Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Doodle 085 - Preparing for All Hallows' Eve and misc rambling

On yesterday's post LeAnn said she wondered how I decide what to draw since she seems to draw blanks often.

I thought I would give you guys a bit of insight, now, I am not saying this is a fool proof way or even the right way to do it, it just works for me more often than not:

After work I normally take a bit of a breather, play a bit of a video game, watch a show or two, have dinner with Andrei and we talk about our day, before 8 p.m. I sit down in front of my computer, gather all my drawing supplies, put on some headphones and start playing whatever I feel like listening to at the moment.

Right now I am using Spotify at home and work, I find that music helps to keep me focused, I have quite a bit of a case of ADD, my mind races from one thing to another and I work better with multiple projects going on at once, but I try to concentrate my efforts to come up with ideas and music helps with that.

The music I prefer while drawing are soundtracks, closely followed by classical music and melancholic songs.

Once I have that down I start looking at my pinterest, tumblr and devianART feeds, I try to follow people that pin/blog/photograph interesting things, like historical clothing and costumes, architecture, art and yes a lot of geek related stuff.

Every day I see brand new things that can jolt my imagination, sometimes I will try to do my own version of a photo, others I'll start thinking about a story I want to tell sparked by what inspired me and then I start drawing whatever images I make up in my head.

This works often for me, other times I am just not in the mood to create anything at all, be it out of exhaustion, laziness, or just "because". In that case I just sit myself down, let myself browse the internet looking at silly videos of cats, and start throwing lines onto my notebook until something starts taking shape.

Not every day is a good one, sometimes all I want to do is crawl into bed and make up an excuse as to why I didn't draw, but first Andrei would nag me about it, and then I would nag myself about it thinking about the fact that you guys know I have to post every day and you are there waiting lol.

So I just keep trying until I come up with something. Of course one last thing is important: I try not to second guess myself too much, if I want to draw something I just do, no matter how weird, silly or ridiculous it might seem. Anything goes really.

And now for today's doodle:

Gathering herbs and supplies for All Hallow's Eve - green, red and black mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 10 mins.
It is Elphaba on a gathering trip to collect herbs and other ingredients before All Hallow's Eve. The glass pumpkin/skull lantern isn't too bright as to not call attention to herself and can scare hostiles away.

4 comments:

MichelleH said...

I love classical for background - I like to have SOMETHING playing, but lyrics distract me too much - either I'll start singing along and forget what I'm working on, or realize I'm typing out lyrics instead of homework. So yah...a bit ADD here too. :)

Jan said...

I love that all of your drawings are out there. I mean who would draw a caterpillar's birthday! Cool! And the bat was just too cute. Last year I would randomly pick a word from the dictionary and try to draw a funny scene. It was fun, but it started to become a chore when I had so many other projects that I had to get to. You inspire me. But if you need a day off every now and then, don't worry about us. We will still be here waiting for you!

Unknown said...

I agree with MichelleH! I'm listening to music right now that I NEED to sing to and I can't focus on anything. Classical or Jazz would work best for drawing. :)

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm not on devianArt and will have to check that out! :) I'm still trying to get myself started. I haven't finished my first drawing in my notebook I purchased. lol. And I haven't finished the blanket I'm knitting my MIL I started last week either! It's almost done but I just haven't had the energy to pick it up. Kind of like drawing, sometimes it's just not in me. I applaud you doing this ever single day!

Kelly said...

I really enjoyed hearing your process about how you get into drawing mode, and how you find your inspiration. I always love the things you come up with (and some of your drawings have inspired drawings of my own!) You are such an inspiration, and I look forward to your new drawings, the thoughts and stories behind them, whenever you post.