Casa!
So my blog page doesn’t have titles on it. “Bienvenidos a mi casa!” is what I wanted to appear, hence why I titled my two other blog posts that way, but Squarespace had different ideas…
Third blog post and second one on schedule. Not much but it gives me a little boost mentally. I’m still vague with where I’m taking this - I want it to be helpful in some way- but also it’s meant to get me writing a bit more, so at least that mission is accomplished. It’s The blog is definitely in its “ugly stage” though were I to compare it to a painting: the phase where things looks so unfinished and sloppy that it only inspires you to quit. But persevere you must because the painting is just getting started and needs your precious care and attention to blossom into the finished piece it was meant to become. I’ll be trimming some fat this time around. Molding Slowly molding this blog into something that can be…well I’m not quite sure of that yet, like I mentioned. Loftier goals set aside, at it’s most basic level, I hope it’s at least part entertaining, part informative, part crazy.
Expanding on crazy - I’ve noticed a tendency to ramble if left unchecked, and although it’s easier to go with the flow and write stream of consciousness I think I need to put a bit more thought into what I want “the finished piece” to look like. Writing, just like painting, singing, acting, comedy, and music is an art and one of the many languages there are of art to speak (hopefully that made sense because it did in my head!) And just like language you can fumble around with the rudimentary skills of a child but emote BIG, open, and honestly, or you can par your speech down to perfection and deliver a rousing Ted Talk. It all depends on the message you’re trying to bring across. Your focal point you’d call it in painting. The whole reason the picture exists. The thing you want your audience to be drawn to and pay attention to. There doesn’t have to be just one - a secondary focal point and even a tertiary one aren’t uncommon, but if you’re painting isn’t structured correctly and your shapes, values, colors, and edges(just the rudimentary elements of a painting, like the words you choose in writing) don’t support the focal point(s) your piece could come off as “amateurish” and definitely not as captivating as what a well thought out piece can have.
So far I’ve been scribbling with crayons (my first post) and then maybe loosely scribbling in random colors in a coloring book (my second post) so for my third post I’d like to graduate to at least a rudimentary child’s drawing: I’m thinking yellow sun, green grass, red house, maybe purple fig I thought of a better analogy, although scribbling with crayons was definitely spot on for my first post because I had no idea what I was doing. It would be like attempting a portrait and rendering an eye really really well, and then realizing it’s in the wrong place. I’m seeing rudimentary “shading” no basic understanding of form, too many unsure scratchy lines. Confidence not only feels good, it looks good, and consequently it’s something that takes time to develop as you experiment and grow comfortable in your mark making. Just writing that sentence sent forth a burst of ideas and tackling all of them, or even some of them seem daunting, because unlike painting where you get real time feedback as you’re putting down strokes, with writing you don’t really know how something will sound until you write it out. Your drafts correct? Or editing as you write (a scratchy line), or how your sentences sound next to each other (insert third thing here because lists of things when making a point sounds better in threes, which is also the case in painting, three being a magic number). That last sentence was what I would call “showing your work” or sketching something, erasing, and sketching over it. Everyone writes differently I’m sure - low and behold I’m making it through my own ugly phase and finding my focal point in writing this - but I’m sure you’d probably go back and polish this up, remove the strikethroughs, write with clarity, simplify, actually think of a third thing… But Sketching actually works out as the perfect word to describe this post thus far because I’m still being loose, I have no real goal focal point in mind (until a couple of sentences ago) and whoopsy and the sky’s the limit with where I can take this.
But alas the time I’d set aside for writing is up (sometimes that limit can help you focus and make confident strokes) and I’ve reached the point where I’d pick a sketch to refine, but that would also involve me having a focal point in the first place. Or would it?! and I’m still debating how much of my sketchy writing (not sketchy like questionable) would be useful for me and those that end up reading this in documenting my raw process. I think my point there is just that it’s ok to show your work. To sketch with a pen instead of a pencil.
And all that from starting the post differently than I guess I was right when I wrote that for me to move onto the next step I’d have sketched enough that a full on idea or painting would have emerged and I could begin final art. There’s no way I made that leap off of this one blog post though so that means I’ll be sketching for a while until I have something to latch onto and explore. I’m thinking of how to marry all these ideas I have floating around and how to help writers become illustrators. I think I found my focal point for the blog! Huzzah!