Dingbats: Reflective Essay

When I started this project I really had no idea what I wanted to do. Drawing thirty images all with a relatable theme seemed like such a daunting task. So, I took advice from the art 351 blog and went with the Miles Inada method and just started for pictures I liked. I also started thinking of things that have caught my interest lately; one of which being a board game called Puzzle Strike (the cards now serve as one of my sources of inspiration). So eventually I catered my search to puzzle themes which of course lead me to MC Escher and Dali whose artwork has always made me think of puzzle pieces. The reason I have so many clock pictures as well is one I saw the inside of a clock it just looked so complicated to me; if you'll forgive the pun, each cog is like a 'puzzle piece' and if you don't have each one in its proper place then the whole thing falls. And I find that fascinating.

So now it was time to actually draw my 30 dingbats. I started with characters like the puzzle man and the clock man because I thought they looked silly and were fun. I definitely consulted my inspirational pictures throughout the whole process, trying to find new things about the artwork I hadn't noticed before and how I could incorporate it into something I could make fresh and make my own. My theme also evolved to be not only "puzzles" but things I find "puzzling," as noted by the pencils and the lizard/shark/thing. The pencils were based off an optical illusion I had seen not too long ego which really blew me away. And the lizard thing was more just me putting my pen to the tablet, closing my eyes, and seeing what shape I could make. Then I detailed it a bit / cleaned it up, and viola! I made "the missing link!" (aka the last piece of the puzzle... aha, aha). With most of these images I had a clear idea of what I wanted to draw, and why I wanted to draw it, but pretty much everything in the bottom right hand corner of my picture were things that I drew based off my missing link method; what could I make just drawing and how could I edit it to fit the theme? It was almost like a puzzle in and of itself trying to make my doodles work and connect and I loved the process.

This was a very fun experience. Going into the theme blindly and watching it evolve in front of me just based on the pictures I found as inspiration and then just based on the doodles I was doing was quite eye opening on what Miles always harps on, "just draw." And it worked. Who would have thunk it?