As a self taught painter, I am constantly looking for exercises to stretch my abilities. Lately I’ve been feeling like my doodles have been fun, but I need to step it up a notch and add shading to the equation. The doodles are about whimsy and imagination and simplification. Shading is all about studying what you see. Not what you THINK you see; but what’s really there.

Maybe the next step is to shade the doodles. In order to keep it within my allowed time each morning (1/2 an hour), they’d have to be pretty simple. We’ll see.