Doodle Every Day

One of my goals for this year was to draw more often—with real pencils, pens and paper, and not just on the computer. So for the past 11 months, I've been doodling every day and posting to Instagram. At the beginning of this journey, I never imagined how much this exercise would inform my art, bring me more confidence, help me define my style and make me want to draw even more.

I now have over 1200 followers tuning into my feed and I'm so grateful for each and every one of them and all the lovely comments I receive. If you care to have a look, hit the link to the right, or find me @shindigstudio

Below, I'm posting a few of my favorite doodles from the year and a few insights I've learned along the way (in no particular order):

• Instagram is full of amazingly talented artists
• details make your art more fun (and popular!)
• Instagrammers love cats more than dogs (or maybe I just draw cats better…)
• when in doubt, draw a cute, smiling girl

Send Some Love

What could be sweeter than Minted's Valentine's Day Card challenge? I love designing for kids, so this competition was right up my alley. This year I have four classroom valentine designs up for voting, so pop on over and send some love my way.

vote for berry good friends here

vote for cool cat here

vote for some bunny here

vote for sweet as candy here

Here, Kitty Kitty

I think November is the perfect month to cuddle up with a cat. And that's exactly what I've been doing—at least digitally. My real cat is rather aloof. Here's the start of a new collection I'm calling Here, Kitty Kitty. Coordinates are in the works.