more thought and research. This dinosaur one was the former, rather than the latter and this is the doodle slide show of how it was created:

If it were a Valentines card it would say:  

You may be a pain in the neck, but I'd go extinct with you.

or

Q: What's as big as a dinosaur but weighs nothing? 
A: Her shadow!

So Dear Readers, what valentines cards do you buy or like to receive? Or does the thought of Valentines make you want to stab yourself in the eye?

PS: Yes I know it's early to be mentioning Valentines, but get over it, I am going to be posting a LOT more Valentines related doodles and annoy you as much as the early over merchandising shops! Hahahahahaha (Please come back!)

Grumpus and The Slanket of Doom

If a depression can be like a blanket, what the fuck is like a slanket?

Poor Grumpus doesn't know just how evil a slanket really is.....

Hey kids/adults/beasts/inbetweeners hope you all had an average, or better than average, festive time? If you didn't guess by the title or the doodle, I got a slanket. It was meant to be a joke, because apparently I complain about being cold a lot (I don't!). I would like to say that I threw the hideous thing across the room in a rage, but soon I was wrapped up in its warm snuggliness and hiding chocolates in the ever so useful and convenient pocket. I could even have it covering my legs right now, like a Nana blanket...

Quick shoot me!

All in all, I had a nice christmas, it was quiet and I didn't see many people. Plus I horrified my dad by doing the annoying orange impression over skpe with my sister. It wasn't a proud look that he gave us, ha!

What is the most annoying sound? My impression started at 0:40 in the video.

Hey Apple!

It's called the Annoying Orange for a reason, how we laughed and laughed.

/crawls back into the cave (under the slanket) till that evil thing called NYE is over.

PS: Only resolution will be NO FUCKING RESOLUTIONS! Why start the year with a list of things to disappoint yourself, don't do it. Just try to do the things that make you happy and avoid the things/people that make you mad/sad.

PPS: I need your favourite love poems and quotes, give them to me! You may get something from me, if I am pleased with your offerings (not something that is treated by antibiotics). Anti love/valentines stuff is more than acceptable too!

PPPS: Happy New Year and all that bollocks, lots of doodles heading this way very soon!

Happy Grumpus

Tis the Grumpus trying to look happy

He paints his fur red, it looks rather crappy

Then he sticks buttons upon his chest,

after all this exertion, he needs a bloody rest.

Let Christmas be over, make it snappy!

Christmas is just another day to me, with added food. I am a Happy Grumpus indeed, when it comes to this special day. Hate would be far too strong a word to describe my feelings for the day, I am just indifferent to it. My recipe for avoiding Christmas misery is, don't buy presents you can't afford, don't see people you don't like and stay in your pyjamas.

Do what you can to enjoy the day, or at least get through it!

Happy Grumpus to you all!

Edited to add... Creating the Happy Grumpus:

Coming soon! International ladies of mystery

More information on these ladies coming soon! In the meantime check out this post 

'Self Exam Doodles: International ladies... Coming Soon'

Stupidly hit 'Publish' on a post that was filled with existential waffle, unfortunately it was a waffle only cooked on one side! Check back here soon for the full waffle saga and ignore any post that appeared previously in your feed reader, bloody wretched thing!!

Doodle Do

The mumborg asked me to doodle something for her friends baby shower, so of course I obliged. Whilst we are on the subject of baby showers, when the heck did they become popular in the UK? I know they are the thing to do across the pond, but all of a sudden they have appeared on these fair shores. Not that I am complaining, it was much fun creating this doodle. I have provided a mini slideshow in case you wonder how I go about creating a doodle like you see above. Of course I didn't photograph all the hideous malformed deformed incarnations that where created in the process of finding that perfect final sketch....

From doodle sketch to finished in a frame

Mucho thanks for all the comments on my four years of blogging post, it was greatly appreciated. I hope you enjoyed the post? It's ruddy hard to summarise four years into one post, figuring out what has been useful and what has not, over the years. As I said in the post, there is no magical formula, just time, be yourself etc etc. If you didn't read the post (WTF!!!), then run to it at once! If you did read it and commented, then you will be ecstatic to know that I replied to ALL the comments, even if the shitty blogger/blogspot commenting system will be the death of me.

I will be doing another post about the doodle winners, when their doodles are ready! Which 'will' be before Christmas. I am off to Hamburg, Germany, end of this month for a visit with family. So things will be hectic before, during and after that trip!

Other Doodle projects.
1.Working on some international ladies for the translated posts on my 'Self Exam Doodles' site. Which I hope you have all checked out by now? (Why bloody not?).  So hopefully by this weekend you can have a sneak peek at the ladies, maybe even have a go at guessing what countries they represent. Hopefully I don't offend anyone with cultural stereotypes..Below is a selection of sketches for an idea for one of the ladies.

2. Chasing down a certain author so I can maybe possibly hopefully illustrate their poem, without getting into copyright shenanigans! If I can, that will be awesome! If not, then insert sad face here. I have now been in contact with the literary agent of the author and as the author does not use email, they are sending a carrier pigeon with the request. Fingers crossed!!

Other notes: In regards to the mumborg, still no news on the brain tumour yet, find out more at the end of the month, when she sees the relevant specialists. For now she is well and I appreciate, as always, the well wishes and concerns.

I am a Tetradite blogger

As the clock struck 10 on the evening of the 29th of October this year, I had now been blogging for FOUR whole years! Well actually I was working on another blog, not this one, at that very moment, but oh well. To mark this monumental occasion, I will take you on a doodle journey through the last four years of blogging.

Blogger/Blogspot has been my blog drug of choice these past four years, simply because it was the first thing I found when looking for an online diary/blog. Although I do have a Tumblr blog and a Wordpress one (backup blog), that I occasionally mess with now. I have found that Blogspot is still the most suited to my needs. My niche, before I knew what a niche was, is 'Personal'. The blog was just meant to be a place to dump my thoughts on a daily (ish) basis.

How do you get people to read your waffling and offerings? Who wants to? Do you want them to? How do you add pictures, How this and how that? Basically there were a LOT of 'How do I?' type questions and somehow I found the 'Blogger Help' forums. It really was a miracle that I even found them and how I cringe at the type of questions I asked back then (Noob alert). Some nice folks did take pity and gave me some pretty good advice, mainly stop using so many exclamation marks!!!!!!!! and your layout is HORRID! So I changed the layout and curtailed my use of !!

From the Blogger Help forums, I moved onto other blogging forums, still rather clueless about this whole blogging thing and was now on quest for knowledge (and widgets). Followed by the usual thing of registering your blog with every blog directory known to man (or google).  I also started reading a LOT of other blogs in my niche, which was and still is, a personal blog of sorts.

Suddenly you are flooded with talk of SEO, Page Rank, Flickr, Twitter, Google reader, Facebook, technorati, memes, tags, awards and much much more. It is so overwhelming at first and it becomes very easy to forget the reasons why you are blogging. You see other blogs getting lots of comments and wonder how they attract so many, when not even ten people a week are reading yours (Insert sad face here).

It seemed a good idea at first to get involved with paid posting, internet memes and silly blog like things. I am sure for some people that is enough. For me though, it was horrid. I was posting so frequently, numerous times a day and felt burnt out quickly. The lesson was learnt, but I think it took about two years, before I really started developing a blog voice of my own. I think the worry was that just me on my own would be bloody boring.

It would be remiss to not point out the darker side of blogging, especially when it's something that can really upset people. There are some very very strange people on the internet, don't try to analyse them too much, just accept that and move on. People will be horrid to you, some will think they are giving you 'helpful' advice, some are just being twats. It takes a while to develop a internet strength thick skin, but you will.

Is it worth all that? YES it is. The Pros far outweigh the Cons in my opinion. The inspiration and friendship that I have gotten from the blogs that I read, and the people that read/comment on here, has changed so many things in my life. From my interest in photography and doodling, to just inspiring me to actually share my thoughts on difficult situations. I could mention a lot more great things about blogging, but I have so much more to fit into this post.

Advice:
You should really read my One, Two and Three year blogging anniversary posts to gain a better insight into how this blog has developed. There is no magic formula, just lots of mistakes, lots of learning and lots of time. I try to put a lot of time and effort into writing these blog anniversary posts, as it's a great way to look back at all I have learnt over the years. I think a lot of people want to know more about how to start blogging, how to get people to read it and so on. Those questions are hard to answer, mainly because everyone is blogging for different reasons. So I just try to show what I have done over the years, with the hopes that that may answer some questions.

Thoughts on blogging:
I thought there would come a point that I would get bored of this blogging malarkey, surely boring myself and others. Although I have been frustrated, stressed out etc, at times, I still haven't reached the boredom point. I guess I like (maybe love) sharing some aspects of my life and personality with the strange folks that wander the interwebs. It opens up a dialogue, that then translates to real life interactions and guess what? It's good to talk.

What next?
I have some rather exciting doodle projects on the go at the moment, you already know about 'Self Exam Doodles', but that is just the start. I hope you will stick around for a few more years and follow me on the next adventure.


Thanks to everyone new and old for reading!