Day 167

'Stick your neck out', Pen on Paper

Back to the world of illustration again, a world that I'm beginning to like more and more as these drawings provide a bit of light relief every now and again, that and they allow me to think more creatively. I'm not entirely sure what chain of events led to this particular drawing today only that for some reason I had it in my head that I wanted to draw a turtle. I find that in most cases this is sometimes the easiest way to generate work or in a more broader context more possibilities. The thing you always need when undertaking any task is a starting point and a lot of times these aren't easy to come by. So instead you stall by doing other mundane tasks as you attempt to put your mind elsewhere in the hope that an idea will sneak up on you. Then when that fails you take random thoughts and throw them at each other hoping that they may strike off each other causing a spark bright enough to ignite an idea. So having an unforgettable notion, an initial thought however unfocussed and raw it may be the important thing is that you have somewhere to start. As such you are much more likely to generate purpose and direction as you begin to brainstorm the multitude of different ways that you can take that notion forward, finding each tangent, each path and following it not always as far as it's conclusion but far enough to decide what is the most appropriate at the that specific time. The only worry with these types of ideas is that we can sometimes decide what it should be before we've even begun to consider what it could be. This then means that these ideas are all too easy to become lost in as whilst there are many paths to follow there are almost as many dead ends. This leads us to struggle to get some ideas off the page as we can't seem to refine them enough or get passed the numerous roadblocks we have set ourselves. The effect is then that we may end up with many fragments of possibility, ideas that can either become lost to the ether or only exist as empty regurgitated promises that we are never likely to keep. I think one of the main issues we can have is that if something exists as an idea there is always the possibility that it can be more. On the other hand if we actually make it a reality then it may become an actual failed idea rather than one that may or may not work. As I think I've mentioned before it's sometimes only by taking a risk that we can get the reward. Actually come to think about it possible from what I've hashed out over the last few hundred words it's now a little clearer as to the train of thought that led to today's drawing... well that and I like turtles.