Doodles From The PCA Conference

When I was an undergraduate in this Renassiance Revenge Tragedy course, this guy once asked me if he could borrow my notes for a class cause he was going to miss and, as he said "you always take such extensive notes." Sheepishly, I didn't want to admit what I usually do in class is doodle. I am listening, too, really, but I'm also doodling. Often, the doodles have something to do with the conversation-- like, for example, if we're talking about Yeats I draw lots of Irish stuff. When discussing Alice in Wonderland, I drew Alice (she's not making it into this record since it wasn't a very good Alice.)

I'm not claiming to be an artist. But I am quite the doodler. I sometimes really like my doodles!

So on that note, here are the doodles from my conference attendance last week, with the relevant commentary.

First, we have my typical doodle-- swirly lines & knots. I like these, cause they are easy & usually look pretty cool. This one was during the discussion of Feminist Utopias & Dystopias.




See how I was thinking about witches? And I think the "Lily" thing is a character from one of the books being discussed. That or Lilith. Who the heck knows now?




The second set of doodles is my "Hello Kitty" sequence. You see several tried and rejected options in doodle 1, then the finished Kitty in two. There are also some later scribbles where I was apparently trying to do math. At first I thought it was when I was figuring out my tip at the Italian place. But now I realize it's when I was keeping track of the time allowed one of my panelists. They get 20 minutes, so I write down when they ought to stop. Cause I forget otherwise. Oh yeah. And the whale is because Geoff (mentioned later) just HAD to bring up Moby Dick.












Now, when I was listening to this one panel on children's literature, I sketched several of the participants:



The lady who was reading about Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising series, and the main character as a Campellian Hero:



The lady reading about The Giver, and the racism dealt with in the text:




And Geoff, author of How To Read Superhero Comics and Why You Should (and a good friend of mine). Note: His mouth is not that big. That is the artists' error. But doesn't he look thoughtful?




Finally, my friend Ximena, who was sitting next to me: (and author of Alien Woman).




Then we have my last, and both favorite and most appalling doodle. I have these nifty ostrich cowboy boots, which I was wearing that day. This is my boot/foot. It looks like I have some sort of wart or boil all over. It is not at all attractive (although the boots really are cute). But there's just something about the doodle that I really like. So you're subjected to it here.