‘Avoiding boredom’ is something that we’re trained to achieve in a bid to be ‘more productive’. But it’s not until you permit yourself to be bored again that you truly see the power of it in helping you make more lateral and inventive connections, more often.
Category: Making
Colour palette reference: Hilda
A handy colour-guide to the wonderfully-controlled colour palettes of the Hilda comics series.
Time is an ingredient
To bake sourdough bread, you need four ingredients: Flour, Water, Culture, and Time. Time is as important to sourdough bread as the things you can feel and weigh. And if you want some fresh bread in the morning, you’ve got to plan for it, you’ve got to be preparing things a day or two in… Continue reading Time is an ingredient
Striving for imperfection
Humans watch other humans strive to do things perfectly because it’s rare that it will ever be perfect. Even the most awarded, respected, consistently performing master of their craft will, on occasion, have an off day.
Scales of success
What success looks like to one person is different to another person. So which scale should we all subscribe too? Or should we simply stop caring?
In pursuit of less
In writing, people often mistake word count for effort and complexity. But poetry and kids books are a good example of how the opposite is true.
An argument for keeping my day job
Perhaps the frustration you face in your day job is a source of energy in your creative work and that’s something you shouldn’t change right now.
Picture books should be a collaboration, not a negotiation
Picture book making is a bit like improv theatre. You have actors working in an open, trusting way, to create something more than the sum of it’s parts.
Art is an infinite game
How do you ‘win’ at art? More likes? More followers? Better reviews? What about if the point of Art is to keep playing the game and not to win it?
Which medium should I use?
Watercolour, acrylics, crayons. Different mediums produce different results and the potential can be overwhelming. So, which one should you stick with?