Moore Doodles

One of the talented artists I enjoy 'following' is Stephanie Ackerman, whose colorful doodles & lettering style are whimsical & straight from her heart. As a Christian artist, Stephanie has been an encouragement to me to combine my faith & my love for color & illustration & journaling in a fresh new way. You can take a peek at Stephanie's Doodle Gallery here.

Just recently I decided to take one of Stephanie's online classes... 'A Whole New Doodle'. Honestly, I've had the BEST time playing with my pens, doing some 'freestyle doodling' and learning some basic lettering... and I'm just beginning!

While I was at our family's farm recently (and away from all my internet distractions!), I got out some basic supplies... a stack of plain old lined notebook paper, a pencil, an eraser, a medium sharpie pen, and a box full of Prismacolor markers... and I doodled my little heart out!  :)  I drew the borders 'freestyle' (no pencil sketching first), but the alphabet required a little more pencil & erasing!

Above is a little 'freestyle' border doodling...

...and some decorated capital letters below. My capitals are 'embellished' using Prismacolor markers... but you could use colored pencils or paint, really whatever you want!

I left these 'little' letters simply colorful, but they could have had some funky doodles in them too, just for fun.

The last Sunday afternoon of our farm visit, I sat at the kitchen table next to a sunny window, spread out all my art supplies, and colored a whole page of borders I'd inked up on Saturday. You would have thought I was a little kid with a brand new box of 64 Crayola crayons!... I was one happy 'colorer.' (that's a word, right?).

Color Me Happy!

If you like to doodle like I do... then I totally recommend Stephanie Ackerman's 'A Whole New Doodle' online class! Before you know it, you'll be doodling your heart out too!

Unplugged

Recently, my husband & I took a very rainy trip up to see his mom, where she lives on the family farm. I took this picture of the light in our bedroom window... Somehow, the warm light seemed especially inviting on that cold, rainy evening!

In some ways, life at the farm is still untouched by time. Things are the way they always have been... well, not really! But the pace of life is definitely slower & it's not hard at all to feel closer to Mother Nature with all her moods & beauty.

One thing that is definitely missing there... The internet has not found its' way to the farm (nor do I expect it to get there for a very long time!). Even our cell phones struggle to keep from dropping their calls!  ;)

And so, I've come to find that the farm can be the perfect place to snuggle up with a cup of tea, enjoy the quietness, & doodle in my sketchbook without distraction.

Here are some recent "Farm Doodles"... Just having fun with some autumn themes. The "Peace Dove" sketch will no doubt become a Christmas card design in the months to come...

I'm looking forward to watching as these simple sketches become little pieces of colorful art!... It still feels like a magical process to me!  :)

Farm Doodles © Patti Moore

Celebrating Life's Simple Blessings

"Bedtime Story"

'Twas the first week of a brand New Year... As always a great time to make a fresh start & explore new directions! Or, maybe in my case, a chance to go back to old loves & pick up where I left off...

Long ago on another cold January day, I started my very first blog, Simple*Blessings. It became my place to write little stories about the everyday things of our family's life & to draw colorful pictures that illustrated my stories. A blog just for me! (& anyone else who happened to stop by.) A blog "just because"...  A blog that was fun & creative & made me happy!   :)

Well, somewhere along the way, I put my silly illustrated blog aside & moved on to other artful things. But recently I realized how much I missed it!... just noticing ordinary everyday things, telling silly stories, & doodling some pictures to make them pretty.

So, here I am again... Blogging "just because it's fun." Trying to look for the beauty in the ordinary. Playing with markers & colored pencils like a kid again. Happy to be...

Celebrating Life's Simple Blessings!