As both an illustrator and a designer, I'm able to do two totally different things - I can plan and draw images as an artist/illustrator, but I can also design things and solve visual problems, whether graphic/web design or otherwise. What I think is less apparent is that this flexes creative energy in two totally different ways, but that if I'm doing one thing specifically, I may not be doing the other (although they can definitely happen simultaneously in a project).I've been drawing a lot more, and I've been using this site as impetus specifically to keep me drawing, but I've been having a block lately, design-wise. I haven't been able to focus properly on design projects because of my work sitch. I think things came to a head Wedneday and I broke through the block specifically because I was so tired of being uninspired by work. But what that means is, if I suddenly can pour creative energy into design work, then there might not be enough left over to be inspired to draw. I draw creative energy from one well, and need to focus on flexing one part of me or the other, otherwise both things might suffer. Which is just a long-winded way of saying the illustration part suffered when I drew this, as a result of my wanting to design more than I wanted to draw.
I think I know how you feel. I just draw comics, but I definitely feel a divide between the mode that wants to do layouts, the mode that wants to pencil, and the mode that wants to do finished inking. Thank you for putting it so eloquently -- I'll use it next time I'm on a block.
ReplyDeletewhich perfectly explains why i find it difficult to get back into drawing. hay.
ReplyDeleteDo you ever regret not drawing, Jo? I have to. It's so much a part of who I am that when I stopped for two years after Mom died, the realization that I wasted two years not drawing was so much for me that I broke down. This is why I have this blog.
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