1000 Words

The title of this photo was "247 Butt" because it was number 247 in my project 365 for the year 2010. Butt is included for obvious reasons. Little did I know, this title would lead many to my photo. I would look under the stats to see that quite a few people would search "247 butt" in Google or something and then come to this photo, I'd venture a guess that they would be quite disappointed upon arrival. Apparently there's a website called 247 butt, you can guess what people were actually searching for at this point. I find it absolutely hilarious when I get a new tick on this photo from some person looking for some slightly more entertaining photos. 

The background of this photo is quite simple, really. I like to doodle. I doodle at school, work, just about anywhere there is a little down time. I love to doodle words mostly. So I guess they aren't officially called doodles, huh? What would word doodles be called? Wordles? Anyway, I doodle words... a lot. This particular set of words was doodled while I was supposed to be working on school work. Why would I choose the word "butt"? Well, that's kind of my nickname...or something. My guy calls me butt. Mostly because I act like one, admittedly so. I like to think it's also because I have a nice butt. Maybe that's just what I tell myself to keep the name attractive. It's funny, he just says it and I'll respond like it was written on my birth certificate. I'm awesome. 

So, I was doodling words on this paper while I was supposed to be working on school work. Go me, but why take a photo of it? Because I can. No really, I did it because it was late in the day and I had not taken a photo for that day yet and because it just so happen to match another photo challenge scavenger thing I was doing with the prompt "something in writing". What better than the word "butt" in writing. In different hand written fonts, too!

Now, why is it black and white? This has no awesome reason. When taking the photo all lazy-like, the color turned out funny and uninviting. The white paper wasn't white, the highlight and color pens I used didn't come out quite correct and the entire tone of the photo was warm and had a poor indoor quality to it. I was much too lazy to take the time to edit it in Photoshop to make it look nice, so I turned down the saturation like the lazy person I am and called it good with a little sharpening. When all was done, I really liked the result. I think that even if I took the time to color-correct it that it wouldn't look as nice. Something about the neutral feeling of black and white corresponds well to the fact that it says "butt" all over it. Maybe I'm over-thinking a silly photo, but I'm not filtering my thoughts here. 1000 words come from everything that flows in one's mind when looking at the photo. For me, that might take us to unrelated topics and if so, so be it. 

I will now explain my favorite way to doodle words. I used this technique in the photo, it's really simple. I'm all about simple. So, you take your highlighter and you write your word all bold-like. You can even draw a simple smiley face, the technique seems to work best with bold lines regardless if they're words or not. After you've written your bold word in your highlighter, of course the color is optional; you find a corresponding colored pen. You could also just use black. The black pen ink against the bright colored highlighter gives an amazing contrast. You could go a bit more complimentary, like orange highlighter and blue pen ink. My favorites are the Sharpie highlighters in their bright pink, orange, blue, and traditional yellow colors. My favorite pens are those G-2 ones from Pilot in all their fancy colors. Most often than not, I'll use a black ink pen. Anyway, back to the process. The next step is taking your pen and tracing the bold highlighter word or doodle you just created. You want to be careful that you follow the lines just right. Though, sometimes you will slip if you're hurrying, like when your boss or professor is headed your way. If you slip and go too far out or in to where you aren't following the line anymore you can try to fix it by making the pen line more bold or filling in the gap with the highlighter. Whichever works best for you. Usually, I just make the pen ink bolder and try to do so around the whole letter so it comes off more even. Man, I'm rambling. 

So now that you're familiar with my useless pen and highlighter word doodle technique I'll tell you my other favorite way to doodle words. This is much easier to explain. I like to write in cursive. Cursive handwriting is my favorite. I love the look and feel that good cursive handwriting has. If I take the time, mine looks nice, but I definitely have to take the time. I'm not one of those talented people that just have amazing and almost flawless cursive handwriting. I wish I was. When doodling in cursive, I like to write certain people's names. In the family, of course. I'm not like a creepy sixth grader doodling some guys name all over my school work. Anyway, my older brother's name is my favorite of the family's to write in cursive. His name is Jaymes. The capital J is beautiful and the y just flows. 

Would you look at that, I have actual techniques and favorites in terms of my word doodles. It makes you think that I don't pay attention or get any work done. What a butt.