unwinding the right brain

I actually really enjoy labwork. I like the orderly, persnickety process, the troubleshooting, the problem solving, the excitement when you see your efforts pay off at the end of the day. It is, however, exceedingly finicky and mentally taxing. So at the end of this very long and busy week, I very much needed two things - a gin and tonic, and some time with my sketchbook. Therefore,

a G&T fueled watercolour doodle, not quite a mandala, based on odd numbers, for extra random-ness :)
Title is just a play on William Blake's poem. The drawing itself is not particularly fearless (nor fearful either, for that matter).



And now, I apologize in advance to Polish people everywhere. I'm sorry I made your eagle look like a demented rooster sporting pantaloons. I really didn't mean to. It was very late at night, and I picked up my sketchbook after whining on Twitter  that I couldn't sleep.

I did the coin rubbings earlier that day, then attempted to draw one of them. A friend had given me this little Polish coin he found in his pocket, and it was so tiny and worn I could hardly make out what was on it. I rubbed it, in hopes of getting a better view but really it was still hard to see. Then I tried to draw it, which didn't go much better.

And while  I was on a roll with the coin thing, I dug through my drawer and found a few more coins worth rubbing - an Ontario quarter, US half dollar, and another Canadian quarter commemorating wisdom. I'm not a coin collector, but I do tend to squirrel away coins that look interesting to me, and now, I'm more likely to notice interesting designs on them. They're a handy way to look for a little drawing inspiration, sinceyou're very likely to always have them around, unless you've squandered them all on coffee.



And by way of a postscript to last week's post about whether or not  a doodle is done, I did end up coloring the last one with gelly rolls. However I used metallic gellys, and now it looks like an overwrought easter egg that flung itself onto a pile of glitter. I'm not scanning it, but I'm still strangely happy with it: my school/work life is so concerned about doing things exactly right, this is the arena in my life where I'm perfectly fine with things going wildly askew.