Playful Sketches

First sketch, new sketchbook: Imagined female yeoman of sorts, modeled conceptually after myself, graphite. Mairin-Taj Caya 2010.

Some play with a Celtic warrior, a mermaid, and my twitchy cat, graphite. Mairin-Taj Caya 2010.

Imagined characters with the theme of exploration: Male figure entitled "Curiosity and a Button", Female figure entitled "Discovery", graphite. Mairin-Taj Caya 2010.

Incomplete sketch, graphite. Mairin-Taj Caya 2010.

Getting new sketch books is always a thrill. Running my fingers over the textured binding and the smooth surface of the paper, smelling its newness, I can go off nearly without end, thinking of what I can spread throughout the pages. It can be daunting! It is always exciting.

Here I uploaded a few examples of some recent doodling to have a go at starting off this monologue.
I generally draw from my head on these occasions; the examples above are such cases. If curious about a gesture or an angle, I will use myself, or someone at hand, to demonstrate. If I am going to draw from the figure completely, I like to set up my drawing with the figure at the start, instead of starting out of my head and then having a model pose mid-way through. It allows for continuity of thought, and therefore application of the pencil.

The last image is not yet finished as a sketch...or perhaps I just want to do a second one which will be a complete drawing? I haven't decided yet.
It started as a combination of thoughts about my childhood exploring forests and gardens, and the concept of a young girl, perhaps medieval, taking a casual walk home through the gardens after a bath in the river, and finding a never-before-noticed crack in a wall of trees. Maybe they will be junipers, or cedar?