45. A spider in the woods

I love to hiking through the woods.  Nature is an escape for me and it helps me find my creative side.  When I am in a crappy mood I go on trails or just through the woods randomly.  I came across this huge spider about half the size of my fist and I took a photo of it.  That day I was in a bad mood and needed to get out.  I cleared my mind and spent sometime alone.  This spider was hiding inside an old tire.  I intentionally flipped the tire looking for a snake and found this instead.  Snakes often like to hide in old abandoned tires, I often find them there.  I went ahead and took a photo of the spider.  

44. Thinking about Thinking: The Concept of Metacognition (textbook)

John Flavell, a professor at Stanford University coined the tern "metacognition". I have never heard the term nor of John Flavell.  Metacognition is about being aware of ones own cognitive abilities.  He studied young children at different ages.  He gave preschool age children something to study and memorize. Then as another group he gave elementary aged students something to memorize.  Flavell found that preschoolers were much more confident in memorizing or less aware of their cognitive abilities.  As we get older we become more aware of our metacognition.  Adults like creative directors and art directors are the most aware and that's why they know how their minds work.

I find this fascinating because I have never thought about this topic or the idea of how younger people are more naive maybe.  As people get older they become more aware and I am curious why this is.  I wonder if metacognition is more about thinking about thinking or... understanding how you think.  The book does not elaborate on that second idea.  I think it involves both components very closely.    

  

43. The elephant hand

When I was very young like 6 or so my dad showed me this.  My dad used his hand and made it into an elephant.  The middle finger acts as a trunk of an elephant and he raised it.  You can make it walk to by lifting each finger or walk side by side lifting two fingers at once.  I remember laughing so hard when I was younger by this.  It fascinated me.  I have continued the legacy and made my friends laugh quite hard too.  I also get some very very strange looks but I don't mind acting like a goof.

I enjoy acting goofy and the looks people give me.  I have come to appreciate myself more and build up confidence by being a little strange or unconventional.  I have learned that creativity is the act same thing... confidence in doing something different and taking the judgement.  To everybody I have shown this to, nobody has said they have seen somebody do it and that makes me happy.  I get a boost of confidence from being unique and creative even if I borrowed the idea from my father.   

42. A drawing I found in the dorms

I woke up one morning and found this on the whiteboard in my dorm's hallway.  I found it interesting because I didn't know quite what it was.  I still don't exactly know what it is but its intriguing.  The drawing looks like a frog in the bottom right referring to Donald Trump.  Why is it a frog?  It has the wall in it that Trump wants to build.  It has "The Don supports legal immigration".  What is that suppose to mean?   A couple days before this I saw a similar photo of the frog looking thing behind the wall with a hat that said "Make America Great Again". 

The other frog drawings look like they mimic Futurama the tv show.  Also the bottom right drawing has a handle of #damnmemes4trump,  I wonder if this person posted this on reddit or something like that because I have tried reasearching what it means and found very little or no other knockoffs. 

41. Another politcal cartoon

I hate drawing but sometimes I do enjoy drawing political figures.  Nobody can judge you for how bad you draw them because everybody loves to portray them so stupidly.  Therefore, I can draw political figures with confidence and think I actually drew something pretty good.

Bernie with a peace sign or portraying Ted Cruz as a big rat.  I enjoy drawing these things.  The stupider they look the better because normal political cartoons exaggerate body features anyway. 

40. Traceing of my hand

In class we were told to trace your hand and make something of it besides a turkey.  I saw everybody still tracing their hand upright and I wanted to come up with something different.  I traced my hand sideways and made it into a pistol.  My thumb made a perfect handle for a pistol and my fingers are the barrel.  I think it is a fresh idea instead of the normal upright drawing.

The hardest part of creativity is finding what to draw first, its helpful to have a tip and then make something out of it.   I needed the idea of making something from tracing my hand and the rest was my work.

39. Fading Kitty

When someone tells you to draw your own version of "Goodbye Kitty" as a knockoff "Hello Kitty", I came up with my fading kitty.  I just drew the cat then took an unfocused photo intentionally.  The kitty is fading and disappearing.  That was what my thought process was at least.  I tried a filter but it didn't look as good.  This looks more authentic.

Whats your version of Goodbye Kitty?