A Christmas GIF: Happy Huladays!

Merry Christmas, everyone! Feel free to download and use this GIF to wish all your friends and family a happy holiday!

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Giddy Kitty

I got approached by a national greeting card company to work with them on a new humor line they are starting up. It’s in the early stages, but so far I’ve been having fun getting to doodle for pay! First up is this giddy kitty. And from the excitement level it’s demonstrating and the awkward way it’s standing, I’m just hoping it has strong bladder control, because my blog is not litter box equipped.

First Rule of Doodle Club is: There are no rules!

Over the course of this blog, I’ve had a fairly steady stream of emails asking what my approach to doodling/sketching is, and if I had any tips. My answers have varied, depending on the specifics of the question, but my general response has always been pretty much the same. I received another such email yesterday, and figured I’d go ahead and post my response so that anybody else who might be curious could read it.

   As far as tips for sketching, I’d have to say the first thing is let yourself just relax and have fun with it. Take more of a flow of consciousness kind of approach. If you happen to hit upon an idea you want to take further, that’s great. Do that on a second piece. (I’ve actually had doodles that turned into paintings and published illustrations.) But don’t let that be the goal of sketching or doodling.

   I guess the difference, for me at least, between doodling and drawing a finished illustration is like the difference between running around in the backyard with my kids and running a marathon. They both use the same set of muscles, just with vastly different goals in mind.

   If you’re still struggling with wanting to overthink a sketch, another thing you can do is the timed sketch. Give yourself a VERY short time limit (60-90 seconds) and turn yourself loose on an idea. But- and here’s the hard part- when that time is up, THAT’S IT. No more drawing on that sketch. None. Nada. Zilch. Zippo. Don’t even go back later and tighten up or erase anything.

In addition to the points I made in this reply, I’d add one more: use different tools. Don’t always feel like you can only doodle or sketch on a certain paper using only a particular pen or pencil. Try a wide variety of surfaces and media. Use crayons on a napkin, or colored pencils on an envelope, or Sharpies on an old shoebox. Whatever. Just don’t stifle your creativity by setting any strict parameters on something that is supposed to be a fun pastime. You might be surprised at the new possibilities or favorites you discover.

Hope this was helpful. Happy doodling, everybody!

Gator Ball!

My son is playing his first year of basketball on our church league. Their team name is the Gators, so I whipped up a quick mascot drawing for them.

I chose to do the animal gator, because I figured it was safe to assume that my church wasn’t referring to the 1970s Burt Reynolds movie Gator when they named my son’s team. Then again, you never know……naming them after the movie would explain why they included a fake mustache and sideburns as part of the required uniform.

Pizzilla Attacks!

Once again, my doodle gland was stimulated by pizza. This time around, it was enhanced by a day of playing a new Godzilla video game with my son. Fortunately, the pizza was NOT monstrous, but actually quite tasty.

It’s Official… I’ve warped ’em both!

I’m in the middle of giving my three-year-old her bath, talking about how close it is to Christmas Eve. She, of course, is getting VERY excited. They made “reindeer food” at her preschool, and she asked me if we could go sprinkle it in the yard after she gets out of the bath.

“No, sweetheart,” I say to her, “if we put it out now, it’ll get eaten by other animals.”

“Like what?” she asks.

“Well, like squirrels and birds.”

“And bathtubs?”

“Bathtubs? You think the bathtub is going to eat the reindeer food?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Do bathtubs eat anything else besides reindeer food?” I ask, my curiosity piqued.

“No”, she answers, a look of complete seriousness on her face.” But they eat LOTS of it!”

But it FEELS like a Monday…

For Your Emotional Baggage

So I said to myself, “What if I had a bag that was big enough to stuff a rabid possum in AND it had my logo on it– then would they offer me the Nobel Peace Prize?”

GAAAH!

This doodle is going where none of my doodles from this blog have gone before!

I just opened up a store at CafePress, and this emotionally disturbed little guy gets the dubious honor of being the first image offered up.

I fully expect to make $1.5 billion in the first six weeks. I’ll probably take an early retirement after that. Then I’ll finally get to live my dream of driving around the country with my wife and kids in a beat up ’73 Winnebago RV, performing at state fairs as a family quartet specializing in bluegrass and thrash metal.

Check it out, and be part of the dream!

http://www.cafepress.com/jaggedsmile

Stylish AND Pointy

Because I, for one, think it is HIGH TIME that Viking helmets made their own fashion comeback! Who’s with me? Show of hands….