It's The PJ Party Time again!

Now that you've seen all the tweeps as babies, check out who they really are! How many did you guess? Think you might have got them all?

See how many you got right and which ones surprise you!

Thanks so much for all that participated by tweeting and retweeting the Twitter Babies video. It was fun to have everyone guessing, asking for hints and even trying to cheat (you know who you are!). You all made it a great project with lots of smiles and laughs.  

A special shoutout to the wonderful @cindyvriend, who assisted us with her awesomeness. We love you Cindy! :)

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I’ve finally decided to offer another giveaway, to celebrate becoming a full-time artist.  The giveaway is a Grocery Tote featuring my latest Rockosaur Dinosaur design from Zazzle.com.  Don’t let the name, “grocery tote” fool you, because the bag should be suitable for carrying books, crayons, Teacher’s papers, Halloween candy, art supplies, office tools, or large piles of cash(none of which are included).  The bag is however a stylish alternative to the non-earth friendly bags found at most grocery stores.  The contest is open to anyone, so I will do my best to ship the prize around the globe.

My artwork is mostly art and illustration for kids, wether young in years or young at heart.  I wanted to feature both a prize that kids could use to carry either books, or even Halloween Candy, and that any adults could happily use.  The Giveaway has a coloring sheet entry option, to kick off my new resources for kids, parents, and teachers.  Everyone does get a free coloring sheet regardless of wether you enter the giveaway.

There will be only one winner, but you will have up to 5 opportunities to enter, as follows:

1.  Simply leave a comment on this post, and that will count as one entry.

2.  You can get a second entry by following me on Twitter and leaving another comment telling me you did, or that you are already following me.

3.  For your 3rd entry, retweet the text below on Twitter, and come back here to post a new comment with the link to that status update from Twitter.  To get the direct link to the status update, just click on the date/time below your tweet.  here is the text to retweet, minus the quotes:

“Enter to win a Eco Friendly Grocery Tote & get a free coloring page @andymcnally http://bit.ly/bLD7md #giveaway”

4.  The last way to enter, which will count as two entries, is to color my “Star Gazing” coloring sheet.  The pdf is a free download and can be printed out and then colored with your choice of media(crayons, colored pencils, sharpies, etc.).  Once you have created your masterpiece, post it online on your blog, Flickr account, or photo sharing site.  Once you’ve posted a pictures of your coloring sheet, come back here and post a link to the art in the comments, so that everyone can enjoy it.  Since this entry  takes more time, yet is way more fun, it will count as two entries.

All comments must be left by 11:59 PM Eastern time on Friday, September3rd.  The winner of theGrocery Tote will be selected from the comments by random number generator and announced on Saturday, September 4th.

Here is the coloring sheet. Click this link, or the image below to get the free pdf coloring page: pdf download.

The coloring sheet is free(please feel free to donate if you find it useful), however all rights are reserved, so altering, selling, or any commercial use is prohibited.

I’m not very good at the Big Picture, but I’m learning that keeping an eye on it is important.

I remember reading a long time ago (but I can’t for the life of me remember who said it), that you can achieve anything you want in life, but you can’t achieve everything you might want. That idea has stuck with me for years and was a comfort when I felt so ill I didn’t imagine I would every be able to achieve anything at all.

I don’t buy the idea completely. I think we can only work on our side of the achievement equation. For example I might dream of Sustainably Creative becoming one of the top 100 most read blogs in the world, being offered a publishing contract worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, and Oprah relaunching her chat show just to interview me. However all of those dreams require actions by other people, lots of other people (and Oprah). I can’t make those people act in the ways I might like.

However I can work on my half of the equation. I can show up and write posts regularly for Sustainably Creative. I can work on book proposals and publish my own ebooks. I can approach agents and publishers. In short I use what energy I have to focus on the work that at least puts me on the right track to fulfill my dreams.

Of course the trick to this way of thinking is about choosing where to put energy and attention. At times it may well be true that there is little of either to go around, and it’s precisely then that it’s even more important to choose wisely. For years I took a very generalised approach to getting through my days (and my life). Trying to get a little bit of everything done.

Today I am much more focused, and part of being focused is to look at the Big Picture, at least sometimes.

Now looking a lot at the Big Picture can be exhausting. Thinking about writing a whole book for example is huge. It’s like looking at the top of a mountain and thinking “however am I going to get there?” Of course the answer is “one step at a time.” I am all about taking one small step, followed by another. Little and often is my daily mantra, and means I achieve a lot. However, all these little steps need to be focused on one destination if they are to be of real use. And that is where the Big Picture comes in.

Every now and again, once every three months (or at least once a year), it is well worth settling yourself down with a pot of tea, a pen and a notebook and make some Big Picture plans. Write down the one or two things that you’d really like to achieve in the next three, six or twelve months. Maybe you’d like the first draft of a novel written, or a series of painting painted. Perhaps you want to have recorded some tracks for an album you’ve always wanted to make, or you want a series of poems finished. It doesn’t matter what your creative ambitions are, it is just important to have them distilled into a Big Picture project.

Once you’ve done that, you simply work out how to break the big picture down into manageable steps. If for example you want to have a 70,000 word first draft written in a years time then break that down into weekly targets. 70,000 words is about 1350 words a week or 270 words for five days each week. That’s all you need to focus on. Forget about the Big Picture. Finish your tea and put away you notebook and pen and just write 270 words.

In three months or so, brew up again, find your pen and notebook and check up on your progress (you’ll be amazed how much you’ve achieved and probably surprised how much less exhausting the Big Picture looks).

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If you enjoyed this post it would be very much appreiciated if you could take a moment to share it on Twitter. Thank you.
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I’m ending with a little shameless self-promotion: There are just a couple of days left of my Final 40 Beany offer. If you’d like to own a set of the first three issues of my illustrated journal The Beany this is your last chance. Full details here.

Please help spread the word. Thank you.

12" x 12"
Acrylic on Canvas
August 2010

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I am having so much fun meeting all these creative people of Twitter.  It is is amazing.  There is so much talent around that I am just astounded. So to all my new Friends, Fans and Followers, thank you for visiting the Daily and enjoying the doodles.  For those of you that are not yet following on Twitter or Facebook, you are definitely missing a huge part of what makes the blog so special.

Here’s the doodle of Day 428.  A continuation of the Red Lip Series. It wasn’t intentional to do a red lip series, but once I started it, I may as well continue.

The Red Lipped Doodle