Advice I Have Not Taken: My Thoughts on Picking a Style

A few weeks ago as I was ruminating over my place in the world, I mentioned that my latest, biggest fear was that everything I’m doing is NOT GOOD ENOUGH (crazy talk, right?... right?) and I’m progressively trying to improve and DO MORE BETTER. 

One area that’s pretty clear to me where I could be doing better is in having a defined style. I think if you read basically any design blog or book, the #1 piece of advice from artists/business owners/everyone is to have a clear, distinct, unique voice and style.

 And as a habitually distracted creative-type… this poses a pretty big challenge for me. Challenge #1: I love experimenting. Experimenting and learning new things is basically all I’ve been doing lately. 

Challenge #2: When you are learning new techniques, or when you are researching, or when you are just following other designers on social media… it’s tough not to be influenced. In my mind it works this way, “oh look, I love this style and it is super popular right now, I should do something like that.”

 Neither of these are necessarily BAD in my mind, and let me be clear, I’m not talking about COPYING someone else’s style (because, let’s be honest, I don’t have the attention span or talent to even go there). 

But when you are reading day-in-and-day-out that you need a refined style… that you need to pick one thing to be good at... it makes you think a lot (and possibly worry some more about being not good enough). 

And to me, there’s at least one style that I think is clearly “me.” And if you have known me for any period of time… this will not surprise you in any way whatsoever. And those are the doodles.

I started this blog to share my cover-the-page-with-weird-shapes doodles, like the ones throughout this post. It’s probably the only kind of drawing that comes naturally to me and that isn’t really influenced by other things I see. 

I just get obsessed with a shape, develop that shape, and then go nuts with that shape. I have done this since I could hold a pen in my hand. I just love, hand-drawn, tiny, repetitive patterns. Like this:

 Now the challenge is: how do I embrace that? How do I develop that in to something? How do I take what else I’ve learned to do and incorporate those things?

The answer: I don’t know. And as I’ve said before… I’m trying to share and embrace the process and worry less about not being there yet. So stay tuned and we’ll find out what happens together. Needless to say, there will definitely still be experimenting.

He'd Just Bound, Bound, Bound and Rebound

Challenging times call for inspirational quotes… or so Pinterest has taught me. I have professed a love for all things Pixar in the past, and this particular quote comes from my favorite Pixar short, Boundin.'

It features a lamb and a Great American Jackalope. Sadly that link will only show you the first half, and not to ruin the punchline but this is what the Jackalope has to say to the somewhat downtrodden lamb. Anyways, basically, don't let the man get you down!

Show Me a Sign

A few months back a friend reached out to ask me if I would do some lettering for a chalkboard sign for her brother-in-law's wedding. I thought this was such a cute idea! The sign will be carried by the flower girls as they walk down the aisle.

I did a ton of sketches to try and decide on a final style. I debated some borders, etc. to spice things up. I also wrote the word "girl" too many times and decided it is a really weird word. Here is a small selection...

I used a chalk marker which was a new experience for me. I also got a chalk pen to make baselines, etc. to make sure things were moooostly straight. When I was done I used a moist Q-tip to erase the guidelines. (Q-tips are good for so.many.things)

Before it headed out the door, I took some test photos to make sure it will look great indoors/outdoors/in photos.

Speaking of outdoors... yay for my flowers blooming in the backyard! #unrelated

Also, I'm messing around with my blog header again because I decided my new/old one kind of stinks. But the colors are doing all kinds of weird things on me so just ignore the "construction." :o)

Oh Winter, Why?!

Just when I'm getting excited about Spring, which was feeling imminent, the fickle weather decides I need about six more inches of snow to temper my expectations.

Pretty much the only remedy is some new art supplies and a weather-related doodle. While out picking up snowed-in groceries yesterday, I also popped by AC Moore and got some white charcoal pencils. And since it was snowing today… I drew some snow.

I think we all recall my love of weather-related art when I've been stuck in the house all day. Then I stood outside in the freezing cold and took some pics of it… and a picture of this tree in our backyard:

Actually, this is from the last (the one before the last? the one before that??) snow storm. We've had enough that I've completely lost track. Dear Florida friends, take pity!