I spent pretty much my entire weekend doodling on the living room floor with Juniper. My sister-in-law gave me a copy of Craft-a-Doodle for my birthday and we just got around to playing with it. I love that book! The prompts are fun and Juniper’s doodles make me smile. My favorite part about it though was how much working on the doodles inspired me creatively. I’m not usually one who can sit and just doodle whatever. I always feel like I need some sort of reference image, or end product in mind. Some of the doodles were super ugly, but some turned out really cute! And after just messing around for a while, I got some really fun ideas for illustrations that I’m excited to work on.

First, I decided to take my own illustration style and simplify it. Make it more cartoony than it already is. And I loved the result! First I drew the braided crown girl with the green background, and then the other girls just sort of came along. I posted a picture of one of them on Instagram and my friend Lia suggested I draw some famous authors, like Edgar Allen Poe. So I drew him up just for her! I’m calling this page in my sketch book “Edgar Allen Poe surround by cute girls”.

Last night I printed them on some ink jet Shrinky Dink paper AND I LOVE THEM! I was skeptical, but that stuff is awesome! I am going to make brooches and magnets from them. I’ll have them listed in my Etsy shop sometime later this week. I’m wearing my braided crown girl today and she makes me happy.

I have SO many ideas floating around in my head now that I’ve made these. I wish I could just paint all day! (Being an adult is lame sometimes. Work work work.) Do you have any suggestions for ‘people I should paint’? I’d like to hear your opinions because I’m sure you’ll come up with some ideas that I never would have thought of!