December 6th: It's the Holiday Season!

It's official the holiday season... which means that most people are hustling and bustling around trying to get all of their shopping done. This year I have decided to give handmade - inspired by Etsy's "Buy Handmade" pledge. I have been busy working on items for family and friends and have decided to extend my handmade pledge to my immediate family's Christmas cards. I have been making card for a long time now, but I have never actually designed my family's Christmas card! I have even made Christmas cards for school projects (don't ask me why) and for contests, but never for my family!

Here are three designs that I have made in the past. I want to choose one to use for my family. Which do you like best?

December 1st: Threadless

I'm trying my hand at t-shirt design through Threadless.com. I would love your feedback on my design!

November 23rd: Warm Up!

Here's a hat that I made for a craft show that I had a table for this past weekend. I'm new to the whole sewing thing (yes, I know that this is a knitted hat...), but I have been considering taking on more sewing projects and eventually opening a store of Etsy. I think it could be a fun way to mix my current state of unemployment with my current desire to craft.

October 6th: What Now Wanderers

Today I decided to design a banner for the blog that I contribute to, "What Now Wanderers". I was looking at a lot of Matte Stephens' work before I started to draw and his influence is easily notable in my work. I hope you like it!

September 21st: Recycled Notebook

I first heard about recycled notebooks by accident. I came across a video tutorial on how to make recycled notebooks from old cereal boxes and used printer paper while looking for something entirely different on google (a something that I can't currently remember...possibly relating to chocolate chip cookies or The Office). Anyway, I came across this video last winter and have been harboring a secret desire to make a recycled notebook of my own until now. Tonight I decided that there was no better time to get cracking on my recycled notebook project. Here is the fruit of my labor:

It may not look like much, but this little guy took me the entire Emmy Awards to finish! It is made from an old popcorn box, a crossword puzzle from an old magazine, pieces of a would-have-been-trashed gift bag, string, and pieces of used printer paper. I'm not sure when I will get around to using this notebook, but it was something that I felt like I "had" to do... something similar to covering my bike with Peanuts comic strips. I may never fully realize why I sometimes feel the undeniable urge to do things like creating a recycled notebook, but for whatever reason, doing things like this makes me feel more like me.

Mr. and Mrs.

I created these two little guys for a t-shirt design for Threadless. The design is still in the works and I will post the link to it when it's closer to being finished. Until then, please enjoy the company of this lovely couple..they're quite friendly.

Mrs. Rat
Mr. Rat

August 27th: The Little Garden

August 26th: Vespa Spotting

Contests! Contests! Contests!

College is over and student loan payments are fast approaching. Question upon question races through my mind as I wonder how I will ever be able to possibly pay off my loans and start a life as an independent woman. The solution?! CONTESTS. I have always enjoyed making videos, but never knew that I could get paid for doing so! Since finding out about YouTube's contest page (why didn't I know about this sooner?!), I have been trying my hand video competition. So far I have two video entries in the running. I find out about my winning or losing status in just a matter of weeks. Oh, the suspense!

I know that they aren't doodles, but creativity was involved none-the-less...
Here are my entries:

King Trifasa

I just got back from a fabulous mini-vacation with my cousin, aunt and uncle. Whenever I hang out with my cousin fun always seems to ensue. This particular hang out session was no different. We tend to get a little, well, weird when we're together because we are, well, a little weird (some would argue that the "little" is more like "a lot") on our own. One night Carly asked me to draw a picture so I naturally drew her in the fetus position. She in turn drew a picture of her hermit crab (pictured below) as well as a few characters from a very...um...interesting story she typed while falling asleep. I especially like Lucy's serpent-like hair. It looks like that cobra's about to strike!
In response, I drew King Trifasa: a crossbreed between (you guessed it) The Lion King's Mufasa and The Little Mermaid's King Triton. Behold the result.

Summertime Shenanigans!

It has been quite a while since my last post and all I can do is plead the 5th on why I have been so behind in my doodling antics. Could it be that I no longer have class time to doodle in? Perhaps it's the fact that I get to be creative for the majority of every day that I work under the title of "Creative Intern". Whatever the case may be, I do admit to lagging behind on my own goal of creating a doodle a day (or close to it). To make up for that, I have a few things to post that I have been working on during my time of absence. The first is a book cover design that I have been given the wonderful opportunity to create this summer. For my first design I created a bunch of cartoons for the cover. Here's the tentative first cover design (that I have decided not to go with because of its children's-bookness) The chef is one of the cartoons I created. I think his name would probably be along the lines of Jean Pierre if he actually existed outside of my mind. I have also been working on a t-shirt design on Threadless. Check it out when you get a chance and let me know what you think I can do to improve it! It's still in the critique stage so I would love to hear what I can do to make it the best it can be! Here's the link -->Thanks!

June 6th: "You're a good bike, Charlie Brown."

Yes, I know...It has been over a month since my last Doodle-a-Day entry, but I figure that I DO have a few decent excuses. For one, I just graduated from college. So, the actually graduation only lasted a couple of hours and it took place weeks ago...I am still going to use that as an excuse! Also, this doodle is more than just something done in a few minutes on paper. This so-called "doodle" was done a bike! I spent the week following college graduation decorating my bike in my spare time (which was really all of the time since I wasn't doing anything else) and my mom couldn't help but laugh when family would call up asking what the recent college graduate was up to. Maybe I should have been reading up on a topic I just couldn't get enough of in college or in Europe or even working, but it just wouldn't have been the thing that I would prefer to look back on as having done the week after graduation. No, no...decorating my bike is more my style. I can't take credit for the actual doodles that I decorated my bike with-that belongs to Charles Shulz-BUT I can take credit for the hours I put into decorating my bike with his artwork! I decided that with the price of gas being what it is now and all the talk of "going green", I might as well do something to help my wallet and the environment. The result? A decision to ride my bike as much as possible and drive only when I really need to. I started out just riding around my bike the way that it was (a purple resembling Barney and Tinky Winky's love child) but for some reason it just didn't feel like it was really mine (actually, the bike wasn't really mine always...I bought it from a woman down the street a few summers ago). So, I decided to customize it and what better way to customize anything than with something you love? I have always loved the Peanuts comics, so doing this project just seemed right. If nothing else, I will always be able to find my bike on a crowded bike rack.

May 5th: Memories Of Me

It's nearly 1am, which means that finals week has officially begun. My first final is for my painting class and is more of a review of my work than an actual test. For class we were assigned to paint a number things including a lot of fruit, some paintings of our hands, and a few self-portraits (I also painted a My Little Pony as a still-life, but that's another blog post entirely...) Looking over my work from the semester earlier tonight, I realized that I did not have all of my paintings done so I finished a few up. One was a final abstract self-portrait, which ended up looking nothing like what I had hoped for (probably because I didn't know what I had hoped for it to look like in the first place) and the other was the painting above, which I painted while watching Waking Life (a very philosophical movie). I decided to paint this self-portrait without looking at myself. I didn't want it to look realistic, but I wanted to try to capture myself as I remembered myself. I find it so funny that no matter how many times I may look at myself in the mirror, I never seem to be able to remember exactly how I look. Does that ever happen to you? Writing this, I am reminded of James 1:22-25 which reads,

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does."

Since this is my blog and I can write whatever I want...and since I just finished watching a very thought provoking movie, I am going to let my thoughts becomes words and let you in on what is going on in my mind as I reflect on all of this. So, I painted this image of myself from what I can remember about myself. There are the obvious things-my blond hair, blue eyes, the length of my hair, and so on...but then there are the things that I would need to really study in order to interpret correctly in this painting, such as the location of my freckles or the way the light in the room reflects in my eyes. What I get from all this in reference to faith is that maybe the only way to know God more deeply is to really study who He is. Even more than that...What I feel that this verse in James is saying is that in order to really know God and to relate with Him, it is essential to hear about who He is, but even more so...it is essential do what He would do. Since Jesus is the word of God (John 1:1) and James 1:22-25 is telling us to not merely listen to the word, but also do what it says, it seems that we are commanded to listen to what Jesus has to say, but even more importantly do what he says. I think that choosing to do rather than simply listen is where true faith resides. Anyone can go to listen to someone's teachings, but actually acting on them is a different level of existence entirely. It is said later in the book of James that "faith without deeds is useless" (James 2:20) and I believe that! Having faith, but not acting on it would be like reading every issue of Self Magazine ever published, but not exercising a day in my life! I could go on and on about what the best foods to eat or the best exercises to do were, but if I never did what I read about would you believe me? I want my life to be a living and breathing and acting example of the truth that I believe in, which is Jesus Christ. I hope that I didn't lose you back at the third sentence into this post...and even if I did, it was fun getting here.

May 4th: Super Pig

This doodle is a perfect example of why I will miss my Graphic Design class. I was fortunate enough to take the class with two people whose company I quite enjoy, making the hour and fifteen minutes two times a week seem to fly by. The three of us collaboratively created this little number on our last day of class. I started by drawing the pig, and then we passed the paper back and forth until we felt that it was complete (and the class was almost over, giving us another reason to wrap things up). I am going to miss that class, even though I still don't quite know what I learned from it...

April 23rd: Coffee House Doodle

A little gathering known as "QUILL" (that's fancy talk for the campus coffee house) meets every Thursday on campus. I was required to attend seven during the course of the semester for my poetry class and speak at least three times. Last week I didn't feel much like reading poetry so instead I did something that I have learned that I do best through detailed examination of countless notebook margins and empty mechanical pencils-I doodled. (Please note that I was going to Starbuck's a lot prior to drawing this...)

April 15th: Arizona, here I come!

In trying to keep up with drawing/posting doodles as well as school work I have found that overlapping the two from time to time can be very efficient! I drew this for my graphic design class. Our assignment was to draw a point of purchase display for a public place with a person in it to show scale. I was drinking Arizona green tea as I sat down to do this assignment, so naturally my beverage worked its way into my art. I was a little embarrassed to show this in class because no one else had put the person inside their piece. I even overheard one girl say, "Why is the person inside it?!"...In case you weren't able to figure that out either, I created this to be a Arizona tea stand. Also, in case you didn't know, that person is a man. My teacher thought that it was a woman. I'm thinking that this wasn't my best work...

April 14th: What does bunny love?

I haven't had the chance to doodle or post in the past week because I have been busy with other things, but I did try to make time yesterday and today to doodle. Please note that the time that I "made" to draw this doodle was during a meeting (oops!) Oh well, I was inspired by a little line that I had accidentally drawn in my planner that looked like rabbit ears and I had to take action!

April 2nd: Envelope Art

With more and more people talking about global warming, I have been making a greater conscious effort to reduce, reuse, and recycle ("The Recycle Song" song from Rocko's Modern Life is resounding in my ears as I write this). I thought that I would take recycling an extra step and recycle this used envelope into a doodle before sending it on it's way to become a Starbuck's napkin.

April 1st: The Big Bad Future

The future is always throwing itself upon us, but it seems like I feel it's weight the most when definite transitions are in the works. I felt the weight of future a little after I graduated from high school, but not to the extent that I do now as I approach college graduation. I am doing my best to trust God to show me my next step, but the waiting sometimes isn't easy for me (okay, by sometimes I mean hardly ever). But I do believe that God is good and that He can be trusted. I made this little collage card as a reminder of this. I imagined myself sitting down for a cup o' joe with the big man upstairs. I'd be blabbing on and on about what I'm worried about and why I'm worried and what I plan on being worried about in the days to come. God would patiently listen, pause and shaking his head ever so slightly, grin and say the words on this card. After I made this card I was reminded of the Bible verse Phillipians 4:6-8 which says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." I know that God has big plans in store for you and me...and I'm going to do my best to trust Him every step of the way.

March 31st: Hands Across The Water

Here are some hands I sketched in painting class today. I think that the top two look like they are about to grab a cookie and the second two look like they could be conducting.

March 30th: A Different Perspective

Weekend of March 21st: Blind Contour = Scary Results

Altyn-Eye?

Sar-Ahhh!

This past weekend I got to spend some quality time with my friend Sarah and her past roommate and friend Altynai. Remember contour drawings from art class? Here are some that I did of Sarah and Altynai. Don't worry, they don't really look like this...well not on a good day, anyway (just joking guys!)

March 18th: Brand New Pair of Roller Skates

I went to Florida over spring break...Disney World to be exact. I drove back with my brother and sister-in-law and they introduced me to the song "Brand New Key" by Melanie. It's from the 70's and it's so fun! Here's a little doodle I made while it was stuck in my head.

Monday March 17th: Dodo's Conundrum

There's a song by The Shins called "Australia" which has a line that I just can't get out of my head..."Faced with the dodo's conundrum I felt like I could just fly but nothing happened every time I try." I can't quite pinpoint the exact reason why I'm so caught up on this line, but I definitely am interested in grasping it's deeper meaning.

I think that a lot of people are like the dodo bird or more specifically, like it's wing. Let's just say of the sake of saying "for the sake of" that the dodo bird still existed. Let's take it even further and say that that dodo bird could talk. One more step...and let's say that the dodo bird's wing could talk. If the dodo bird's wing could talk I'd imagine it asking questions very similar to the questions that mankind has asked throughout history: "Why am I here?" and "What is my purpose?" The dodo's wing might see other bird's wings soaring high in the sky...spanning the horizon and it might feel jealous. It looks like it should be able to serve the same purpose, but for whatever reason all that wing can do is look like a wing.

As humans I think that we tend to act a little like the dodo birds wing from time to time. Who hasn't asked why they are here or pondered their purpose? It is so easy to look around us at people who seem to have it all figured out and be envious, but there are no real answers there. Just like if the dodo bird's wing asked an eagle's wing why flight was impossible to him, we cannot figure out our true purpose by asking one another. Of course we can encourage each other to discover our purpose and point one another in the direction that we think will help them, but to know our true purpose we have to look to something greater.

Think about it...you wouldn't ask an invention what it was made for, you'd ask the inventor. In the same way, we have the privilege of asking our Creator what our purpose is. Seems like this "dodo's conundrum" doesn't have to be a permanent state of mind.

Spring Break

March 8th-16th: NO DOODLING FOR SPRING BREAK

Friday March 7th: Packing

Today I packed. My experience was something like this, although I did end up using my suitcase.

Thursday March 6th: Bathing Suit Shopping

I like to consider myself a usually cheerful person, but there are certain things in life that I have a hard time preventing from stealing my joy. One of these things happens to be bathing suit shopping. Maybe it's the process of squeezing my body like a sausage into spandex that gets my blood pressure rising or the 360 degrees of mirrors that help me catch up on the the current condition of parts of your body that are hard to see in front of a normal mirror (i.e. the back side). Whatever it is, bathing suit shopping has been something that I have grown to enjoy less and less as the years go on. Now, I'm not an old maid yet and I do like the beach, but the entire process of shopping for a bathing suit has the ability to tire me out. Today I thought that I'd capture my experience in a doodle.

Wednesday March 5th: Psalm 119:105

I like this Bible verse a lot and I really like pictographs, so why not combine the two?! Behold the result of this blessed union.

Tuesday March 4th: Smiles are contageous...especially when they orbit.

This is my first doodle-a-day and it was inspired by an empty Orbit's box on my desk. I used to have a serious in-class doodling problem...we're talking more doodles than words in my notes. Last semester I tried my best to cut back on my in-class doodling and I like to think that I improved, although I have to give a good portion of the credit to the fact that my classes last semester were harder to follow and interesting enough to make me want to take notes during them. This semester I have mostly art classes...so I like to consider my recent ventures into in-class doodling an extension of my courses.