Zendoodle: A New Direction?

I stumbled across an interesting art form earlier this week which brought back memories of a long lost love; black and white illustrations and woodblock prints. Ever since I attempted a woodblock print back in my university days I fell in love… I say woodblock, it was actually a lino print and it was a big failure!

This isn’t it. It’s a beautiful black and white illustration by Fine Art Illustrator, Anita Inverarity. Anita is influenced by almost everything and includes; Nature & Animals, Legends & FairyTales, Cultures, Steam Punk, and Alice in Wonderland. Her pen and ink drawings are full of detail and patterns and are very much like woodblock prints. I highly recommend checking her out!

I have always admired her work and wanted to give this kind of illustration a go myself for a long time, Mainly because I failed so badly back in uni with my lino block, but haven’t really known where to start. They always seemed complicated to do!

Then I discovered Zendoodles. Black and white doodles with an intention created from nothing more than a piece of paper and a few technical pens.

Tangle 38 by kraii65, Flickr

At first glance, these zendoodles appear to be far more complicated and more intricate than any black and white illustration I’ve ever seen but once I found out how they were created, I realised just how simple they could be. If I can master the zendoodle, I can master black and white illustration… So, I’ve been doodling some patterns. Which turned in to a peacock…

I need to get some decent pens and suitable paper but that hasn’t stopped me practising with what I have got. My unfinished peacock was done using a Sharpie and a Uni-ball eye fineliner. The ink has feathered and bled in places which I think is down to the paper. I am only practising so that doesn’t matter.

I haven’t been ‘zendoodling’ very long but I’m loving it and finding it very therapeutic! Once I have it mastered and have some decent equipment I may even try out a few ACEOs.