Create. Make. Produce. Do. Be. Whatever you want to call it. This is Todd from toddYoungONLINE with another flipThrough. A Canson sketchbook from the mid-90s with a lot of, good and bad doodles in it.
I remember this one because I remember being in college when I had this one, working through it and finding this fountain pen.
It was my first time with the fountain pen. I found it in the bookstore, and it was just the most wonderful drawing instrument. It had the best line weight. It was easy to use. It was smooth. I had that thing for a while, then it broke, and I was very sad. But, since then, I’ve had a lot of fountain pens.
I like drawing with them. I like a medium tip. I’ve tried a fine tip finding it was just a little too scratchy. I’ve tried brushes, pens, markers, just everything to find just the perfect line weights. It took me quite a while to realize that Inkers do what they do with intention.
I always thought it was kind of like Japanese and Chinese calligraphy using that single brush and controlling it to get thin and fat strokes. Inkers do that too, but at the same time, they’ll go over the line a couple of times instead of trying for a single stroke to get the, line character that they want. A little thicker here, a little thinner there. Iit took me forever to figure that out and realize that.
I forget where I saw that happening.
But, it was a light bulb moment.
Because to me it was always like, all right, use a fat Sharpie and then a thin Sharpie to find the line weights you want, but they have a different character than a brush. and then so learning everywhere.
A tangent, I saw something today, or yesterday, on Instagram. Somebody creating a thing that said, “Create Art” and I’ve always kind of thought create ANYTHING, that you really need.
I always felt like and maybe just because, from my point of view, everybody should have that right brain creative outlet. That thing that they love to do. I’ve talked to people and asked, what’s their creative outlet? Do you draw, do you paint, do you sing, do you dance? I’ve gotten “I don’t know” as an answer a lot.
It’s just confusing to me, because I’m like everybody has to have that creative part to express in some way for us to be whole. In my opinion. You know, you have the logic side, you have the creative side, and then you have the part where they meet in the middle.
Back to the character drawings. Which probably cross over a lot between sketchbooks. From around 1996-ish. I was a little better than previous sketchbooks, which shows practice improves, if it doesn’t make perfect. I was still lacking in, real figure training, really concentrating and understanding the figure as I should have. Looking back anyway. I was still trying to find my path.
But, that would have saved me a lot of time. I remember in high school, drawing, doing outlines. I don’t know if anybody else does that, I’m sure they do, because I’ve seen like some really good artists who can sit there with a brush or a pen and get the idea down on paper consistently.
I remember I would do like an outline, not is not an efficient way to do it, but it’s an interesting way of working. You can lean into it and find your way with it. But, once I learned how to start blocking in shapes, putting in your gestures, working with composition, it’s much more efficient. I’m still practicing and learning.
There’s no one way of doing anything, i think. Only your way and you keep refining your process as you learn.
This is one of the first times I was working with somebody else helping to develop their characters, for their property. At some point, I came across like this, almost coloring book style. It’s more of a graphic style. Heavy lines, thin lines inside, Like Art Nouveau where it’s a flowy, thicker outline to define and then less on the interior.
There are a few artists out there that really do it well in an illustrative way and I really appreciate that.
But getting back to my thought. Everybody needs a creative outlet. I feel better after creating something, whether it’s writing or drawing or painting I’m still trying to understand better what to do with paint.
I remember painting class again in college. The teacher set up a still life and said, paint this. I did five different paintings over each other because I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know when I was done, so I wouldn’t be happy with what I did, and I would go back over it again.
The guy next to me was standing there laughed saying it changes every time I look over at you. So that’s still me finding my vocabulary and my way through art. But, as far as creating, create something, create anything.
I’ve started some new projects recently to keep me moving forward as I’ve stalled on other projects.
I like getting through the process. I like developing processes to make myself more efficient. Creating templates to help me produce more quickly. I’m working with software I hadn’t in a while, and having to relearn to be able to add and enhance what I want to do. It’s amazing how exhausting it can be to get back into something that you hadn’t touched in a while. But working until you finally have a finished product.
I enjoy making do with what I’ve got. I’ve spent a career learning how to do more with less. Right now I have a lot of assets. I’ve been fortunate to hoarde resources with projects in mind, knowing I’d get to them eventually. So whatever I want to do, I have a way to produce something.
One project I had recently, stalled because I didn’t have a particular sound asset that I wanted, I was so focused on it sounding a certain way it frustrated me to a point of a standstill. But then being away from it for a while and coming back with a fresh perspective I realized, oh, I can do it ‘this way’ instead. So there’s always a way it’s just figuring out the work and process, finding out what you can do versus what you might like to do next time, because you can always revisit it.
I said, this is full of the good, bad and the ugly. I try to be more intentional than lucky because, there are times you do something and it’s a way better thing than you’re normally capable of doing consistently. So, I’m trying to get better at understanding what I’m doing and why I am doing it, being intentional.
But by all means, please, go out and create something today. Create art, create music, create a building, create a birdhouse, create a stick with a pointy end on it. I don’t know whatever you would like to do, go out and do it today and know that I’m rooting for you and would love to see what you do.
Here we are at the end.
thank you for your time.
I will talk to you soon.
Have a great day.
Bye.
