My Make Time, Not War Rant

Make time, not war is an anti-procrastination slogan that I just made up from nothing and commonly associate with my feeble claims of not having enough free time for illustrating. The war reference? I suppose that symbolizes my anger over my perceived lack of time. Or it could be something from the 60's, but that's complete crap of course because over the length of a 24-hour Earth day I have plenty of opportunities to get some drawing done. I just don't have those opportunities in large and consecutive blocks of time that many full-time illustrators (and the full-time unemployed occupiers) are blessed with. Oh, I doodle the hell out of the legal pads here at my day job desk. I also sketch on Starbucks napkins when I'm waiting in line for an expensive and complicated drink to be made. I draw on the backs on envelopes containing promises of lower rate credit cards and magazine subscription promotions I have no interest in because they offer a clean white canvas for the idea for a new character I had just an hour or so earlier. I even illustrate on my iPod Touch now, using the freshly downloaded SketchBook Mobile X App and my index finger. I figured out how to save the image to my iPod photos folder and then email it to myself in case I want to place it in to Illustrator or to use/post it as is. I've also been sketching on those extra receipts or sometimes napkins at restaurants lately, adding a "Thanks for the awesome lunch!" voice bubble from a caricature of myself or my son or a random penguin or a pirate with a full tummy. And I always add my web url because hey, you never know... 


So the time is there, and actually the results are there. I suppose I need to shut up now and gather these napkins, legal pad pages, receipts and iPod finger paintings together so I can combine them with my creative powers for the good of the picture book industry. But where the hey will I find the time to organize of of these papers and files?


Just kidding.


So where do you guys and gals find the time?


Way sexy beach sketch of me and my lovely wife.
Stay drawing, my friends.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Lunch Notes Post

Image
Every day during the school year my lovely wife Wendi would create a very tasty and extremely healthy lunch for our son Jake, a recent kindergarten graduate. So of course I had to keep up with theses standards and do my own creating, which involved sketching a daily lunch note that I tucked into the mesh netting of his Batman lunch box every morning before I dropped him off at school. The lunch notes were something I had thought of doing well before he started his academic career. I was happy to see that a few of my illustrator friends on Facebook were also drawing notes for their kids on other canvases like sandwich bags and napkins. Fortunately, in spite of my often disorganized brain, I started the lunch notes on day one and kept it going for the entire school year. Some mornings the drawings were easy. Others? Not so much. I stopped by Jake's school the week before graduation to talk to his class about drawing comics. It was very cool to hear so many of the kids mention how...
Read more

An Illustrator's Observations and Lessons Learned at the 2012 NESCBWI Conference

Image
Draw the environment before adding the character. If you're modeling for a drawing class, the Angry Hulk pose and Tebowing are crowd pleasers. Surround yourself with talent and you'll eventually win a door prize. My drawings need texture. If Brian Lies is speaking, I'm listening. I dare anyone not to blush when a group of attractive lit agents and writers shout your name from a balcony. All of the illustrators I met were extremely cool people. But not all extremely cool people can be illustrators of course. And then there’s Hazel Mitchell… Honored to have sketched in the Octo-Puss in Boots book. BTW, Casey Girard is cool as hell. Love and care about each character and the rest will be easier. You don't have to know how to play the banjo to play the banjo. Speaking of banjos, Russ Cox deserves every accolade thrown in his direction. Harry Bliss is a comedic genius. Meeting my Facebook and Twitter illo pals was e...
Read more

Avast, You Scurvy Rats! It's The Next Big Thing Blog Tour!

Image
The Next Big Thing blog tour started in Australia, but it's sturdy sails soon caught a mighty wind (ewww...), sending it on a tour of the seven seas. The object of the tour is to bring awareness to authors & illustrators and their current work. A treasure chest filled with thank ye's goes to the very talented Wendy Martin for tagging me. I've been asked to answer 10 questions about my current book-in-progress, after which I'll tag three others who aren't just amazing illustrators and writers, but good friends as well. Now weigh anchor and set a course for some long-winded answers! 1. What is the working title of your next book? Pirates Go Shopping Some of the original character sketches. Can you tell which ones my son didn't like? 2. Where did the idea come from for the book? I entered the 2011 Picture Book Dummy Challenge organized and run so well by KidLitArt founders Wendy Martin and Bonnie Adamson. Sitting at our dining room tabl...
Read more