For some students, doodling various lines, shapes and figures in a seemingly random and interconnected pattern is simply a way to prevent their faces from hitting the desk during a long, monotonous lecture.

For Zak Jones, this is a way to keep his imagination sharp between classes and work.

“I like to do almost like a collage piece of crazy little imaginative doodles,” Jones said.

The junior graphic design major said he always devotes time to making art aside from what is mandatory for class.

“I have many, many unfinished personal projects just from time constraints, but I do always like to do that because a lot of the things you do in the classroom are fundamental and basic and maybe not quite as imaginative as some of my own art is,” Jones said.

Some of Jones’ extensive doodles can be seen posted to his Facebook page.

One piece titled “A Shot of Imagination” features a pen drawing of a handgun that shoots off and explodes into a collage of lines, tentacles, Cyclopes, penguins, a Pokémon on a surfboard, a giant cat face, and eventually stick figures colonizing a planet floating above with a castle and a dragon.

Another medium Jones said he likes to work with is spray paint, citing the techniques he learned last semester in a painting class.

“Recently I’ve been doing a lot of abstract painting also with the spray paint,” he said. “The way that you can manipulate it before it dries on the page, you can make some really nice flows of colors and patterns.”

For his final project in the class, Jones intended to paint a realistic space scene on a 6 feet wide, 3 feet tall canvas, and he decided spray paint would be the best way to create the background.

“At first I was going to do it just with oil, but with how huge it was, I would have used up almost all of my oil paints, and it would have been far too time consuming for how much time I had to do it,” he said. “So instead I learned that technique which allowed me to get the entire background done in only four or five hours, and then I could really spend more time painting the main figure and some of the asteroids and things like that.”

The painting features a translucent figure extending his arm to manipulate the surrounding asteroids and planets.

“He’s kind of like a director guiding the flow of the universe,” Jones said. “I think it’s pretty cool.”

Jones said he learned that oil paints are better for blending because they take longer to dry, so he started thinking of alternative ways to create the scene.

“That’s just one of the techniques that I picked up,” he said. “I’m to the point now to where I can go and get the resources that I need, and if I want to make a project a certain way I now have more tools as a way to do it.”

He said he likes to be well rounded in the mediums he uses, and he said graphic design is like another medium itself.

Jones said graphic design is more of a way for him to earn a living as an artist, while creating art pieces on his own and in the studio allows for more creative expression.

“You have to commercialize your art almost,” he said. “It’s not any more you just do what you want; it’s more you have to like tailor it, especially when you’re in the graphic design field, you have clients telling you what to do.”

He said he intended on becoming a doctor until he changed his mind during his senior year of high school.

“I just knew that I would rather do something that’s going to make me happy, not wealthy, and so I knew that being a doctor was obviously a good monetary career choice, but this was what my heart wanted, so I decided to do that instead,” Jones said.

Although he sided for an art career, Jones said he is still is knowledgeable of math and science, which he uses to better understand art concepts.

“I heard that a lot of artists struggle with like math and stuff, and it makes sense because those two halves of your brain are kind of different,” he said. “But I feel like that gives me a little bit more of a mindset for graphic design, because since I have that kind of precise and factual mindset, I can apply that to the corporate world of graphic design.”

Jones said he likes to stay well versed in different methods of creative expression. He said he started writing a book, has drawn comics and comic books and has played bass guitar.

“I am really like the definition of jack of all trades, master of none,” he said.

Stephanie Markham can be reached at 581-2812 or DENverge@gmail.com