Every weekend Joe List peppers his copy of the Guardian newspaper with cute, slimy, dorky creatures. He gives a face to every faceless object, and ensures that cranky dinosaurs in tiny bowler hats are given their front-page glory! With online news becoming the norm now, he might not have much longer to get these creatures down on actual newsprint, so we best make the most of it while we can, right?

Confession. We've actually mentioned Joe before. OKAT featured The Annotated Weekender on DA in 2009 (yep, that long ago...) but since you probably don't have the spare-time or the breathing apparatus to dive that deep into our archives, here it is again. There's over FOUR YEARS of new content for you to catch up on and giggle at.

Here are a few of my favourites. This was not an easy cull to make!

This animation by Denis Chapon is epic. There can be nothing more important for you to do right now than to watch this.

In 2008, with no exact plan in place, Denis just took to doodling on the backside of used paper. He made 12 drawings a day (that equaled one second of animation). And then, each of the following days, he took the last three drawings from the day before and kept on animating. Three years later, that slow accumulation of little bits of effort over time rendered an incredible movie that's captivating to watch and completely filled with spontaneity. What an incredible victory.

Sometimes when I'm feeling sad or lost, I doodle. But I've always been a bit ashamed of the doodling I do when I'm not in an upbeat headspace. It's darker and sketchier than my normal stuff. There's a lot of confusing patterns and sad faces. As soon as my pen comes off the paper, all I want to do is scrunch it up and throw it away - maybe because it feels cathartic to get rid of it, but also because I have this notion in my head that doodling should always be playful and happy and fun!

But it doesn't always have to be, does it? I mean, if doodling is an honest chat between your brain and the paper, it can't always be just sunshine and kitten faces and those happy little circle patterns. Sometimes the pen digs in a little deeper.



I started thinking about all this after finding the online sketchbook of 17-year-old Jenny from South Carolina. She posts up pretty doodlings that speak about hopelessness and feeling lost. It quite intimate to scroll through and hear her inner thoughts... like when you notice someone, and they're smiling or whatever, but then for a second you catch a sadness in their eyes and you know that their mind is elsewhere for a moment.

Anyhow, I'm glad Jenny didn't scrunch these up and throw them away, they're lovely.

My visual acuity has just been dominated by Corinne Wright's ridiculously-detailed textured doodles. It is as if, like a virus, each line is slowly overpowering and devouring the landscape they occupy.

Well played Corinne, well played.

The title really says it all for this one! When my friend Maciej said he had a huge doodle to show me... well, my cheeks flushed a little and I began to think up a polite exit strategy. But the image he sent me was actually an ongoing doodle collage by illustrator Zach Johnsen. And yes, it is indeed huge and awesome!

For what seems like a long time now, Zach has been neatly collaging all of his drawings & rough sketches into one amazing continuous doodle. The length of this thing is amazing! I actually had time to reheat my mug of coffee in the microwave while I waited for the page to load. Go see what I mean... over here! click click!



Bonus round: For all my Where's Wally enthusiasts, here's a few special details that you can hunt for in Zach's crazy-big collage... best of luck!

Some people have sugar with their morning coffee, some have milk. But a few artistic fellas seem to be taking their morning brew with a side of pens & pencils, thanks!

First off we have Colin David Stewart who hand-doodled a bunch of portraits for the coffee-sippers at Six Eight Kafe in Birmingham. I love imagining that a dude walks in, orders a coffee, and is handed this one-off portrait that looks surprisingly similar to his friend Jeff... or his sister Megan, or whoever. What a trip!



And if we're talking about coffee-cup doodlers, I can't not mention Boey. He's a true cup-drawing machine! Sip slowly and enjoy these hand-picked few...

If I were to do a big written introduction right now, it'd be like having your big brother stand on his tip-toes and dangle an ice-cream above your head, just out of arms reach. You'd be like, aww come on, JUST GIVE IT TO ME already!

So I'll make it quick. These are the sketchbooks of illustrator, designer & wild child, Natalie Andrewson. They're really cool. OK, bye! *finally drops the ice-cream into your hands and walks off with a smug look on my face*