Wherein I Share For No Apparent Reason

Sometimes I hit a wall when I’m working on a new product … and then I start drawing random, angry-looking cartoon guys. Case in point, I drew this guy on Wednesday:

I don’t know why they’re always angry, to tell the truth. I’ve tried drawing random, happy-looking cartoon guys, as well as random cartoon gals, but I always fall back on the angry guy. He’s just a couple of brushstrokes in Illustrator, my 10-second angry man, and then I feel like I at least accomplished SOMETHING.

This guy isn’t as angry as some – I’m not sure what’s going on with his hair, truth be told. Most of the time random angry dude has a buzz cut of some sort, but I was feeling sort of 60s that day. I had Mad Men on the brain.

But onto my point! Here’s where I go for inspiration when I hit the wall:

Pinterest – I great big puffy heart Pinterest, although it’s membership has sort of exploded just in the past couple of weeks even and I get “server is busy” errors a lot more now than I used to. I have my own pinboard collection with interesting bits from my Internet travels, but honestly I spend way more time browsing everyone else’s pinboards. There are some very well curated pinboards that can set the mood of my entire day as soon as I open them – and that’s the sort of creative break I need sometimes. Right now you still need an invitation to join Pinterest, or you can enter your email address and wait for them to contact you. If you’re already a Pinterest member, though, hook up with me on there! I always need more inspiration.

FFFFOUND! is another image bookmarking site (sort of in a Tumblr format) that I browse through on a regular basis. Images run the range from photographs to graphic design work, but I can always count on their feed to be full of color inspiration, especially.

The entire vintage category at Etsy – yup, the whole thing! If I lived in a huge city with a lot of vintage stores I would be canvassing their wares daily to spark my creativity, but Etsy saves my bacon because I don’t live in a huge city with a ton of vintage stores. (Also Etsy lets me get my fill of vintage yumminess without leaving the comfort of my electric blanket – bonus!)

So what about you? Where do you go when your creativity runs for the hills?