Most day’s I have a pretty good idea about what I want to draw or paint. However, more days than not, I struggle to come up with something. Today was one of those days.

Today’s experiment:

One of my strategies is to page through some of my art books for inspiration. I usually turn to Paul Klee first. Today I noticed that Paul Klee did some small format pen and ink sketches. I took that as permission to begin doodling.

Pen and Ink #1
9″x12″ Drawing Paper

My doodle wasn’t purposeless. I had a rough night last night, with bad dreams, and had a hard time waking up. Below is my second sketch:

Pen and Ink #2
9″x12″ Drawing Paper

Klee sometimes works with parallel lines. I tried to do this in my final pen and ink sketch.

Pen and Ink #3
12″x9″ Drawing Paper

I like that the swirling parallel lines remind me of a fingerprint. I did not start my final sketch with the idea of replicating the form of the previous two, looser sketches. However, early in the process I realized that I could mold the design to resemble the forms in the original pen and ink sketches.

The lines radiating from the bottom of the ‘fingerprint’ have significance. It so happens, when I sleep I rub one of my feet against the other. I have been doing this from childhood. In fact, my mother used to call me ‘thumper’, a bunny from one of the Fantasia vignettes, who used to beat his foot on the ground. This is usually not a problem, but I noticed recently that apparently my foot-rubbing wore a hole right through the bed sheet. I’m going to have to get some quality sheets… kevlar, maybe.