By: David Billings,
on 4/8/2015
Sometimes I look back at a piece of artwork and I can’t retrace my steps. Where did that line come from? Why did I choose that color? Why a heart?
I think the art I’ve done that I like best is the art where I can’t retrace those steps. It’s art I’ve created where it feels like I dreamed it all. Which I suppose is at least sort of true.
By: David Billings,
on 3/5/2015
“You really need to be better at thinking on your feet. You were way too quiet in there.”
That’s the fun feedback I got from my boss after a very long “brainstorming” meeting. This was early in my career and I really let it get to me. For years after, I sweated meetings and routinely kicked myself if I hadn’t thrown out a handful of frenzied ideas along with the rest of the group.
I got over it. Eventually.
It took years to learn this about myself, but I finally realized and accepted that everyone doesn’t need to think at the same pace to be effective. I also learned that group brainstorming sessions are complete bullshit. Typically they become an exercise in everyone making sure the room knows how smart they are. I’ve never been part of an idea-vomiting party that resulted in a great solution. Usually they fizzle into an apathetic pile of half-baked concepts that nobody knows how to execute.
I used to listen to my colleagues whip up complex schemes on the fly and bat them around the table like wadded up pieces of paper. I could follow the conversation, but trying to get my own creativity operating in the melee was almost impossible. I had the confidence to speak, I just couldn’t think.
For a while I researched all kinds of articles online to see if I could change the way I operate. I was so sure that I was somehow inadequate. Sure enough, the Internet assured me that I was indeed totally lame because I couldn’t toss out fully-formed ideas like walnuts in a salad.
They made me feel like crap. The thing is, I’m a smart person. I’m a creative person. And one of my unique skills since childhood has been coming up with simple analogies for complex concepts. So it was pretty ridiculous that I was being shamed into feeling that I just couldn’t keep up and had to change.
Here’s how it works for me. I’m an observer, a sponge, a Bounty paper towel of things going on around me. So after I soak up everything in the room, I go away to a quiet place and wring myself out into a basin. It’s only after gaining true understanding of an issue that really juicy and effective ideas get compiled by my brain.
I still admire quick thinkers. It can be fun to watch, and I’ve worked with some truly genius people who could access their brains as quick as a Gmail search.
I’m not going to be that person. More importantly, that’s completely okay. I don’t have to be. You don’t have to be, if that’s not the way you operate.
Think about how you come up with your best ideas. How does it work? What do you do to make that happen? Because the path you took to get there is not going to work for someone else. In the end, the result is what matters. We need to teach our kids this little secret so they can confidently contribute to a team.
I’d love to hear how you operate. Toss it out there in the comments. NOW! Quick! You’re taking too long…
But seriously, I’d love to hear from you. Take your time.
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By: Jan Mader,
on 9/13/2012
Sometimes all we need to get started is an idea from out of the blue...a story starter so to speak.
See what you come up with when you finish this sentence:
A summer breeze blew through my hair and....
By: John,
on 10/19/2011
Sunni Brown’s TED talk about the importance of doodling and sketching is no news to us, but let’s hope everyone else learn a little something.
(via TED: Doodlers, Unite! | Sunni Brown)
By: Jan Mader,
on 10/6/2011
Quick! What's the first thing you think of when I say the word GRASSHOPPER? Write a sentence about the image that popped into your mind's eye!
I'll go first: Hundreds of reckless grasshoppers jumped into the path of the tractor just in time to live another second!
By: John,
on 3/13/2011
I finally got around to seeing Art & Copy, the documentary about advertising and creativity.
The doc doesn’t take a critical look at advertising’s effects on our culture. Rather, it aims its spotlight on the power of imagery, persuasion, originality, and the execution of an idea. And regardless of whether you work in advertising itself, I think all creative workers can glean some insight from this doc on how to best use their unique skills to stay ahead of the pack, sell their ideas, and ultimately, themselves.
By: Jan Mader,
on 10/19/2010
Finish this sentence:
Did you know that______________________________________?
Make it really special by painting a picture with your words. Here's an example of what I mean:
Plain old ordinary sentence: Did you know that I have a horse?
Colorful sentence: Did you know I have a horse who is as strong as a freight train?
By: John,
on 6/8/2010
I have admired the work of Jochen Gerner for a while now. His style is pure cartooning — taking the complex, and abstracting it into something simple. This minimalist, geometric approach to drawing is not limited to just the design of characters and objects, but also to the layout of the illustrations themselves. The illustrations become diagrams, allowing the viewer to take in a lot of information at a glance.
Looking through his sketchbooks reveals the mind of an artist constantly honing his illustrative shorthand, and his own cartooning vocabulary.
His experiments in abstraction and subtraction is no more evident than in a series of modified IKEA catalogue pages:
When I visited the Owlkids booth at TCAF this year, I was pleased to see that their publishing imprint had released a fun book of drawing activities for kids called ARTastic!: 200+ Art Smart Activities. It’s a colouring book with puzzles, challenges, and creativity-sparking activities all drawn in Gerner’s simple, chunky, kid-friendly lines.
It’s quite similar to Japanese artist Taro Gomi’s equally awesome and art-smart Scribbles, Doodles, and Squiggles drawing books for kids — books that encourage creativity and thinking by requiring one to colour outside the lines.
Posted by John Martz on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog |
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Tags: Cartooning, Creative Thinking, Drawing, Illustration, jochen gerner, Taro Gomi
By: John,
on 6/1/2010
Austin Kleon shares photos of his sketchbook. I applaud Austin’s efforts to ensure that his sketchbooks are not precious things, but rather places for messy, reckless doodling and thinking.
Posted by John Martz on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog |
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Tags: Austin Kleon, Creative Thinking, Drawing, sketchbooks
By: John,
on 4/27/2010
ISO50 recently approached some leading figures of the design world to learn how they deal with creative block. The results include advice and strategies from the likes of Nicolas Felton, Audrey Kawasaki, Khoi Vinh, Mark Weaver, and Erik Spiekermann.
Some highlights:
“I go on a long run, bike ride, walk with the dog; Anything but work on the project. Good ideas are stored in fat so if I burn some off I can free them up and use em.”
“Good ideas are stored in fat so if I burn some off I can free them up and use em.”
I also like this little play on words, even if I don’t think it rings true:
“Remember, a rut is also a groove.”
The two most common themes that seem to recur in the advice given: reading/consuming information to develop a bank of ideas from which to draw, and getting out of the house/office/studio to free your mind, reflect, and glean inspiration.
How do you overcome creative block?
Posted by John Martz on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog |
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Tags: Creative Thinking, How-To, ideas, process
By: John,
on 1/25/2010
(via)
Posted by John Martz on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog |
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Tags: Creative Thinking, Design, inspiration, saul bass, video
By: John,
on 1/21/2010
Till Lassmann (who drew the cute Chalkies we linked to in the summer) has posted a creative set on Flickr of random tape drawings. Till randomly stuck pieces of masking tape onto his paper, and then added linework to complete the drawing. Great idea!
Posted by John Martz on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog |
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Tags: Creative Thinking, Materials, Till Lassmann
By: John,
on 12/7/2009
The TV Show, animated by Sugimoto Kousuke and featuring the music of Takayuki Manabe, features a creative use of colour as a variety of narratives, nested within each other, soon begin to meld together. And what a fun video it is.
Posted by John Martz on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog |
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Tags: Animation, Colour, Creative Thinking
By: John,
on 12/1/2009
Loving these expressionistic paintings of classic arcade games by Brock Davis. He created them as part of his Make Something Cool Every Day 2009 project.
Posted by John Martz on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog |
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Tags: Brock Davis, Creative Thinking, painting, video games
By: John,
on 11/30/2009
Australian illustrator Guy Shield successfully proposed to his girlfriend (now fiancée) last weekend using a series of carefully designed but seemingly arbitrary illustrations. The illustrations, when folded into a specific structure, spelled out the hidden message.
Posted by John Martz on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog |
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Tags: Creative Thinking, Guy Shield, love
By: John,
on 11/18/2009
(via @frank000)
Posted by John Martz on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog |
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Tags: Animation, Creative Thinking, procrastination, video
By: John,
on 9/30/2009
I’ve seen video trailers as ads for books and comics before, but here’s something that’s new to me, and I think fairly original. Illustrator David M. Buisán has created a promo reel of sorts for his illustration portfolio, similar to an animator’s promo reel, but with static images set to music. It definitely makes the task of sifting through an artist’s body of work, and trying to decide which piece to share with you guys, far easier.
I think it’s a brilliant idea, and I’m surprised I haven’t seen more of this sort of thing. I’m certainly going to create one for my work.
Posted by John Martz on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog |
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Tags: Creative Thinking, David M. Buisán, Illustration, portfolios, promotion, video
By: John,
on 7/30/2009
(via Via Frank)
By: John,
on 7/28/2009
I got a real kick of out of this series of illustrations on Christoph Niemann’s site that describe how his illustrator’s mind works.
By: John,
on 7/27/2009
If you’ve ever wanted to design your own font, Pierre and Damien of plmd.me show you how. Step one: get a car.
By: John,
on 7/21/2009
Jillian Tamaki offers up some fine advice on keeping a sketchbook:
Your personal work (sketchbook) and jobs (projects) are not separate. Your sketchbook work should be experimental and free and represent what truly interests YOU. Discoveries made in your sketchbook can and should find their way into your paid work.
More on her site: Thoughts on a sketchbook.
Previously:
Where do you get your ideas?
By: John,
on 7/13/2009
In a recent blog post, illustrator Nate Williams shares his method for generating ideas for editorial illustrations.
The idea behind this methodology is similar to writing a song. There are only a few musical notes, but by rearranging their order, length and speed you can create an infinite amount of songs.
By: John,
on 6/9/2009
Martin Wilson remarkably creates images of words and symbols using every frame in a roll of film sequentially. He explains his process:
My pictures are painstakingly created frame by frame on 35mm film. I get the whole film developed, scan it, then piece the final image together on the computer, making a large contact sheet. It’s only when the completed film strips are laid out side by side in the contact sheets that the final image appear.
Each work usually takes months to complete, as each frame is obsessively taken in sequence. No pasting together after the event, no cheating in Photoshop!
If I make a mistake or take a frame out of place I start the film again from the beginning.
By: John,
on 6/5/2009
The Brainstormer is a fun little application designed by Andrew Bosley to generate random sketch topics by combining random words. Let’s give ‘er a spin:
Invention, Egyptian, fishing boat.
Remorse, colonional, zoo.
Conflict with a god, mechanized, attic.
This sort of thing is just as useful for writers, cartoonists, and anyone stuck in a rut who just needs that little seed of an idea to get going.
(via Finn Clark)
By: John,
on 4/24/2009
Michael Nobbs has created a small booklet called 75 Ways to Draw More which he offers up on Flickr for free download. Like the title says, the book contains 75 light-hearted ideas for getting people to draw more. He plans for there to be a Flickr group of the same name in a week or two in which people will be able post drawings made in response to the book. Get to work!
exposed the tick that crawled up my neck from the backseat of the car. Looking for a pair of tweezers was not in my plan for the day and neither was freaking-out. I hate ticks almost as much as I hate horseflies so I did what I had to do.
...and that was weird because I don't have much... ? ;)
LOL,
Janet
PS
I liked your sentences.
And I liked yours! Too funny!!!!
and it made me think of days at the beach with warm sand and cool waves. I love the beach, the sand, the waves and breezes blowing through my hair.
Anne and Sasha
dried off the sweat as I hiked uphill. What a wonderful feeling! :-)
A summer breeze blew through my hair and took me on the ride of my life. You know that incredible feeling of being swept of your feet by the breeze and the sweet breath of a kiss that has yet to come from a brand new love.Anticipation is pure bliss.
A summer breeze blew through my hair and sudddenly I realized that I had been asleep for hours.
My intentions were to just lie and listen to the lulling of the crashing waves. But now as that summer breeze ruffled and tossed my hair,,, bringing me back to reality....
it all came back to me,,,,,
Wow. Now I remember why I love to blog!!!!
A summer breeze blew through my hair and I was perplexed, as I was indoors at the time!
Jan I am planning on giving you a big shout out next blog post, now this jolly campaign is winding up! You were one of the first to encourage with this blogging lark, so have much to thank you for! lol xx
Well so much for the daydreaming. Now I have to find those tweezers and get rid of this tick so I can get back to the important task I have planned for today. If I don't get the supplies I need and finish this then tomorrow the world will .........
A summer breeze blew through my hair and I realised that, despite everything, this beautiful place would never change. In a world of turmoil, it had remained constant and consistent in its untarnished beauty.