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By ViiiZ* Quirk Books 8/20/2013 978-1-59474-652-9 160 pages Age 8—12 + . “You’ve never seen a doodle book quite like this one!” ”Wait, you can talk?”
“Photo Doodles combines kid-friendly photographs and cool creative challenges into the perfect canvas for anyone capable of wielding a crayon. Young artists and designers can complete dozens of fun and playful pictures of everything from roller coasters and soda cans to book covers and palaces. Perfect for sketching, scribbling, and coloring outside the lines, Photos Doodles will unleash the aspiring artist inside children of all ages.”[front jacket]
Review Photo Doodles is a fun-filled book for those kids—and adults—who love to doodle, but may not know how to get started. Similar to writing prompts, each spread contains a one sentence prompt to help you with ideas to doodle your way to a fun, satisfying end. Here are two of those prompts:
“Who (or what) is at the other end of the rope?”
“What outfit will the puppy wear today?”
With 160 pages to doodle and color, it seems the options are endless. From decorating a sea of umbrellas to filling in storyboards with your own story. There is even one many students will find hard to resist:
“It’s your turn at the blackboard . . . what will you write?”
How about “No more math problems,” or maybe “School’s out early today: Leave at noon,” or maybe you would use your turn to make tomorrow a teacher conference day—“Students stay home!”
There are plenty of open spaces in Photo Doodles or those kids and adults who can doodle and draw with ease and loads of pages with images to make colorful and expressive, rather than drawing from scratch. A total of 200 pictures await your crayons, colored pencils, markers, or other artistic medium. While marketed for the middle grade set, younger children will enjoy many of the easier prompts in Photo Doodles and adults will love the range of images and prompts.
I enjoyed playing with PhotoDoodles. I love to draw, but have a hard time getting started. Photo Doodles made getting started easy and the images and prompts got me thinking of ways to doodle other than the normal doodles in the margin of a page.
Coloring books for adults are in every corner of every bookstore online and off, but doodle books that prompt you to create imaginative scenes and messages, like Photo Doodles, is not as common. I think kids of all ages will enjoy Photo Doodles as much as I have.
Learn more about Photo Doodles: A Creative SketchbookHERE. The Sell Sheet can be found HERE.
Meet the authors/illustrators, ViiiZ. Vahram Muratyan at his website: http://www.vahrammuratyan.com/ Elodie Chaillous at LinkedIn: https://fr.linkedin.com/pub/elodie-chaillous/84/79a/462/en . . (ViiiZ is the artistic team of Vahram Muratyan and Elodie Chaillous andfounders of ViiiZ, an art direction and graphic design studio created in 2005 in Paris. They graduated from the acclaimed Parisian design school ESAGPenninghen.)
Full Disclosure: Photo Doodles: A Creative Sketchbook by ViiiZ, and received from Quirk Books, is in exchange NOT for a positive review, but for an HONEST review. The opinions expressed are my own and no one else’s. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
I love drawing elephants! At one point, I had way too many elephants in my portfolio, but recently I realized that there are none now. I'll have to remedy that situation.
I've been able to fit some fun creative playtime into my week. I made a small collage painting (you can view the video here). I doodled in my sketchbook. Something I don't usually do, but I was inspired by the Sketchbook Explorations class by Lisa Congdon on Creativebug.
Here's a little snippet from a work in progress I finished up this week.
Snippet from a work in progress
With the help of my mom, husband, and son, I finally got this quilt basted. Now I'm waiting on the elves to come and quilt it for me. The fabric is by BariJ.
I hope you've had a creative week also!
0 Comments on Elephant Day and a Doodle as of 8/14/2015 3:24:00 PM
I first became aware of Jennifer Wharton's brilliant book reviews on the Jean Little Library blog a couple years ago, when she mentioned an Ellie McDoodle book and my awesome friend, children's book author Carrie Pearson alerted me. It occurred to me, why not look up Jennifer's library and see if my travels would bring me near it sometime? And to my utter shock, I was indeed going to be within sketching distance in just a few months. I attended my agent's retreat in Lake Geneva, and the Jean Little Library isn't more than a pebble toss away.
We drew penguins, owls, Ellie McDoodle, Ben-Ben, dragons, cats, dogs, ... all sorts of stuff. Here's Ben-Ben:
I like to draw on a document camera and project it onto the wall so people all over the room can join in easily. We were in a big room, and that crowd really filled it up. One girl gave me a drawing with an impressive use of spirals:
This is my favorite kind of event: connecting with enthusiastic kids. What a great author life I lead.
Thank you SO much, Jennifer and Jean Little Library!
0 Comments on Jean Little Library! July 16 at Matheson Memorial Library in Elkhorn, Wisconsin as of 7/29/2015 4:29:00 AM
...which has this video embedded (scrub to 1:30 if you just want the Black-Eyed Susan lesson)...
Life is good. Happy Friday. Happy Poetry. Happy Doodling.
Carol has the Poetry Friday roundup this week at Carol's Corner.
The July-December roundup schedule is in our sidebar, the code is in the files at the Kidlitosphere Yahoo group, and everything's set and ready to go at Kidlitosphere Central. Let me know if you want me to send you your very own copy of the code. (marylee DOT hahn AT gmail etc etc).
0 Comments on Poetry Friday -- Hello, Sketchbook! Let's Get Reacquainted! as of 6/26/2015 5:54:00 AM
You could probably read/skim this book at five different times in your life and get five different personal life lessons from it. My big take-away this time around is that doodling is not bad. Doodling is a way to think and learn:
I want to teach my students some doodling tools so that we can doodlearn (yes, I just made that word up!) together.
But what this book gave me for right now (for today and this week and the rest of the summer) was a reminder that I don't have to wait until I'm an amazing artist to have fun with doodling. I learned to doodle new, more expressive stick figures, and use eye positions, noses, mouths and eyebrows to create a variety of more emotive faces:
And I returned to my TED challenge and illustrated notetaking by opening the TED app on my phone, scanning the featured talks, finding one with NOTICE in the title (my One Little Word for 2015) and received this excellent message from the universe:
A sink full of dirty half rinsed dishes; toys and paper scattered waiting for a foot to stomp on them; cluttered dining room table ranging from a stuffed bunny to a lint roller; laundry decorating our couch and our bedroom dresser; and shoes beckoning to be tripped over at the front door.
This is my house, most every day. It makes me feel squished, with no room to move without knocking something over or stepping onto something. I'm clumsy and that always means I will stub my toe, ram my elbow, slam my hand, or bang my knee. It's crazy how many nicks and bruises I get.
Yet, I look to my right and I see sun light beaming in from the windows in my studio. An immediate "ahhh" relaxes my mind and all is right again.
If this winter has taught me anything, it's that my studio truly is my place of solitude.
I used to tell people it was because I think artists are supposed to say that. It's expected of us to love our studio, a place where the creation happens, a place filled with things that inspire. Mine has been in a constant state of change since I moved away from home to college back in 2000.
When we moved into this house I was so excited to have a space I could settle in and not worry for a long time. I didn't expect it to be so cumbersome.
My studio has poor insulation, so during the hot Iowa summers and freezing Iowa winters, it's very uncomfortable at different times of the day. I've had to continuously change my schedule to fit. I've had to move everything constantly so that Brian could get to the windows for more insulation, or to add carpet scraps, or or or. And I know more is coming.
But this week, with all of the sun, regardless of the temp, my studio has been bright, warm, inviting, and mine. No more moving clutter to work on the dining room table, no more stepping on stuff when I get up to grab something I need, none of that. I feel whole.
I will bundle up, buy another mini heater for my toes, I will put a fan on my face and wear ice cubes, whatever it takes. I love my studio!
The icing on the cake? My daughter being able to spend time in the studio with me. That's what I've envisioned for a long time, my hope, my joy today. She makes the studio brighter with her smile, her giggle, and her curiosity. Bringing out the crayola crayons doesn't hurt either.
There is one other place in my entire house that I find peaceful and full of light. The only other place in the house that is always filled with the light rays, and that is our bathroom. It's silly, but when we moved in it was our first project, and it set the tone for the whole house (what we dream). It's full of birds. :)
It's so easy for me to be distracted by all the chores, they pull me away from my work and drain my creativity. Yet, last night, I didn't let it get to me. Here are this week's Daily Sketches and joys, #10, #11, and #12.
0 Comments on Love thy Studio + The Daily Sketch as of 1/1/1900
When I ran a little advertising/design shop on campus a few decades ago I drew up a poster that said, Before you decide on one, draw 50. Under that headline was some line art: 50 thumbnail illustrations (and they were actually decorated thumbnails). The poster was to remind me not to settle on an idea too early in the brainstorming or drawing process. My best work doesn't usually come on the third try.
I'm illustrating a book about a lion. The first task is to get to know that character inside and out: what's he like? For a method actor the question would be, what's his motivation? My best way to figure it out is to draw, draw, draw. I don't just aim for 50, anymore. Usually I aim for 100.
Eventually I figured out the lion. (After drawing 137.)
Now, on to the rest of the characters...
(And if I need to draw dozens more lions because I ultimately don't like the one I chose -- or the art director doesn't -- I won't be surprised. Whatever it takes to get my best work.)
0 Comments on Drawing 100 lions (or maybe more) as of 5/2/2014 7:27:00 AM
I've been dipping in and out of Teachers Write! for the past few weeks, using the prompts and taking the challenges as my schedule would allow.
Now that I've got a clear stretch of time to dig back into my own reading and writing life, I'm looking forward to getting more involved with the community of writers that have gathered at Kate's virtual summer camp.
And how lucky was I, that the day I got back to being more scheduled with my writing and more dedicated to my participation in Teachers Write!, the mini-lesson was given by Ruth McNally Barshaw, author/illustrator of the Ellie McDoodle books! I LOVE Ellie McDoodle!
Ruth's mini-lesson? Sketch before writing. Sketch during writing. Sketch to understand your writing (character, setting, plot -- with storyboarding).
Down to the basement I went, and look what I found waiting for me in one of the tubs stacked on the bonus desk down there:
I knew my colored pencils were there, but I forgot about the virtually unused sketch book (it's been almost 10 years since I sketched and wrote in it!!), the water colors, and the water color colored pencils that can be brushed and blended with water.
I used my camera as my digital "sketch book" when I took my walk this morning, then sat on the front porch in the shade of the oak tree,
writing and sketching from the shots I took...and from the meanderings of my brain.
There are bits and pieces of a poem-to-be about our big front yard oak tree on this page of doodling in words and images.
It made me unbelievably happy to reconnect to my artistic self in my writing process. Thank you, Kate. And thank you, Ruth!
7 Comments on Teachers Write! Summer Camp with Kate Messner, last added: 6/26/2012
Mary Lee, Thank you for sharing your notebook. It is really inspiring to see how people use their notebooks. I sketched some this morning too after reading the prompt on Teachers Write. Sketching is really scary for me but it was a fun experiment and made me think about a character on a different level.
Lovely sharing, Mary Lee. I hope I can find the time. It's a great idea to sketch as you did. My students and I did it often & it helps, maybe to slow one down a bit. Looking for your poem!
Thanks for sharing how you integrating your digital sketch book with your colored pencils and your writing. You have a wonderful process going, Mary Lee.
Santa is the superest hero of them all! And you really got him. Great idea! (Even with a super hero class, I probably wouldn’t have thought of this) Great drawing too!
The Illustration Friday theme for this week is “prehistoric”, so remembering an old post that would work quite well, I dug it up, dusted it off and made a few tweaks to spiff it up a bit.
… and speaking of the holidays, I just wanted to invite y’all over to The Doodle Diner on the 13th. We’ll be dishing up our own version of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Each day we’ll have a new illustration of an old classic.
I should be writing the next book, because I am on a tight deadline. And that's when my most interesting and amusing ideas come -- when I should be doing something else. Here's the latest: Ellie McDoodle typography personalities. :) Note: these are done in Arial; some fonts work better than others
Ö-Ö... Ellie likes
. : c :.
...v
Ö-Ö... Ellie surprised
. : c :.
...o
Ö-Ö... Ellie perturbed
. : c :.
...^
Ö-Ö... Ellie vampire
. : c :.
.(W)
Ö-Ö... Ellie questions
0 Comments on Ellie McDoodle Typography Fun as of 1/1/1900
A grouchy dog made from pencil scribble discovers that good friends are hard to ditch in this hilarious debut set on the pages of a notebook.
As Smudge the dog scuttles across a sheet of lined paper, one friend after another comes from behind, asking if they can join him on his walk.
But Smudge doesn't want company, and he isn't afraid to be blunt about it. Every time a friend asks to tag along, he cuts him off with a few terse words.
First his guinea pig friend Piggie, a soft smeary fellow with faint little legs and a wisp of a tail, scampers up to Smudge and asks where he's going.
Without even looking back, Smudge grumps, "Somewhere. And stop following me."
Ignoring his testiness, Guinea Pig presses Smudge to explain why, and Smudge snaps back with the evasiveness of someone trying to keep a secret.
"Because," Smudge mutters impatiently, then quickly walks to the next page.
But Piggie wants a better answer than that and asks, "Because why?" and now Smudge is really peeved.
Running further ahead on the page line, Smudge vents, "Because you ask too many questions is why."
This time Smudge has gone too far and he knows it. But why isn't Piggie listening to him?
As Piggie hangs back, not saying a word, Smudge could easily make a break for it to the next page, but he doesn't.
Instead, Smudge glances back at Piggie and asks, "Are you still back there?" (as if he doesn't already know it).
When Piggie doesn't answer, Smudge turns around and tells Piggie in the most apologetic voice he can muster, "Listen, Piggie. I have stuff to do. Okay?"
Okay. Piggie is willing to cut him some slack, but he isn't abo
1 Comments on Stop Bugging Me!, last added: 9/23/2010
I feel like I got this flood of great Geoff McFetridge exposure recently. Last time I was in Seattle, I discovered his fantastic installation at the Seattle Art Museum’s cafe by the sculpture garden. Then I watched the great documentary, Beautiful Losers, where McFetridge appears among a bunch of other artists I love. Of course he also did lettering, titles, and other drawings for Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are.
And finally, above is a great video of McFetridge talking about how he works and what he does, all while a video of him doodling runs on the screen behind him. Thanks, universe, for the inspiration!
My thanks to Desdemona McCannon for querying the subject of doodling for a feature she's writing for Varoom (AOI magazine). I'm repeating my response here:
I always carry a small sketchbook with me everywhere I go, sometimes I use it to sketch, sometimes to practice, sometimes to work out ideas for jobs, and sometimes just to doodle. Doodling is a distinct activity for me. It's never sketching, it's not preparative drawing, and never has any deliberate connection to work, were it so it would cease to be a doodle. Doodling is something unto itself.
For me it's all about flexing of the boundaries, going outside parameters of what I think my professional style should be. All of the baggage of career can be put aside for a while. Doodling can be an exploration of texture on the page, often in my case it's an exploration of grotesque, which is perhaps odd as my professional work is rarely grotesque at all.
I remember in younger years I would often get into trouble with my parents for defacing photos of celebrities in Radio Times etc, you know, adding goggle eyes, goatees and afro hairstyles. Mum and Dad could never see the creativity in it all. I think my doodles can be an extension of that pleasure.
It's an antidote to the need to please others, I doodle purely for my own enjoyment. Doodling is emotional therapy. It has no forced point to it, I never sit down and think "okey, I'm going to doodle about this" so, relieved of the weight of the commission or need to explain itself, the drawing follows it's own course, it soars, it breathes as it expands, and through that it connects with creativity in an unforced, natural manner.
Half way through a "serious" sketch I often reach a point when I think - "hey, this is quite good" and that's the time to stop. But with a doodle often I don't stop, I carry on, seeing it through to the bitter end, fill the page or push it so the drawing is overweight or ruined. It's not important, because sometimes the act of doodling is more important than the final product. For me sketches and working drawings are often quite light, doodles on the other hand can be heavy or laden.
Are doodles art? I think they can be, if, as they unravel themselves, they touch on your emotional state, or other subconscious thoughts, and can connect with the viewer. But it doesn't always happen, and the more self conscious you become, the more you feel you need to make a pleasing drawing, somehow the less personal it becomes. Great doodles should create themselves, they should meander from the end of your pen almost without command. Ideally anyway.
This article gives the details on a February 28 report in Applied Cognitive Psychology about a study on the value of doodling: Test subjects given a doodling task while listening to a dull phone message had improved recall over non-doodling subjects -- and we're talking about a 29% improvement. Doodle! It makes you retain information better! (I knew it all along) I loved the teachers in my high school who understood that doodling helped my retention of information. They let me doodle during class and I was grateful -- it was a big motivator for me, to get even more work done. I let kids doodle during my author presentations. After almost every session, there are a few kids who run up to show me how they've covered nearly every inch of the paper. Invariably, they're expanding on something I said -- and it doesn't appear at all to me that they're drawing instead of listening. They're drawing while listening. Like I do. Kids are so smart -- they're learning early what it took me years to figure out (and what it took science decades more to prove).
1 Comments on Doodling proves useful -- big surprise?, last added: 4/4/2009
Fascinating post, Ruth! And so true, in my experience. This is why I draw in church--the drawings I do (which only rarely have anything to do with the sermons) allow me to listen (as in, really focus and listen) to and retain the content of the sermons (which at my church are always extremely cerebral and provocative and interesting.) This is why I'm addicted to listening to audiobooks when I'm working in the studio.
The other thing I find to be so cool is that I can look at drawings later (years later, sometimes) and remember what it was that I was listening to when I drew them. Some PhD candidate should write a dissertion on this cognitive phenomenon, dontcha think?
In the meantime, keep on with the doodling. We draw, therefore we think. And vice versa.
What is the flower that likes summer the best? Ofcourse, it is the sunflower. Here is a whimsical ink drawing featuring the 'portrait of a sunflower family'.
TECHNIQUE: The lady was drawn in ink on white paper and then carefully cut out and glued onto the mat board. There is a three-dimensional look to this artwork.
BASE: 8 X 10 inches of black mat board
DRAWING PAPER: 20 pound acid-free, lignin-free white paper
INK: Archival quality, acid-free, waterproof and fade proof black pigment ink
GLUE: Acid-free, non-toxic glue
This is my first attempt at drawing for this challenge. Hope my artwork is up to this challenge.
If interested in seeing more of my artwork, please visit Trapezoid Art .
0 Comments on Guess the title for my depiction of Anarchy? as of 6/12/2008 12:13:00 AM
There may be only one “City of Light,” or the wettest place on Earth (that’s Tutunendo, Columbia if you’re wondering), but geographical claims to fame are numerous and well distributed. Occasionally, they’re also disputed. The Mushroom Capital of the World is a prime example. Now you might not think that such a title would be contested, but in fact, both Richmond, Missouri, and Kennett Square, Pennsylvania have crowned themselves king of edible fungi. (more…)
Yesterday a 9ft high bronze statue of Nelson Mandela was unveiled in London’s Parliament Square. The statue has not been without its controversies: Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, had wanted the statue to be placed on the North side of the Square, but permission was declined due to the space needed for the large events that take place there. Instead it stands facing the House of Commons, along with statues of other great leaders such as Winston Churchill, Benjamin Disraeli, and Abraham Lincoln. With this in mind, I decided to bring you an excerpt from our book Mandela: A Critical Life by Tom Lodge. This piece focuses on Mandela’s childhood. (more…)
Your book is delightful. I love it. The illustrations, the font, the colors and the feel of the whole thing is fabulous. Your flash animation is a great presentation too.
Nikalas Catlow said, on 7/7/2007 1:31:00 AM
absolutely LOVE this spread!! great retro colours and lovely font, I could eat that font!! :D great!!
Josh Hoye said, on 7/7/2007 8:12:00 AM
Me three!!!! Im in love with this.
Michelle Lana said, on 7/7/2007 9:17:00 AM
so cute!
Jason Raish said, on 7/7/2007 2:04:00 PM
Hey this book looks awesome. Have you shopped this around to any childrens book publishers? I see in a lot of their submission info pages not very nice stuff like "unless you're a proffesional writer don't try to rhyme, leave it to the proffesionals" but you're book looks like a great package!
GOGOPEDRO said, on 7/8/2007 11:05:00 PM
Damn I LOVE BEARS.....that one is very happy.... Great texture to your image and the colors are so Nice...... like a childrens book that has been in the library for 50 years...... SO NICE
P
Chad Geran said, on 7/9/2007 2:31:00 PM
Hey everyone! Thanks for all the kind words!
Jason - I haven't shopped this around to publishers. I may do it once I've completed the book...or I may self-publish. I'll just keep "bustin' rhymes" and see what happens!
Bill Porter said, on 7/10/2007 7:56:00 AM
I absolutely love this book. Can't wait to see the finished product. If you every publish it I'd have to get a copy. I have a 20 month old daughter that loves to read books and we have tons. But it's safe to say this would instantly go on her favorites list. It has all her favorite things to look at and say. So sure to be a hit wit the kids and the beautiful drawings will also be enjoyed by parents.
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A typical day's rambling
Mary Lee,
Thank you for sharing your notebook. It is really inspiring to see how people use their notebooks. I sketched some this morning too after reading the prompt on Teachers Write. Sketching is really scary for me but it was a fun experiment and made me think about a character on a different level.
Dana, I hope you'll be brave and share your sketching and/or the writing that came from it!
Lovely sharing, Mary Lee. I hope I can find the time. It's a great idea to sketch as you did. My students and I did it often & it helps, maybe to slow one down a bit. Looking for your poem!
Thanks for sharing how you integrating your digital sketch book with your colored pencils and your writing. You have a wonderful process going, Mary Lee.
This is what I was needed, I was feeling a bit stuck tonight about my Slice of Life entry.
Love how one inspiration turns into so many different routes. Can't wait to read your poem!
Nice sketch!