Gosh, doesn’t time fly when you’re
not updating your blog? I’ve been busy drawing, both sketching out new characters
(see here) and working on the final illustrations for Dan and the Dead. My new
blog banner is a spin off from that, if you’re curious.
Anyway, after so much writing
over the last year, it feels good to go back to mostly drawing. And once again
I’m struck by one enormous difference between the two activities.
I need silence to write. If
possible, I also need to be alone in the house. There’s absolutely no question
of listening to music. The only sound should be the scrape of dry fingertips on
the keyboard and the steady drip drip drip of blood as it sweats out of my
forehead (it’s probably just as well I’m on my own).
Drawing, on the other hand, is
next to impossible for me if I don’t
have music. And if you want to phone me while I’m sketching, then fine, go
ahead -- I can hold the phone in my left hand and chunter for hours while my
right hand carries on. In fact, just pop round. You can stay and listen to the
radio with me, to this and this and this, and then we can chat as the coffee-break
kettle steams and hopefully agree that the one thing that really puts the ‘great’
in Great Britain is the wonderful, inestimable, sanity-saving BBC. I’m sure
they had illustrators in mind when they invented it.
The phrase ‘back to the drawing
board’ normally has negative connotations. But not for me:-)
Totally,totally agree with you-also working on a YA and writing is HARD and drawing is FUN!! And here in the US- its NPR we all agree on.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Julia. Hurrah for good radio!
ReplyDeleteAs one who just cannot draw, I read this post with admiration! Particularly love the banner. As for the silence/music/radio thing - with me, it depends where I am. Thinking/plotting require silence but once I'm up and writing, I generally make a playlist of songs for that project and then run it continually until it's just background noise. Although, when it's not going so well, there is dancing!
ReplyDeleteDrawing is fun, though less so when it's the page a day variety! I'm enjoying the leisurely re-drafts far more.
ReplyDeleteLove the new header, and the gadgety man is ace - Got a pocket in his boots - should be standard in all boots :)
Thanks, Sue. I envy you the music. The dancing? Well, you can keep that:)
ReplyDeleteRachel, thank you. I agree that a regular drawing commitment can take all the joy out of it. Good luck with those re-drafts.
Love the banner. And Milton Jones! But, yes, I tend to need absolute quiet while writing unless I'm in the flow of it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Simon.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree. I have to have silence to write. I'm not a serious drawer - or any kind of furniture, for that matter - but I used to cartoon endlessly during meetings. This got me some very odd looks, but those who knew me knew I was actually listening with more attention than I ever could have done if they'd taken my pen and paper away from me. And yes, I'd like to join the BBC appreciation society as well.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sue. Looks like we could start a BBC appreciation society:)
ReplyDeleteI like silence to write as well - not always possible though with a house full of kids (and I include the husband in that collective ;-) )
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kate. We husbands know our place;)
ReplyDelete