In a rambling on-line discussion involving Sally Thomason (Sarah Grey Thomason), someone mentioned Sally’s famous doodles, and I remarked that the penguin doodle she’d done for me had — pout — faded terribly in its frame over 30 years or so. So she committed to producing a new, bright (and, as it turned out, differently styled) version for me. Which arrived today, and now awaits my finding a frame for it. Spheniscid art day on Ramona St.!
The original penguin, improved by digital manipulations as much as I could:
(#1) Old Pingo; my recollection was that he was drawn in dark purple (purple being one of my colors), but the framed drawing now suggests black faded to dark gray
Sally and her doodles. When not doodling, Sally is a remarkably distinguished — hey, it’s in her official title — and accomplished scholar, over an impressively wide range of topics. Check out her Wikipedia article.
The doodles she has refined over the years into an art form. A display of examples from her Facebook page:
(#2) A Thomason bestiary, much compressed
New Pingo. Arrived today, with this note from Sally:
I didn’t realize until I started to draw this how much my style has changed since I did your faded penguin — also I screwed up his beak so that it’s not a penguin-y beak
(Life is hard, and art is harder.) But yes, a gigantic change of style, from meticulous, careful lines to free-flowing swirls:
(#3) New Pingo: bold and dramatic
Very crudely: classicism vs. romanticism; reserve vs. assertion. But both are playful.
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