As I write this, I’m sitting at my kitchen table on a sunny, chilly Sunday morning, watching an episode of Vera and drawing.
I often find it hard to watch TV or a movie without doing something else at the same time. I don’t know if that’s an ADHD thing or just a people thing. Either way, it’s not a reflection on how interesting the show is.
And I often find it hard to get around to drawing all on its own , too. That *is* an ADHD thing, I find it challenging to start any new task that I know will require a lot of focus or that will take a long time. (And since I have a lot of trouble breaking projects into smaller tasks, it always feels like everything will take forever.)
So the TV/drawing combination works for me.
I just have to choose a show that doesn’t require full concentration and a drawing that is about process instead of about thinking up new stuff.
Hence this robot party that’s just getting started in here:
They aren’t robots yet but they will be soon. Image description: a photo of a drawing of a series of brightly coloured rectangles with a smaller rectangle on top of each one. They’re on a rectangular piece of white paper that’s resting on a wooden table and there is a pile of markers and pens at the top of the image.
Yesterday during lunchtime, I was feeling a bit tense so I tried the traditional remedy…
I drew a few monsters to help my brain relax and find a little breathing room.
Image description: 5 monsters created by drawing a single bumpy line, dividing the line and the bottom half of the paper into 5 sections and then colouring each section separately. The monsters are against a background of yellow lines. The first monster is red, with a tuft of black hair, has one eye and is wearing a blue pinstriped shirt. The second monster is purple with two eyes, a mouthful of tiny teeth, pointed ears, a pointy-tipped tail and is wearing a shirt with yellow splotches. The third is blue with black arms, three eyes, and a wide open mouth, the fourth is yellow with green polka dots and a ridge of green spikes in the back of its head. It is turned to the left so only its right eye is visible. The fifth monster is only partially on the page, has green skin, two eyes, and black horns and is wearing a red sweater.
A photo of a collaged page with bits of paper and stickers. Images in the collage include a skull with a purple moth on top, a snake, a girl with an umbrella patting a dog, tulips, a stamp, a few vintage-looking photos of people and ads, small painting of coloured circles outlined in black on a brown background with black pinstripes, and text reading ‘impressions of reality…’ ‘crystal’ and ‘stones, bones, and skin’
Well, truth be told, I started this last night but I’m still playing with it this morning.
I was just holding a small piece of flower-printed paper over the right hand side of this collage trying to figure out where to put it when I was struck once again by how weird the creative process is.
When I’m writing, particularly fiction, the feeling of getting things ‘right’ is really strange.
Sometimes my words come easily and sometimes I have to carve each one by hand but they often (always?) feel like I am remembering or uncovering them rather than inventing them. As if they are something I already know but I have to go through a process to remind myself.
And when I am trying to figure out something about a character or to iron out a plot point, there is always this sense that I am trying to figure out something that already exists. Like I am guessing until I get the correct answer. Sure, sometimes I have to put an ‘almost right’ answer for the moment so I can keep the story moving but I always know I will have to come back to it.
So, there’s a certain feeling to it when the words or the ideas start to work. And then when I go to revise, there is a different feeling of sliding words and ideas from place to place until they fit- like figuring out the picture in one of those little square puzzles made from tiles.
A similar thing happens in storytelling or in creating a workshop, I uncover the ideas and words until I *get* them and then the story or the presentation is mine.
When I draw, I usually start with an idea of something to draw and then go through the process of discovering what else wants to be in the image, what else belongs.
With collage/junk journaling, unless I am using the process to work through an issue, it’s rarely about expressing a certain idea.
Mostly, I start with a piece of text or an image that appeals to me and then I flip through my current junk journal to see what kind of background page it needs.
Then I go through my bits of paper, my stickers, my ephemera, to see what else belongs with that starting piece.
That sense of it ‘belonging’ or (in drawing) of it ‘wanting’ to be there is very much the same kind of feeling as ‘remembering’ or ‘discovering’ in my writing and storytelling.
There is that real feeling that the thing I am making, be it a story or be it an image, already has a shape, a reality, and my job is to figure it out.
I often find myself saying ‘Oh, right!’ as I scribble words down, as I outline an image I have drawn, or as I finish moving an image around my collage and set it in the right place.
For example, the collage in the photo above, was going to be two separate things. I was just working on the left hand side until that rectangular piece of paper with the woman on it ‘wanted’ to bridge both pages.
That’s when I ‘discovered’ that this was a two page collage and that the left hand side would have one type of images while the right had something entirely different.
And my little piece of flowered paper belongs on the right, not the left, but I just don’t know where yet.
I’ll just keep moving it around until it tells me where it belongs.
I bought myself a new pan of paints on Wednesday and decided to give them a try last night.
I did a few brushstrokes of paint on the page and, once they dried, I outlined them with black marker and little faces and antennae to create these fun little creatures:
Image description: my small drawing of a series of creatures created by making a brushstroke with light orange paint and then outlining them/adding details with black marker. The figures are mostly rounded with big eyes and look like little ghosts or bugs, some have antennae. My initials and the date are on the right hand side.
I’m delighted by the one in the skirt. What a fun little dance they’re doing!
(Yes, I can be delighted by my own work, aren’t you? I didn’t know it would turn out so well.)
I had a great time teaching short sessions with story cards (prompt images drawn on index cards) at a local school today.
The kids had a grand time with my story cards and an even grander time making their own.
I was delighted by how they responded when I asked them ‘What is creativity?’ I was expecting them to say ‘Drawing.’ But instead they said ‘Making stuff’ and ‘having cool ideas’
Making stuff and having cool ideas – it’s a good way to spend your time.
Image description: a selection of simple index card drawings spread out on a table with markers and colouring pencils nearby. The drawings include a gold star, a crown, a flower, a dog’s face, and a cup of tea.
