Dangerous Doodle Spotlight - 'River of Lava'

'River of Lava' by Belatrix29.
Click image for more detail.

It's time to spotlight some of the lovely work people have been adding to the 'Dangerous Doodle' group at Flickr.

I chose this piece, 'River of Lava' by Belatrix29 (also known as Helena). You can see more of her beautiful drawings here.

Come to think of it, maybe it could be a bit of a subconscious choice on my part, considering the title of the piece.  Last night I had a rather confused dream about a volcano erupting.  I spent the whole dream either trying desperately to get away from it, or getting distracted by other nonsense. 

Aren't dreams great?  You can be escaping from an erupting volcano, but still have time to pop in to your friend's house for a nice cup of tea.

Anyway, back to the subject!  Helena has encapsulated such a diverse collection of patterns in her 'River of Lava'.  I like how she has framed them all in the circle, and each pattern swirls outwards from the geometric shape in the middle. 

Let's have a closer look at some of those patterns, and discuss how Helena has used them to create a really wonderful artwork.  This is something useful that you can do with your own drawings as well.  If you select interesting pieces, cut them out (either on Photoshop, or with good old scissors) then they become even more beautifully abstract.  You can even use them as starting points for new artwork.

This pattern resembles 'Sea Sick', a very wavy doodle which has puddles of concentric circles wedged in between moving parallel lines.  Helena has taken the pattern to the next level by adding a subtle shadow next to the wavy lines, which creates even more texture, height, and layering.

 Here is such a beautiful interpretation of  'Shell Treasures'.  Helena has drawn overlapping shells which get smaller as they work their way around the spiral.  This adds perspective/distance to the piece.  She has also layered some gentle hues of pink and purple to the shells which really bring them to life.

 Here we see 'Deep in the Jungle', with vines curling around themselves, and lush green leaves popping out here and there.  I love the way she has added a hint of shadow in just the right places to make the vines look three dimensional, as if one curl might be in front of another.

 The 'Over and Under' Dangerous Doodle is a very versatile one, as it can be interpreted in many different ways.  It could be a crisscross of highways, branches, nerves, or whatever your imagination dreams up.  Belatrix has used this pattern to emulate waves of hot molten lava, using sizzling colours of yellow, orange and red.  She has woven this through a darker background, which really makes it stand out.

This reminds me of some wooden steps going down to some sort of mysterious trapdoor.  Again, those wonderful shadows do the trick.

 Sometimes it is not WHAT you draw, but it is what you DON'T draw that makes all the difference to a shape!  Leaving out a little piece of each line in these swirls gives them the effect of being ultra shiny...great technique!

 Cleverly hidden in the 'Sea Sick' pattern are some sharp 'Spikies'...  Watch out!

This wonderful pattern reminds me of a futuristic transportation tunnel made of glass.  Again...great use of perspective, with the lines all disappearing at a vanishing point behind the curve.





Thanks again for adding your wonderful masterpiece to the group, Helena!  That's the end of the second Dangerous Doodle Spotlight.  Don't forget to subscribe so that you don't miss the next exciting episode.  Keep adding your drawings to the Flickr pool...yours could be next!

Regards,