"Little People"

This is a doodle I did during a meeting a few years ago. (Actually quite a few years ago!) I often kept my hand busy during meetings when the subject was of limited interest or was dragging on for one reason or another. Unlike most doodles I did at the time, typically convoluted landscapes with lots of cars, trucks,  and people sharing the space with pertinent meeting notes, this has one subject.

Here, as with many off hand sketches, I had started with no particular idea in mind, just a few scribbled lines to test my own creativity. The face emerged as I drew, developing character (and hair!) as I went along. In the end it could have been my idea of Santa Claus or one of my Irish grandmother's "Little People"!

 I've included a detail closeup a bit smaller than original size, so you can more easily see the repetitive pen strokes and the use of hatching to indicate shading and to build form.

I might have had more to show here had my principal at the time been more appreciative of the work. She asked if she could have the drawings after each meeting and I foolishly thought she had a positive use in mind. As my retirement was up-coming I actually thought she might put together a compilation to present at a year end ceremony. My bad!  Perhaps she tossed them out once she saw that I'd actually taken notes.  The curse of the compulsive doodler!

"The object of art is to give life shape."  Jean Anouilh

"It is in rhythm that design and life meet."  Philip Rawson