Botanic Garden Inspiration, Minus the Snark

When people talk about inspiration I have to admit I sort of tune it out. I feel like its one of those fake things that people brag about. "I'm sooo inspiiired by traaavel." That being said, I had a moment this weekend though where I was like, "Oh, I get it!"

I've talked in the past about where Snarky Beagle doodles come from (I'll give you a hint, the stork doesn't bring them), so on a trip to the U.S. Botanic Gardens I was a little surprised I found myself snapping tons of photos of different beautiful, natural patterns.

Obviously, no one here is shocked that flowers are an amazing inspiration. My favorite is the top right with the pink stripes.

But I also couldn't believe how amazing some of the succulents they had were. The colors and patterns had me staring at them (that is until I melted in the humid 95 degrees temps). So stay tuned for some Botanic Garden-inspired patterns I'll be working on (as soon as I'm done with two 10-page papers for grad school... much less inspiring).

What's your favorite photo? What do you get inspired by?

Illustration Friday: Something You Should Know

Okra has always been my favorite food which I think some people find weird. It's typically a pretty slimy food depending on how you cook it. Yeah, don't judge.

My favorite is fried okra. Anyways, two reasons okra is on my mind today. The first is that we went to the Bethesda Farmer's Market and I bought okra AND pickled okra. That's in addition to our adorable little okra plant Kevin is growing me. So I'm going to be eating a lot of it. Good thing I love it.

Second reason is that I saw this Project Doodle on Good for your favorite meal. So I figured I'd do this for the week as well as Illustration Friday which has the theme: perennial. 

Hot Like the Weather

No shocker for anyone here in the D.C. area but it was ridiculously hot today. And that's saying something because I grew up in Florida where most summer days are pretty blazing. Needless to say, we spent a lot of time inside so I made some new patterns.

What do you think about the colors? I picked them with Adobe Kuler. Also, I drew the original flower shape with pen and paper before scanning. I think I'm learning that that's just easier for me than drawing straight onto the tablet.

Flowers have really been inspiring me lately so I've been doing a lot of flowers Snarky Beagle-style (since I honestly couldn't draw a flower that looked real to save my life). Have a great weekend everyone. Stay cool!

The Birth of a Doodle

This is a post about how a doodle is born. I promise it won't be gross or weird like most births are.  Right? I wouldn't actually know. Anyways... yeah sorry about the awkward detour.

I doodle A LOT during meetings, class, while waiting for the pizza guy and pretty much anytime I have a pen and paper in hand (actually paper isn't even required, I used to color the back of my hand pretty elaborately in high school). It's like I literally can't help it.

Most of the time I draw random things like flowers and stars and zigzags that are all pretty boring.

BUT soooometimes, I'll draw a shape or a pattern that I really like. I'm not sure where it comes from. It's pretty much like MAGIC. Then it becomes like "The Doodle of the Week" and I draw and re-draw it. It evolves and at some point I decide it's ready for the big time.

The next step used to be that I'd pull out my Big Black Book of Doodles and carefully draw until it covered a whole page (like this or this). But then I bought a smaller notebook when I started blogging so that maybe I'd have more motivation to draw new doodles (like this). But the thing is, unless the magic happens, I have nothing to draw but zig zags and flowers and stars. Now that I'm starting to use a tablet to draw digitally, it's even worse because the barrier is even lower.

I've sat down almost every day for the past 5-6 days to try and draw a new pattern... but Snarky Beagle designs just don't start on my computer. They have to start when I'm mind-numbingly bored and doodling in the margins of a notebook/meeting agenda. It's frustrating because I want to just spill a bunch of fabulous doodles out on command and I just can't. (I could bring this back to the birth metaphor now... but I'll spare you).

It's a creative process that dependent on boredom... or something. Anyone else have this problem or suggestions for sparking creativity on demand?

Fluid Inspiration

It's amazing how quickly inspiration can strike after a long long time away. This is the first completed design since I've moved to Colorado.