Very excited to open my new online store! I have Christmas greeting cards for sale at www.mindyindy.com/greeting-cards ! All 5 of the card designs are based off of last year’s Christmas carol doodletunes (illustrations of songs). Left to right: Carol of the Bells, We Three Kings, Silent Night, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, and Suzy Snowflake! You can order one card for $5 or a pack of 5 for $20 = buy 4 get one free (+$1 shipping for one and $2 shipping for a pack). The store takes PayPal, which can also take credit cards if you don’t have a PayPal account. Now is the time to start getting cards because Christmas will be here before you know it! The only one that says “Happy Holidays” is Suzy Snowflake - the rest say Christmas.

If you’ve been following me long enough you know how crazy my TO DO lists are, and creating an online store has been on my to do list for YEARS. For awhile I was deciding if I should go with Etsy or upgrade my own Squarespace site for commerce. Etsy is actually a lot harder than it looks. Granted, you have more discoverability on that platform, but I felt that just for starting out, it’s hard to compete with all the other cards out there. For example, people have their cards set up against a fireplace with holly branches and freakin’ hot cocoa with perfect lighting etc. Screw that, I just want to get the thing done! I found out that I didn’t need to upgrade my Squarespace site and can still have basic commerce functionality! I only have a few products after all, that are currently the same size & weight, so I don’t need a complex store. It was fun to build the store and put the descriptions in and learn new stuff about shipping (ALWAYS learning new things as a freelancer!).

Anyway, over time I’ll add more items to the store like mini comics. If you’d like some mini comics for stocking stuffers in the meantime, email me at mindy at mindyindy dot com.

OH and my times at the WinterFest at the Brooklyn Museum are now switched to Saturdays!

Happy Holidays!

Intober is a fun project artists all over the world participate in each October. Every day, there is an official drawing "prompt," usually just one word, and you draw something (usually in ink), and use the hashtag #inktober and post it online. The # key words help others find your work, and you can see what others have drawn too. I'm still learning more about the proper way to use #s, but I've improved.

My personal favorite from Intober and runner up with "likes" on Instagram.

This year I almost did all the days of Inktober prompts, even through NYCC when I was exhausted from drawing at the end of the day. It doesn't have to be a complicated drawing either. Sometimes it only took 5 minutes to sketch something quick, and I tried not to spend over a half hour on any one drawing. Usually I draw them on the subway. All of my Inktober drawings were just with a sharpie or micron - nothing fancy. Not even a pencil under drawing (except one I think). The point is to get you drawing SOMETHING and not worry about perfection. Sometimes it's hard though, when you see others work and it's mind-blowing with detail. But who knows - they could've spent the whole day on it, or a week.

"Rollercoaster of Love" by The Ohio Players, later covered by The Red Hot Chili Peppers

Last year after Inktober, I just stopped because the month was over and there were no more prompts. But that's not the point - the point is to get you in the habit of drawing each day, and this year I had momentum and wanted to keep going! Since I'm very passionate about all kinds of eclectic music, I decided to choose a music theme for every day, calling them Doodle Tunes #doodletune

"Jigsaw Falling Into Place" by RadioHead, from their "In Rainbows" album.

Every day of the week has a different theme. Monday is "New Music Mondays," where I listen to all the new releases on Spotify and pick the song I like best to draw. Even though Spotify changed it to be released on Friday, I like starting the week fresh with new music. Next we have "2000s Tuesdays," because all music from the past almost 2 decades blends together. I've decided to make "Wild Card Wednesdays" to feature any music that doesn't fall into a usual decade category, something random. For "Throwback Thursdays" #tbt I draw a 90s music theme. Fridays are 80s music, Saturdays are 70s, and Sundays are 60s. I will literally NEVER run out of ideas and this has been super fun so far!

For people on my mailing list, please note that I post these Doodle Tunes on my social media - it doesn't link to this blog. I mainly use my Instagram @mindyindy_art to post the drawings to my Twitter @mindy_indy and Tumblr: http://mindyindy.tumblr.com/ and Facebook business page: https://www.facebook.com/mindyindycomics/ By default it was posting to my personal facebook page, but now the official Mindy Indy Facebook page will be seeing more posts. For my friends and family seeing this post on my regular Facebook, please "like" my Mindy Indy page. Technical stuff, I know! I can't post everywhere all the time though. I love the ease of linking to other sites with just a click of a button.

Hope you enjoy the Doodle Tunes, and remember, it's never too late to start drawing every day! You can pick a theme of something you're interested in or passionate about. And if you miss one day, no big deal. Just pick it back up the next day and don't worry about "catching up." You're doing this for YOU. Drawing every day will flex your brain muscles and help you think more creatively, and you'll also get faster at drawing!