I fell behind a bit with my Doodles last week. I had hoped to catch up by Sunday so I could finish January with an even (odd!) 31 Doodles, but came up short at 28 Doodles. But that’s 28 more Doodles than I’ve ever done in a month, so I’ll take it! Plus, I spent a couple of hours catching up yesterday morning, and have now pulled ahead – I have one extra Doodle in my sketchbook!
This post will actually feature 11 Doodles! You’ll see why soon: 9 of them kind of go together, and mixed in with them are two others.
About two weeks ago, I made up a list of different types of telephones that have existed over the past ~125 years and decided I’d draw them all. I won’t be sharing them in historical order but rather in the order in which I drew them:
January 24
After the more involved Doodles of Week 3, I wanted something quick and simple for today’s doodle so chose this rotary phone. I always look for these when I’m in antique and thrift stores because I’d love to have one – but every time I come across one, it’s either way too expensive or tan-ish, and I’d prefer a more fun color! I have a vague memory of there being one in my parents’ bedroom when I was 3 or 4, but I could be making that up… View on Instagram.
January 27
A couple of Doodle-less days snuck by me, and I sat down today to draw a beach bicycle. I don’t think that’s the proper name for them, but they certainly make me think of riding bikes on South Carolina’s wide beaches in the summer. The bike by itself seemed a little lonely, so I added a small basket of tulips to the front…and then it seemed like it should have something that was still living in it, so I drew in a puppy in a basket on the back of it. And then it seemed like it needed a background, so I sketched a white house with cedar shutters, a navy door, and a small brick stoop. But then it needed color, so I pulled out the colored pencils. This is one I’d love to redo in watercolor at some point. View on Instagram.
January 28
It was back to telephones today, and I drew a candlestick phone. This particular type of phone always makes me think of the phones throughout It’s a Wonderful Life. I’ll admit I didn’t know it was called a candlestick phone until I looked it up. View on Instagram.
January 29
Today’s Doodle will be recognizable to anyone who grew up watching Saved by the Bell (or yo anyone who actually had one of these!) like me – it’s (a short, fat version of) Zack Morris’s cell phone! I remember early on being confused by it, because it looked a lot like our portable phone, and I knew that the portable phone didn’t work far beyond our house – but Zack’s worked at school, so how was that possible? In my defense, I was pretty young when the show first came on. I figured it out later on. 🙂 View on Instagram.
January 30
I decided it would be cool to draw some buildings and special places around Columbia over the course of my Doodles project, and it seemed fitting that the first one would be of the State House, which is located downtown. The first two times I went to the State House were on school field trips in the third and eighth grades. During my senior year of high school, I was part of the Girl Scout Legislative Page program, and during my sophomore and junior years of college, I was an actual Legislative page and worked in the State House 15 hours per week (back when minimum wage was a measly $5.15 per hour!). In my adult life, I’ve been to a couple of events there, including this press conference with the Firehouse Subs Foundation and Jeffrey Lee Williams Foundation, two amazing organizations that are actively engaged in saving lives, in this case from the dangers Carbon Monoxide. View on Instagram.
January 31
It’s back to phones today! I did my best to capture the iconic red British phone booth with pen and ink. It turned out a little skewed (and I forgot to add the little crown at the top), but it’s pretty close! View on Instagram.
February 1
It was a busy day today as far as Doodles go! I completed the remaining phones that were on my list, starting with this ~late 1800s wall phone, which to me looks like it’s going to start blinking and talking (or maybe honking like the teachers in Peanuts through the mouthpiece) at any moment. It looks so much like a cartoon character!
The next Doodle is a ~1980s-1990s wall telephone, like the one in my parents’ house. Their cord is not so tidy, though, after years of kids wandering as far away as possible to take calls elsewhere. There was also that time in about 1997 before we got the internet and I didn’t get how the internet worked. I decided I was going to stretch the kitchen phone cord all the way to the computer in the next room, plug it in to the phone jack on the computer, and use one of the discs that AOL used to send out and get onto the internet. My dad was at work and my mom was out working in the yard, and I felt like I was getting away with something (I was clearly a rebel). I have no idea what I would have done on the internet if this had worked – which, of course, it didn’t! – but it did stretch out the phone cord a bit more!
I drew a US pay phone booth next. It turned out better than the British one from yesterday, but it’s still not as cool as its British counterpart!
A flip phone had to appear somewhere in the mix – and here it is! My second cell phone was just about identical to this one. I had a cool blue, pink, and gray plaid patterned cover for the front of it that came from one of those kiosks at the mall.
Last is a smart phone. Certainly a handy little gadget, though not as charming as any of the ones discussed above!
View today’s Doodles on Instagram.
Doodle Summary
This takes us to February 1 – and though I was three Doodles short on the last day of January, I’m now ahead by one, thanks to all those phones!
This week’s Doodle total: 11
Yearly Doodle total: 33
Click here to see my Doodles from previous weeks.
Thanks for reading!
Laura
Laura