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Having trouble coming up with something to draw? No worries - while you'll eventually learn how to start from a tiny seed of a thought and gradually nurture it into a complex concept to explore through design and illustration, it's perfectly fine not to be there just yet.
For now though, here's an idea that might interest you.
The Annual Parade
Running a small business isn't easy. In the small town of Paradeville, running a small business is even harder. Paying for advertisements in the local paper just doesn't seem to gain the kind of traction it once did, everyone wants to hear about your services from a friend of a friend, otherwise they're unlikely to ever give you a shot. Hard to get word of mouth though, if no one will bother hiring you in the first place!
The town has one saving grace, though. One thing that keeps you from packing it all in and moving to the big city. One thing that, if used correctly, can take your business from a debt-ridden failure to an overnight success.
The Paradeville Annual Parade. Every year, the whole town gathers to put in the greatest procession of oversized, colourful, and utterly delightful floats in the world. And here's the kicker - anyone can enter a float. The bigger and more extravagant your float, the more the townsfolk will remember your name, and of course, your business.
Design the most eye-catching float to get the town talking. While you should definitely think about the type of business you're running in order to decide how to sneak its name in and ensure that free publicity isn't going to waste, you don't have to limit the float itself to something obviously related to whatever it is you sell or provide.
This one isn't doing it for you? How about this one instead: No Take, Only Throw! >>>
The recommendation below is an advertisement. Most of the links here are part of Amazon's affiliate program (unless otherwise stated), which helps support this website. It's also more than that - it's a hand-picked recommendation of something I've used myself. If you're interested, here is a full list.
PureRef
This is another one of those things that aren't sold through Amazon, so I don't get a commission on it - but it's just too good to leave out. PureRef is a fantastic piece of software that is both Windows and Mac compatible. It's used for collecting reference and compiling them into a moodboard. You can move them around freely, have them automatically arranged, zoom in/out and even scale/flip/rotate images as you please. If needed, you can also add little text notes.
When starting on a project, I'll often open it up and start dragging reference images off the internet onto the board. When I'm done, I'll save out a '.pur' file, which embeds all the images. They can get pretty big, but are way more convenient than hauling around folders full of separate images.
Did I mention you can get it for free? The developer allows you to pay whatever amount you want for it. They recommend $5, but they'll allow you to take it for nothing. Really though, with software this versatile and polished, you really should throw them a few bucks if you pick it up. It's more than worth it.