‘Insights’ Archives
Dakota SDCC Banner Tutorial
Tuesday, April 27th, 2010
I decided to put up a step-by-step of the banner image I created for San Diego Comic Con. So just click on the image and hopefully you will find the results helpful or at the very least, mildly interesting ;P
And this is the final image… for now…
Cheers for now!
~D/L
Online Musings: 2°
Saturday, February 20th, 2010
As I write more it seems my processes for creating merge. Sometimes they merge directly, sometimes they flirt with one another, circling like a predator and prey, or perhaps like future mates. But here’s the strangeness I have come up against: In drawing and painting it is often pushed upon young artists to be direct. Be deliberate. Say what you mean and say it with authority. But in writing it is very common practice to write a draft and spend weeks or months editing it. Fine-tuning. Nuancing meanings and subtleties. It is common practice to put something down knowing full well that it will change in time. This process is often considered a waste of time in drawing/painting. Of course it also has to do simply with the current phase that art is in.
Classical purists might argue that this approach, this subtle build-up of form and volume and weight is the only real way to create the sensual illusion that is true painting. Perhaps I just naturally meander toward this Classical opinion. I like to start a sketch with very fine lines. Wispy like webs. From there I begin to delineate form and light. This is how I’ve drawn and painted for as long as I can remember, yet for the longest time I was afraid to change something once I’d written it. I didn’t understand the value and the importance and the process of my proclaimed rule of 2°: Take your first idea and push it two degrees off. This might mean revising it twice or making it more subtle, and more subtle again, or referencing something that nods toward “X” instead of just directly pointing at “X”. This might involve writing a description and adding another layer a day later and another layer a day after that. The reason for this is, by my reckoning, that when we embark on any given creative challenge, be we novices or masters, there is only so much we can process at any given time. The more advanced we are, the more we can accommodate in our conscious mind because we have naturalized enough skills through thorough practice. Hard work and lots of it is always the key. So, as I am writing or drawing or painting I can only keep so much information in my mind at one time. Thus once I have put down that wealth of information I come back later and add to it with new information I did not have room for, mentally, before.
I have become very comfortable with this in my writing now. In fact I enjoy it. I love coming back and changing single words and adding paragraphs and typing in a layer of grit to hopefully create something compelling. As a sketch artist in advertising I never have the time to do this. Much to my dismay. We all know that this has become an instant-gratification era. The idea of spending a full day refining a sketch and another day creating a beautiful drawing and another two days painting it up is just unheard of. If I get to spend more than a day on one image I feel like the world is my oyster, like I have the time to create a masterpiece. This contrasts heavily with my personal work be it painting or writing or drawing where a panel might sit on my easel, half covered in paint, for weeks as I ponder it and go through the process over and again in my head until I know exactly what needs to be done. I might spend an entire day cautioning through a couple paragraphs and the next day might fly through five pages. I have discovered that my professional work is a respite from my personal work and vice versa but both add to one another and when I have a new realization in my visual art it almost always translates directly to my writing and back again. I suppose creating is creating. And blogging is blogging ;) Here’s to typing out loud!
~D/L
“OM’s” Friday
Friday, September 4th, 2009
A huge mug of Kona this morning and I am still yawning. It is just one of those days.
And I just realized it is Friday. What does that say about my personality when I read through all the blogs I subscribe to and all I think is, “Why are they talking about Friday already? It’s only Thursday. Are they daft?” Perhaps I should trust the judgment and knowledge of others once in a while? Perhaps I don’t know everything? Perhaps others are not freelance and so have to keep track of the week more than I do? Whatever, I like my way of doing things more.
Speaking of blogs, over at Just About Write, Miss Christina Gullickson mentioned writers’ idiosyncrasies, and I had a hard time thinking of mine. I’m not sure I have any… yet. Aye, there’s the rub. That damn word. It should be four letters. Yett. All that tells me is that I have not written enough. Or perhaps I just tend to see patterns and avoid repetition as much as I can…? Sure dear, whatever you like. *pats self on head.
Both Nathan Bransford and Eric at Pimp My Novel mentioned a new series that will airing on CBS called “Open Books.” It will be about the behind-the-scenes world of Publishing. If it is half as fun as “Castle” I will absolutely watch it. But I am not holding my breath.
And speaking of “Castle”, September 21st! 10/9c!! Be there! Will we find out the secret around Beckett’s mother that was sadistically kept from our clawing, scrabbling fingers? Perhaps. Perhaps.
Now on to “Online Musings.” In my particular case “OM’s” refer to writing, in all its aspects, nooks, crannies, niches, sweeping halls, foyers, antechambers, entrance halls… wait, I’m getting redundant. Basically writing is a huge subject and with many things and lots of stuff to think and talk about. My friend, Kelly, mentioned that she loves it when a character “thinks out loud” in a book. (more…)
Online Musings: It’s All Part Of The Process
Sunday, August 30th, 2009
I am tired of waking up to the thick smell of smoke. There, that is out of the way.
I am in one of my favorite phases of every journey: Realizing how much I do not know. That’s where I am with writing right now. I am delighted when I find out which parts come easily to me, but I am also delighted when I stumble onto an aspect or facet of the process that I had never considered. As with any creative process there is a need to naturalize all these facets so that you can do them without thinking, but you can do them with proper technique. So here I am turning them over in my mind, mulling over them, fussing over them, percolating, pondering and plotting. On top of that I meet with my friend once a week and we do story development. One week we work on mine, one week we work on his. The nice thing is that we take the egos out of it with this process, and we always seem to make forward progress on whichever story we’re developing: tightening, condensing, editing where necessary. On my own time, I just work on the actual act of writing which usually consists of blogs by authors, agents, publishers etc. Looking up definitions for writing terms and finding as many as I can. Reading a lot of short stories and novels is part of that too, analyzing someone’s use of language, voice, mannerisms etc. The other thing I have been paying close attention to is dialogue. We speak and hear speech every day, yet it is one of the hardest aspects of writing there is. I believe this is partly due to the fact that most people speak very different from how they write, so when writing dialogue your mind has to constantly dance back and forth between writing and speaking… all on the turn of a dime. On top of that, you are also trying to switch between one character’s speech pattern and another. Add to that the fact that very very few people speak in proper sentences, grammar, or even proper words (“acrossed” is not a word!). What it amounts to is a very complex challenge that takes a lot of work, but in the end needs to flow naturally and seemingly effortlessly. It’s a fun little dance ;)
~D
