I recently started up a group sketchblog, Monster Monday. As the title suggests, the idea is to create artwork of a new monster every Monday.
Monster Monday was inspired by other group sketchblogs such as Illustration Friday and Sugar Frosted Goodness, which I have participated in in the past. As opposed to a weekly generated theme, I wanted to work on something that I naturally loved to draw, and also have an ongoing theme. I know I get caught up in the day-to-day work and having to work on a new weekly theme while challenging, also resulted in my not participating on those sites.
I wanted to create something that had a regular theme of something that I already liked to draw. Monsters. Monsters by their nature inspire creativity since they don’t exist. You can make whatever you want. For me, it was about making the weekly project fun and as pressure-free as possible.
Continue reading 'Monster Monday'
This quote is in regards to software, but I think it applied to creative folks as well:
There’s only one person in the world whose needs and problems you really understand and whom you know exactly how to satisfy: that would be you. So build something that you use all the time, and, unless you’re really weird and different from everyone else, you’ve got a potential winner. ¶
I can relate to this message myself. Everything I’ve done over the years that’s worked out well—software, standards, writing—everything, without exception, was something I did for myself. I’ve done the other thing too: built things based on guesses about what people out there might want or need. Never worked, not once.
I bet if you did a survey of successful musicians, artists, writers, or any group of creatives, you’d hear the same story. Sometimes you can guess what people want, and you might get lucky. But probably not, so go ahead and build what you know for sure one person needs.
ongoing · Understand Your User
Published on
August 5, 2008 in
Illustration, art and cartooning.
Tags: Adobe, Adobe Illustrator, art, cartoon, cartooning, creativity, drawing, Illustration, illustrator, sketch, vector.
Sometimes (and probably most of the time) merely seeing how an effect is achieved will offer no clues as to what it’s like to create that effect for yourself. Copying or mimicking the effect can help, but those moments where it works within your own artwork should be explored the moment they happen.
When these chance moments appear, when you have that ‘a ha!’ moment, be sure to dig deeper. I’ll share with you a recent ‘eureka’ moment I had while working on a t-shirt illustration project for a client.
Continue reading 'High-Contrast Line Art Illustration Style: Self-Inspiration'
A completely fun, pointless and very Zen website I just stumbled across: Sketch Swap. The premise is simple — make a doodle, submit it, and get a random doodle in return. There’s no eraser, only one pencil size and no color. You can’t save, link to or find your doodle once you submit it. You can’t sign up, log in, create an account, comment or vote.
In short, it’s perfect.
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