A comic & some commentary
Tuesday, June 6th, 2006Normally I don’t read the Sunday Non Sequitur (I prefer his one-panel zingers) but for whatever reason, last Sunday’s caught my eye. It’s always interesting to see other artists’ takes on the creative process and this one is dead on.
A few years ago, I wrote fiction pretty prolifically. I haven’t in quite some time, but my greatest fear was always that someday I would run out of ideas–the fear that somehow, I’d finally write down everything that was swimming around in my head and my muse would say “That’s enough. You’ve finished. You’ve used your share.” The same fear strikes me occasionally in art as well, although with less frequency, since I know that as long as there is a world around me (and as long as I can see), I’ll have things to paint and draw. Furthermore, experience in both writing and art has taught me that ideas are a whole lot like rabbits: they reproduce endlessly. One idea leads to another leads to another, endlessly. (Which leads to the more realistic flip side of the no-more-ideas fear: more ideas than I can possibly give form to in my lifetime. No matter how long I live, I will never be able to paint everything that’s in my head. That fear is almost as crippling as its opposite sometimes.) Most ideas I jot down, sketch a few thumbnails, and never go back to again. Some ideas just aren’t as fun or attractive with a few days (or weeks) of perspective on them. I have a file of reference photos on my computer labeled “to do.” Some of them I’ll never get to, but most inspire me strongly.
That’s one way, I think, of balancing the need for self-discipline and a steady work ethic with the desire to “wait for the muse.” Having a wide variety of project ideas “on file” means that, at least for the next few months, I don’t have to worry about running dry, but it also allows me to always (or almost always) be working on something that I’m really enthusiastic about.
