I’m still not completely back in the swing of blogging, yet—or creating doodles and painting. I hope I can find a better balance once things start to get back to a more normal schedule with the upcoming week, but we’ll see how it goes!
Today’s post is a big mish-mash of “stuff”, presented in no particular order.
First, a few photos I took a while back, on a walk around the property.
Groovy Cat
This one… Eh. I was just trying a different color palette, and it got a little weird. I like the colors just fine, but not so crazy about the way my cat turned out. Anyway, it was fun to play around, and I don’t hate it.
Pop of Neon, Part One
I wanted to try the neon watercolors again and thought it would be fun to add just a few pops of bright color in an otherwise darker setting. Instead of adding ink, as I usually tend to do, I opted for some added texture with color pencil on top of the paint.
This was fun, and I do like how it turned out, overall. Less impressed by the path/road, but I like the trees, bushes, and grass textures.
Pop of Neon, Part Two
I decided to do a little more of the same with the neon watercolor, but this time I didn’t fill the whole page with color. Instead, I just painted simple triangles (Christmas trees), combining the neon paint with some of the Anilinky paint (Koh-I-Noor Brilliant Watercolour).
I know some people can’t stand these olive and pea green colors, but I actually really like them, especially in contrast with the neon pinks and “toxic”-looking orange.
Afterwards, I went back over the page with the brown ink in the Little Fat Man fude nib pen.
I’ve really gotten a lot of fun out of my fude nib pens, by the way, and I love the brown ink as a change from black or grey.
Christmas Gift Doodle
I’d completely forgotten this one until I came across it while taking photos for this blog post. It’s just a page of doodles with the theme of Christmas gifts.
I used the same brown ink (and fude nib pen) as mentioned above. The idea is that you can see inside the gift bags and boxes—x-ray vision that reveals the object(s) inside. (Sorry to spoil the surprise…)
Afterward, I added some watercolor in bright Christmas-y colors.
Camper Doodle
I thought it might be fun to doodle campers, so I filled a page with a very crowded campsite. This would probably feel like a nightmare “in real life”, but it’s just fun and cozy in Doodle Land.
Then a little not-too-careful coloring in with a limited palette of watercolor…
I had fun with this one and wouldn’t mind doing something similar again.
Eat Your Vegetables
My initial thought with this one was to paint rough vegetable shapes (yeah, yeah, I know that tomatoes aren’t vegetables, but we all know that really they are), then doodle house details over the top in ink. They were going to be fairy houses. Fantasy houses. Just something simple and fun.
But then after I painted them, I changed my mind and just added minimal details in brown ink.
Not much more to say about that one…
Houses, Now in COLOR
Last time, I shared a doodled page of houses. Here it is again, to refresh your memory:
And here it is with color added:
I kept it fairly subdued and muted, except for that coppery orange color and some lime green.
I think this was more fun to draw than to paint, but it’s fine.
Board Games & Video Games
We got ourselves the European birds expansion for our Wingspan game, this Christmas, so we’ve played that a few times over the past several days.
We’ve also played a couple games of Scrabble.
Weird letter draw! (We play with 8 tiles, as you can see.)
I’ve also been playing more video games. I finished Unpacking, which I thought was… meh. After a while, it felt more like filling out paperwork or doing housework than a game! Not much scope for creativity, and not my favorite. It probably doesn’t help that I’m not a big fan of the pixelated art style. I like slightly more refined art in games, which is part of the reason I love Tiny Glade.
It also doesn’t hurt that Tiny Glade is all about creating something uniquely your own, rather than trying to get all the kitchenware to fit in the allotted space or guessing where the game creators want you to put a given object. (Yawn.)
This week, I learned how to activate the rollercoaster Easter egg:
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve designed many structures, including this rambling house (or what would you call this?) in the middle of a moat…
Here it is from another angle.
I love that you can change the seasons! (Though I haven’t done that yet with this particular “glade”.)
And I also love turning it to nighttime and seeing all the windows and lanterns lit up:
And I love that you can “walk” around and tour your little villages or estates. The swaying plants, the soft sounds of nature, the flitting birds, drifting fireflies—and falling snow, if you use the winter landscape, as seen below—all make it feel so peaceful.
This really is the most relaxing game. It’s a little too easy to lose an hour or two while you add just one more layer or a few more details, but that happens any time you’re having fun.
Well, that’s all for now! Hope 2026 treats you well!
