#365Cow - The First 16

Oye! It's January 16th already. Between work, starting the new school semester, a scrapbooking retreat with friends, and foolishly packing my colored pencils away for a week and half - I haven't had a lot of time to post. I'm finally catching up, so here's the first 16 cows, fully colored:

New Year's Cow

The rest are a part of a "Disney Gals" series I started sketching out a few months ago.

Nice to finally get them finished!

#365 Cow - #1

Here's cow #1! My colored pencils are currently packed up with my scrapbooking stuff in preparation for next week's scrap retreat, so you'll have to settle for black and white for now.

365 Cow Challenge

Time to start something I've been wanting to do for a couple of years now: draw one new cow a day for a whole year! 

Why cows? Honestly, they're just kind of my thing. I've been drawing cartoon cows ever since I was in the 6th grade. I have roughly 270 cows sketched/colored to date. I just love cows! I draw them doing all sorts of things and wearing all sorts of 'costumes.' It all started with this guy on the right, Mr. Moo-Moo, my very first cow. You can check out some of my other creations in the COW tab above or on my portfolio site.

Now, for the challenge. 

The 365 Cow Challenge or #365cow

1. Draw one cow a day for a whole year. 

2. No repeats allowed, unless it is to 'freshen up' an old sketch from way back. (In which case I will provide proof of said old sketch.)

3. "Sets" may count for more than one day. 

(i.e., the number of cows in the set = the number of days it counts towards) These are pieces I typically do for Doodle United themes. 

4. Cows that are currently sketched but not fully inked/colored may count once they are completed. (I have a Disney gals themed set half drawn that I started a couple of months ago. It will be massive when I'm done, and by golly, the 30 or so I already sketched out are going to count!)

5. A cow in simple sketch or inked form may count for the day's cow, but I do intend to color them all by the end.

6. Post at least once a week - somewhere: on the blog or on Instagram. (Hopefully this will be once a day, but hey, we all get busy!)

If it sounds like I'm trying to pad my cow counts, I suppose that's partially true. It's more of trying to set myself up for success. I have tried this once in the past and didn't make it very far. The end result will still be the same: 365 NEW cows drawn/inked/colored between Jan. 1, 2015 and Dec. 31, 2015.

Wish me luck and send me your ideas! I'll need a lot to keep me going! 

You can follow me on Instagram. I'll make sure to tag everything with #365cow.

December Daily Review

Well, I did it. I managed to take a photo every day (sometimes more than one) from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Here's a look at the whole "month." There are a few more pics for some of the days that will be included in my album, but I picked one for each day to go for the calendar look here. More pics of the spruced up album to come later.

December Daily 2014

If you happen to follow me on Instagram (chopstix09), you may have noticed an increase in posts in the last week or so. This is because of how I've decided to do my December Daily this year. I think this will be my 4th attempt at doing December Daily, and hopefully the 2nd time I'll actually finish the whole album. December Daily is a concept developed by Ali Edwards. You can check out her website and awesome work here. Here's how she describes December Daily:

"December Daily® is a December mini-album project that documents the 25 days leading up to Christmas. The simple goal is to capture the spirit of December via one story per day."

For me, December Daily is about capturing all things Christmas-related as well as daily happenings for the month. I actually start mine a few days early because I like to include Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

So what's with all the Instagram posts? In an attempt to streamline the process into something I can actually manage while attending school, being an RA, and working, I've decided to utilize one of W R Memory Keepers Instagram albums.(I've been looking for a way to scrap in one of these cute little albums since they came out anyway!) They hold 4"x4" photos. I purchased the light blue one and embellished it with some ribbon, a metal piece and a snowflake sticker.

Here's a look at my cover page:










Wish me luck! Hopefully I'll actually finish this year. Follow me on Instagram if you want to see how I do!
http://instagram.com/chopstix09/

Secret Santa Questionnaire

Just a litte questionnaire for the dorm gals to get our secret Santa event going. I looked at some reference images to draw the Santa, then colored him in Photoshop. Flyer was done in InDesign. 

Carousel Horse

This one was for Doodle United's "Fantastical Horses" theme. Colors are a bit dark on this upload, but you get the idea. Sketched in the sketchbook, then redrawn in Illustrator and colored.