Doodle Skulls

Nemo is an artist touring the usa in a van. He sent us a photo of a skull that he drew on his jeans and a day of the dead girl. You can find more of his artwork on his blog and website.

Day of the Dead Girl

Skull on Jeans

I love the use of the concentric circles to form parts of the images. With the girl, the curves of the radiating circles (like ripples in water), form the tendrils of her hair. The chest has stacked half circles that reminds me of scales. It is really nice to see the shading that is formed when the design is compacted smaller at the underside of the chin. I like the graphic quality formed by using black, white and gray with pops of red. The heart is a simplified Sacred heart and is positioned where a regular heart would be. You all already know the deeper personal meaning hearts have for me and it is the same with this piece. If you look closely, there are faint lines of lips under the lines for the teeth, or stitching. In combination with the broken heart on her forehead (broken mind?, stitched mouth, sacred heart and tears, this piece could be thought to be about the pain of love that we all endure at one point in our lives. We all hope it doesn't kill us.

The 2nd piece is drawn on a pair of jeans. It is far more intricate and nice than anything I ever painted on my jeans. Similar to the tendrils of the girl's hair, the use of the circles help form the shape of the face, give it dimension. They also are used in both flowers, showing the lines of petals. The larger concentric circle on the forehead also plays with my eyes, causing lines to radiate from the center, forming gray triangles. Of course, that is just an optical illusion. These are both excellent pieces and makes me want to make a better doodle than the similar ones I've done before.