Monday Series: A Story About Creative Block
Education Update
This week, I've been listening to a bunch of podcasts. A few notable selections include:
- Brené (Brown) with Ibram X. Kendi on How to Be an Antiracist by Unlocking Us
- The ABCs of Anti-Slavery by Sincerely, Lettie; summarized here
- A Decade of Watching Black People Die by Code Switch
These are specific episodes but I would highly recommend any of these podcasts in general. There are several others I'd like to listen to as well. I'll keep you posted as I discover new resources.
Priority/Reduction Update
This weekly priority list idea seems to be working well. I didn't draw every day last week but I did all of the other things on the list, and falling just short of the "draw-every-day" goal still left me with several days of drawing so I'll count that as a win. I'm going to keep pushing forward with this strategy and see what happens. I already feel myself falling back into my "well let me just get this one thing done first..." mentality today. Slippery slope.
That "pitch deck" project from last week actually ended up being super helpful for organizing my thoughts around this business. I floated it past my mastermind group and and they had some really great feedback. I plan to incorporate it as one of this week's priorities.
Onto the Next
Apologies for the somewhat abrupt transitions; I've been feeling very "get-it-done-fast" all day.
I do, however, want to take a quick second to talk about the progress of the June contest.
LOLOL
It's June 22nd and I'm still on the thumbnail stage. I knew this one would be a challenge.
This month's contest is very specific. So this is the first time (maybe ever) that everyone's illustrations will be so similar. The prompt is a full story with several scenes so a large part of the challenge is choosing the right moment to illustrate. This is what is tripping me up—as intended, I'm sure. I've thumbnail-ed for a while and the reality is that I don't have a clever concept. The main idea I've been running with has been widely used by many of the other participants. So I'm at the point now where I have to decide whether I'm going to go with this common idea and hope that my style makes it stand out enough or try to knock my head against the wall for a few more days trying to come up with something a little more unique.
In the interest of time and completion, I think I'm going to have to stick with the common idea. Frankly, I'm too tired to come up with something else right now; especially when I wait until about 10pm every night to even begin drawing. I'm going to lean on my character design skills, rendering style, and attention to detail with this one and see how far it takes me. I don't expect to win because I've already seen a few very smart concepts come through the forum (that I will not steal) but I'm hoping to make it into the top 16 by edging out some of the others who drew the same moment I did. We'll see how well that strategy works.
Finished is better than perfect with this one. I must finish.
