If the publishing deals dried up today, I’d still be drawing, painting, and writing, just for me, just like I did before, published and paid, or not.
Category: Making
The starving artist: a culture, not a law
Changing the law needs lawyers. Changing a culture doesn’t need lawyers, we just need everybody to agree, and that’s hard.
Bit by bit
Becoming an artist is possible, drawing-by-drawing, day-by-day, bit-by-bit. Just because you’ve never done it before, doesn’t mean you can’t.
One thing for yourself
How do you get the energy to do anything creative after a long, boring, soul-destroying day at work?
How to: Broadcast your studio for regional and remote Australia
I’ve recently offered the opportunity for schools in regional and remote Australia to come into my studio on a live workday. The aim is to give some 1:1, intimate illustrator time to those who are often at a geographical disadvantage where it’s too expensive for schools to pay for people like me to visit them.… Continue reading How to: Broadcast your studio for regional and remote Australia
Passion through persistence
I can’t help but think that the romantic notion of ‘passion’, that we’re born to do one thing on this earth, is entirely false.
Going Pro
Maybe you don’t need to write or draw everyday. If it’s just a hobby and you’re not planning to go pro, then what’s the point of everyday?
Practice doesn’t make perfect
Practice doesn’t make perfect; it makes better. Aiming for ‘perfect’ is a problem because every time we practice, we learn. Every time we learn, we improve. Perfect implies an end — a finish line. But when you’re playing an infinite game, the finish line keeps moving forward; your expectations are always a little bit ahead… Continue reading Practice doesn’t make perfect
The usefulness of constraints
It’s easy to put limits on ourselves. To see these things as barriers that prevent us from doing what we want to do. My desk is too small. I don’t have enough time. I don’t have a ‘space’. I can’t afford to do art. I can’t draw. But barriers are only barriers if you see… Continue reading The usefulness of constraints
The power of teachers
In year 7, I was asked to write a story for a class assignment. It was a pop-creative-writing task. I ended up writing a derivation of the Jonah and the Whale story from the bible. It was a Catholic school, the class before this one was Religion, so it was the first thing that came… Continue reading The power of teachers