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You may have considered how funny certain words or combinations of words can sound when you take their literal meaning into account. Nadia Tolstoy, an architect and an artist based in Sweden, surely has! She has created an entire collection of doodles that portray literal meanings and puns found in the English language.

"The deluge of doodles that came to me was a complete surprise! I had never done anything similar before. But in hindsight, I realize that there are so many things in this doodle project that are profoundly connected to what I am passionate about. I am very interested in how ideas can be expressed with illustrations, but also in how words and images can support each other where one makes no sense without the other," the artist told Bored Panda.

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"I love wordplay and poetry and clever jokes. Carl Jung has said 'The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.' The doodles always originate in words, often compound words, that get my imagination going. I see an alternative meaning for the word in my mind's eye, after that it's usually quite a quick process to get the illustration down on paper. I have considered coloring them in, but I haven't gotten around to it. And to be honest, I quite like the flat simplicity of my doodles. Then again, I experimented with animating some of them and I find that there are a few ideas that only work well when they are animated," Nadia shared with Bored Panda.
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"I truly believe that everyone is creative, it's just a matter of finding a way to access that creativity. And I try to keep a sense of playfulness going in all my work because if nothing else, it makes life more enjoyable!"
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For more punny doodles by Nadia, check out the previous articles on Bored Panda here, here and here! Let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment and upvoting your favorite illustrations!
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emily_36 avatar
Epona
Epona
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Fun fact: bananas are actually berries (but also fruits). Weird huh!

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GraphicHealer
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I believe it's actually where the term comes from. 'Twas originally a way to make cakes in a pan.

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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Took me a few more seconds than I am proud of to realize what it actually was (normally I'm much more observant). I thought each section of the caterpillar was supposed to be either an @ or a figure eight and I couldn't figure out why it said C@ERPILLAR. Derp. 😵🤪

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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If a flower could grow on the sun, which would it be? I think it'd be dandelions because they seem so grow everywhere including concrete...

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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Isn't it sad that antidepressants can actually increase depression?

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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

could make one with Elvis, Jackson, Monroe ... Star-bucks

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