She draws it.
Every once in a while, nothing beats black ink and musings about trees and nature and life. No matter how much I wish things would look “better” I know that each doodle is a step towards being “better” —
whatever “better” is–
and well, I’m starting to think that whatever feelings I have don’t matter. What matters sometimes is that I do it. You’ve heard me write that before; it bears repeating.
These doodles come from using a multi-color ink pens like this one (except mine was bought at an O’Hare airport store years ago).
Red and orange turned out to be great conveyors of my typical themes/inspirations; I chose them because i) I wanted 2 inks to switch between for the challenge factor and ii) I was interested in light/dark contrast.
Another pencil sketch!
The power went out during one of the recent winter storms here. I found some Crayola Twistables I got as a gift some time ago and went to town. This is the one I liked most; the undersea sketch.
The sea…of course…
I don’t remember when I started drawing all of these sea creatures.
They flow very naturally out of me. Could it be the influence of Mauritius? Island belonging permeates through every part of you; island people can attest to that. It must be.
Or maybe it’s specifically my grandfather’s stories of finding beautiful shells in unattended coves. Stories he can still tell, although his mind is fading.
Why am I being so fussy? I know that it’s all of the above and everything in between.
I’m on vacation right now in Qatar, and everywhere I look is art.
I don’t usually draw on holiday, but what I tend to do instead is draw as I remember, as a way to process. Some of the best things come out of it.
Back to the older version of me before I updated and fixed the bug where I arbitrarily named everything I drew.
Seems superfluous but getting rid of unnecessary things feels relieving.
And really – does everything need a name, all the time?
So I used to do this thing where I would label all of my doodles? It truly hindered me. I would obsess over the words I’d write and forget the other lines my hands put there.
If I ever post something with these weird little captions, know they are older drawings.
I create tons of characters. Sometimes it’s kind of game dev-ish where I imagine something like a cool character for a fighting game. Other times they are just…things I make up.
I thought of 3 dangerous, angry fish. I only drew 2. They were for a made-up isometric RPG I imagined one day that took place in the deep sea.
So I have a body that draws, and I draw bodies a lot. I am not great at it, but I get my point across. I try to draw my own body as much as I can, and most of those I may not ever put up here. I’m not interested in realism as I am interested in what my hand and brain want me to show.
Khadeja Ali draws 