If I had to guess, I would say that Christina Vantzou is a thoughtful person, with a gentleness that exudes from her. I don't know her personally but that is the exact feeling I get when I look at her work. Simple. Delicate. Luscious.

Kumi Obata's art appeals to me the way a beautifully crafted sketch does. Her etchings are a perfect balancing act between drawn doodle looseness and sophisticated, refined art. Rich in texture, line, and pattern, her work is no doubt influenced by the quiet beauty and tradition of her home country, Japan. The first day I happened onto her site, I felt like I was transported into someone else's dream and floated around from one beautiful scene to the next, not wanting to leave. A year and a half later, I still feel the same.

She started with a Strathmore pocket sketchbook, spiralbound hardback. Continued on a Moleskine Cahier Plain Journal, softback. Finally settled on a Moleskine Notebook Plain Sketchbook, hardback. Whatever it is, Elaine draws out her daily life in the pages of these books. She fills the pages with lists, her objectives, thrift shop price stickers, quotes and everything in between. I got lost in her doodles simply because they are unpretentious and sincere.

Happy day! The wonderful Scribble Project by OPPY is back in business and gearing up for a big team scribble: a super long train of carriages doodled by you. This is one of the most clever collaboration projects around and with last year's successful totem pole created with over 100 submissions (as featured in Anorak Magazine), we have no doubt this train will be chugging along in no time. Don't hesitate, click here to participate and download the template, submissions close February 16th 2010.

Once collated and printed, the coloring zine will be available for purchase at the start of March, with all profits donated to UNICEF. Big ups to OPPY for reminding us all to step away from the computer screen and do something fun. Love, love, love this.

First off. Thanks DA for having having me for February, and OKAT for the really swell things you said. I will try my best to make this icy cold month all warm and bubbly on our insides.

Okay now to business. Maura Cluthe (aka: Fragmented) was easily the first artist that came to my mind to feature here. The first time I saw her stuff I was blown away. I instantly felt a kindred spirit and connection. She reluctantly agreed after much prodding (just kidding). Maybe it was the robots and monsters, or her eye grabbing textures or was it the hyperdoodles (as she calls them) or her expert design sense. I'm going to say it is all of that and more! Maura is the complete package. She just finished up a children's book titled It's Not Easy Being Brave that I can't wait to get my hands on. There are prints available at her online shop. Yay Maura!

Jim Bradshaw will guest post for DA in the month of February. I could go on and introduce him to you in my own words, but I was lucky enough to discover that he can do it better than I could ever hope to, and in third person.

Jim lives in rural South Jersey. It's not all factories and jammed highways people. He has a wife, 3 kids, 2 cats and a Boston Terrier named Annabelle. During the day, he's an art director. In his real life, he draws, doodles, illustrates, carves, paints, photographs and does any other creative thing he can get his hands on. You will rarely find him without his moleskine. Drawing and doodling strange characters and made up worlds has been one of his favorites things to do since early childhood. It's not only his passion, it's his sanity.

Every word about himself is true. So many artists claim to never be without their sketchbook handy, but I don't even question that fact with Jim. His flickr site and blog are packed with spread upon spread of robots, rocket ships and odd characters. He does it daily, updates often, and fills every space with ink.

Welcome Jim, I am very much looking forward to your postings.

The mind is such an incredible thing - full of complexity and peculiarity. Sometimes I look at the work of an individual and am left speechless and wondering, "What the hell were they thinking when they did this?" I don't know the real name of this person but the flickr set of yourson had my mind going a little bit crazy.

The sketchbook has always been a really amazing way for me to capture a journey. Seeing the world through the eyes of a sketchbook really gives me a sense of an era, and when I look back at them, I really remember each scrap or pen mark from that trip. These are a peek into some of my travel sketchbooks in Cartagena, Colombia, and another one from The Puget Sound, off the Washington Coast. Both of these books really make me nostalgic for these particular places, because I studied the landscapes, painted the faces, and drew my way through them. They really made a dent in my memory because I will always have that connection with these lovely places which I highly recommend visiting and taking your sketchbook with you when you have a chance. Look inside the books »

There is no doubt that I love color. Just take a look around this website. It's filled to the brim with drawings using every color we can get our hands on. But there is something I find so damn powerful about an artist that can use one color to express what hundreds cannot.

And personally, I've always just picked up my favorite black pen and doodled my way through pages of scrap paper just because I found the effort to use color such a distraction. So it's true, I am biased. Here is a small collection of one-color drawings that have recently caught my attention.

Above by Aleksandra Kopff. You can find the rest here »

Recently I was asked to design a t-shirt for Farofa Nation, a t-shirt company with a mission: to help the street kids of Brazil and lead them to a better life. I was happy to be a part of this collective who are simply good people with good hearts. (Read more about their mission here.)

The above is the t-shirt I designed for them and we are giving it away here at DA. It's a woman's tee (Boys, if you're interested, we don't discriminate.) printed on American Apparel, slightly sheer, sporty racerback.

Interested? All you have to do is leave a comment below and you are in the running. Comments will stay open until Thursday (the 28th @ 5pm EST) and then we'll randomly pull a name. Good luck.