Waving Your Flag

July 1st is Canada Day. In honour of that...

Design a new logo for your country. It can incorporate the flag and other cultural icons but it should be unique and bring out your own feelings about your country - the things you love best and the things that always make you feel you belong there.

Draw it out. Don't be shy.

Stick Figure Grrls

I've seen a lot of stick figure drawings. It's interesting how many different versions there are of the same basic concept. How would you draw yourself as a stick figure? Add clothes and accessories, maybe a sidekick if you have a pet or husband and family. Colour it too if you have pencil crayons or markers.

Remember, stick figures are always thin and they only have cleavage when drawn by boys with milk fetishes. Don't make it complicated, just draw the lines and fill in the details.

Creepy Creatures of the Floor

If you've been good and doing your Spring Cleaning this year chances are you have come across a few of the fun things like dust bunnies, deceased and non-deceased insects and cobwebs. You may have lucked out and found something even more fun which I haven't thought of or just didn't notice (I'm only just getting started on the Spring Cleaning thing).

Draw the grossest, ickiest bug (insect) you have seen or can imagine. If you have kids think of them and draw something truly horrifying, you know how much they love the gross stuff.

No one has to be great at drawing for this. Anyone who can pick up a pen can draw something bug-like. (If I can do it, you can do it).

We all Know Boys Have Cooties...

As we all know, boys have cooties (kooties, not sure on the official spelling). It's not their fault, it just happens that when they reach a certain age boys stop being cute and sweet and just get cootified. No girl in her right mind would want to kiss one of them.

The strange thing is, no one has actually seen a cootie. I've asked around and none of the girls and women seem to have found a cootie on any boy. That doesn't mean they aren't there. My Great Grandmother told me boys have cooties and she wouldn't lie about a thing like that.

So draw a cootie. Whatever your level of illustrating skill you can come up with some theory of what a cootie looks like.

This will be a big help to those girls and women who still want to kiss boys, at risk of getting cooties themselves.

Note to the boys: Most of us still like you, even though you do have cooties.

Something Snowy This Way Comes

Yesterday there was a fresh batch of snow, it's left a huge pile up on the front lawn. From the window you see how pretty it is coating each and every twig and branch on the trees. There are still a few big sloppy looking snowflakes slowly floating down. The day is getting warmer out, it's actually a little sunny and not at all gloomy as it was yesterday when all the snow fell. The sun is sparkling, like a white lawn of fresh diamonds.

What kind of snow person will you make? You could do a whole village, a town of snow people and pets too if you get really ambitious. Draw your snow people or describe them in writing.

It Takes a Village

Imagine your own village. How would you organize the town, the services, the streets, the shops, the houses and the industrial section. Don't forget trains, planes and buses and all the forms of communication and power and water resources. Then there is all the entertainment and spiritual and parks and recreation. Set up your village to run well and work for all the citizens. Think of practical things and think of what you would like yourself. Now draw it all up.

Snowflakes In the Air

Just draw a bunch of snowflakes. Each one should look different just as real snowflakes are never two the same. Go online for inspiration if you don't know where to start. But why not just give your brain the chance to be really creative. After all no one needs to be a great artist to draw a few straight(ish) lines.

Writers Getting Outside the Box

Every writer should have at least one other art form. We need to work with something outside of our comfort zone with words. Not only is this a great way to deal with writing stress, blocks or rejection but you make your brain work in different ways, bringing out fresh vision and inventiveness.

I like ASCII art (typed pictures) and sewing (quilting and embroidery). I've begun teaching myself to draw. Just simple cartoon type drawing, nothing fancy, professional or very complex, just another outlet for my creativity. I’m finally trying to draw some of those pictures in my head.

Think about the things you enjoy doing. You may have a few creative hobbies or interests which you haven’t considered as art forms. Don't discount something just cause it doesn't suit the arty types. Maybe you create with plants, gardening. Maybe you enjoy home repairs and other do-it-yourself work around the home. Inventions and inventiveness are all apart of being creative. Maybe you like home decorating, photography, recycling thrift store finds, collecting some odd thing or other, it's all art.

Take stock of your creative outlets, you may find a few you didn't even know you have.