Back in 2009 I described Anorak Magazine as "the happy, colorful, illustrated, quirky, character-filled, page-turning, content-driven mag for everyone," but they simply call themselves "the happy mag for kids." Happy being the key word here, and this summer Doodlers Anonymous is going to help them spread some of that joy around.

How you ask? Anorak is committing 6 pages of their June issue to your illustrations, with each page featuring two images, so that's a total of 12 artists getting some nice attention and love from us all (not to mention a free issue of course). We have only 3 guidelines for your participation: (1) Your art must be black and white, so kids can choose to color it in (2) It must be horizontal (in other words landscape mode), so we can easily fit two on a page (3) Your illustration must be themed FAVORITE SPORTS, but of course invented and imaginary sports are welcomed too.

Deadline is April 25th. Get drawing and submit your artwork to sports{at}doodlersanonymous{dot}com. The team at Anorak and DA will pick the final selection of twelve. Good luck to everyone and follow us on Twitter or Facebook for updates along the way.

I drew the image above almost seven months ago, but it feels more fitting today than it did then. In the last week, Instagram went from being just a popular iPhone photo app to becoming the most popular photo sharing tool the world has ever seen.

A few days ago they released an Android phone version and just yesterday Facebook bought them for one billion dollars. They boast well over 30 million users and now with Facebook on their side, I expect that number will quickly double.

Like any huge network that hosts people sharing things, you get a lot of crap. A lot of garbage that finds its way onto the "popular" page too. If that's your objective, follow the steps above and you'll get there sooner rather than later. But if you ache for the creative and the inspired, I've been putting a list together of some really cool artists that hang out and share what they're working on.







It's a good resource if you're just joining the community and I expect to be adding more along the way (feel free to share it with others). You can find parts one, two and three here and while on Instagram, stay in touch, follow me by searching OKAT or DOODLERS.

Every now and then I enjoy a fun trip down memory lane. This time, my travels were courtesy of Danny Martin and his movie characters drawn on US Postal Service stickers. I'm loving the texture the stickers added to the black and white drawings of some of my favorite movies from when I was a teenager (The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China, Ghostbusters) as well as a recent favorite (There Will Be Blood). Go take a gander, no postage stamp required.

In this season of artificial green cellophane and pastel hyperbole comes the kind of challenge you've been waiting for. Leave the bunnies and chicks to the chocolatiers and doodle up some savagely creative eggs. No theme. No constraints. Just you and a carton of (fragile) possibility. You can draw on one eggshell or a dozen, just make sure you only upload one photo.

I'd like to thank the fine folks at DrawTop for sponsoring this ridiculously cool drawing challenge. They make an awesome product by custom cutting adhesive vinyl whiteboards that you can stick practically anywhere, including the backs of electronic devices like laptops and iPads.

Click for prize and participation details. Deadline is Thursday, April 5th, so go on and get to showing off your drawing skills.

Doodle on friends.

After the popularity of our latest drawn challenge, and fueled by the momentum of your amazing submissions, I went ahead and created a Tumblr feed that will live on for as long as we receive more doodles.

Be patient, I am still in the process of porting over all the submissions (over 70) that we've already received, but you can follow the updates and even feel free to participate with another doodle ad hack if you'd like. Find it all at doodle-bomb.tumblr.com and help us turn this into a fun little meme (hashtag #doodlebomb). And of course, feel free to pass the link along to everyone you love.

While on the subject, let me formally announce the winners of the Doodlebomb! showcase challenge. Congrats to Kathleen Dolan with the editor's pick grand prize and cheers to runner-ups Margo and Paz Bernstein, who will each be awarded a DA 2012 Calendar. Thanks again to UPrinting.com for sponsoring such a great doodle challenge.

I only recently came to know Andrew Orlando. He stopped by our studio to drop off a drawn Doodle Addict Postcard and with him was a bright green tote bag. When I looked inside, dozens of faces stared back at me. I immediately lit up, the bag was filled with toilet paper rolls that he covered with bright and bold colors of paint and marker. Eyes, teeth, scribbled hair and so many expressions formed these comical characters. Over 30 rolls in hand and he told me he had tons more back home, I believe he said his goal was to reach one-thousand.

This is our most ambitious project to date -- almost a year in the making. It's the culmination of over 130 submissions, over 2,300 votes, and an infinite amount of creativity. We launch our 2012 DA Calendar with overwhelming pride, not only in the beauty and originality of the artwork, but in the fantastic support of our community. We truly could not have accomplished this feat without you, our supporters and friends.

If you love what we are doing at Doodlers Anonymous, help us fight the good fight. Buying a calendar not only promotes independent artists and helps to support this website, but more importantly, saves you from those overcrowded malls this holiday season.

Give the gift of art »