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- 1-5-11
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- 1-4-11
I had someone ask me yesterday how I get my ideas for my daily doodles. The simple answer is I don’t know.
When I first started doing the Daily Doodle Challenge back in June 2009, I was at a loss for what to do, so I grabbed a how to draw book and did the lessons in there. This worked out fine until the section where it instructed me to go out and draw people. Big road block there. See, I am a studio artist. There aren’t a lot of places to go and actually SEE people let alone draw them. Not unless I want to make a trip out of it and travel into one of the larger towns closer to St, Louis, which would pretty much defeat the purpose of a warm up doodle done quickly in less than 30 minutes.
So I started to just decorate the dates themselves. But after a few weeks, I got bored with that. Then I had the bright idea to work on emotions in faces. I went out and got a book with a thousand faces in photographic reference. That kept my attention for a long time. Eventually, drawing only faces started to lose its appeal as well. I drew goats. I emulated Art Nouveau masters works, I tried to draw feet. That failed miserably.
My current theme is creatures, all brought about from an off-handed comment by several of my critique partners about how we couldn’t seem to draw scary and fierce creatures. I set myself the task of discovering what makes something look scary. I still land on the side of cute and cuddly most days, but there have a been a few downright mean looking creatures since I began this study in December.
I decide to focus on a theme based on what I want to improve a skill set for. Things I’ve found challenging in my “real” work. Ideas to help me with my next assignment or to ramp up a particular area of my portfolio I feel might be lacking.
The whole point of these doodles is that they be fun, free expression with no pressure to make them portfolio worthy. They are the artistic equivalent of singing scales before jumping into the real work of the day. Stretching muscles in preparation of the coming run. So I just scribble and enjoy watching what evolves off the end of my pen. Like I did as a child before all this became a job and “important” and “meaningful.” The doodles help me remember why I wanted to be an artist in the first place. They connect me with myself so I am balanced and ready to face another day at the drafting table.
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- 1-2-11
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- 1-1-11
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- 12-31-10
It’s a new year. (duh) January arrived rather quietly for us at home, although the weather provided for a bit of excitement and distraction. A tornado (or several) touched down in several close by towns. It skirted around us as it usually does, but the light and sound show was amazing. My husband took his camera out afterward to capture the rainbow that bridged the sky in a necklace of light.
We didn’t deviate from our plan to visit Borders, even though it was in one of the towns hit and on the news. The area was reported to be contained in a few block radius, so we proceeded as planned.
Our favorite sushi restaurant was at the edge of the taped off area. Its roof had been impaled with a 2×4. The parking lot and the road in front were include in the blocked off area. Many emergency vehicles and flashing lights could still be seen from where we were. My heart goes out to the people and businesses who lost their property.
We had dinner in one of those surf and turf chains then went on to Borders.
The Dr Who DVD we went in search of was not available there. We poked around for a little while but the post holiday shelving had a well picked over look. I hope it was only because of the recent gift giving frenzy and not a change in stocking policies.
We came home, watched bad king fu movies and played Facebook games. I drew a bit then fell asleep reading my book before midnight. Mostly an uneventful arrival for the brand new year.
Much of what a writer does never sees the light of day. The thoughts of what the story should be about, the development of the characters’ personalities, or the necessary but usually hideous first draft. All these things are the ingredients to the final book. But like almost all recipes, the ingredients get peeled, chopped or otherwise cut up somehow.
It’s the same with writing. Good, meaningful, and hopefully, publishable writing. Once that first draft is down on paper, the writer must go over it again, and yet again. Cutting words, getting rid of extra verbiage, meaningless descriptions and long drawn out bits of back story. The editing process can take a long time.
From my experience it can take years, as the writer makes edits to that first draft and then shares her baby with critique partners and beta readers. Making more changes based on their comments and sending it off to more people, until the manuscript is all shiny and fit for submission. Even at this point, if the writer should be so lucky as to catch the attention of agent or editor, there will be still more revisions.
I remember receiving my first editorial letter from my agent. (Not hard as it wasn’t all that long ago.) It looked as if she had red-marked every single paragraph with something that needed changing. From reading other writer’s accounts, my editorial letter was actually pretty short. I also have a sneaking suspicion that once a publisher picks up the book, there will be yet more revisions.
I look forward to them. Really. Honest.
So what’s the things a writer needs to cut in the all important self edit? Here’s a good article. 10 Ways to Tighten Your Copy. Happy revisions!
12-29-10
12-28-10
