Parallel!
nuts and bolts
I definitely didn’t do enough research to speak intelligibly on this subject (helping writers become illustrators) as this blog is meant to foster writing in me. Too much noodling breaks flow and makes this more of a chore as opposed to a fun writing exercise, and above all else, foster the muse within. This is the part where I throw paint down on a canvas until I see a direction to go in, metaphorically speaking. And it’s the metaphor between painting and writing that I wanted to initially explore. I looked all over (ok not for too long actually) to see if anyone else had framed their “how-to” in the way that I’m going to but didn’t find anything, which for me was as good as a green light.
Note to self: How do writers find their voice? I'm assuming that’s what I’m exercising as I stream of conscious this blog out, and it’s something that will come out develop with time? Is it similar to a painter trying to “find their style?”
This needs to be fleshed out more for sure, and maybe I have it all wrong but if we’re going to get to the nuts and bolts of painting, but in a way where you can draw some comparison dear writer, it would be like this:
Shape (Can be thought of as the outline of your story)
Value (Your plot/story structure)
Color (Your genre/mood)
Edge (Was trying to come up with a parallel for this and possibly linked it to prose? This one may need adjusting)
These are the four things you will have to master, and by that I just mean have a good handle on/be able to control in order to end up with art you’re going to be satisfied with, and more importantly, be able to illustrate your own stories! I feel like in the publishing world, illustrators make the leap to author/illustrator all the time but I don’t really hear about it going the other way around. Hence the focus of this blog. Collaboration and birthing something new into the world when we are working on stories is half the fun, in my opinion. But I’m sure there must’ve been instances where maybe you had a clear picture in your head of what you wanted something to look like or even just a fuzzy vision of the overall book but you didn’t have the necessary skill (or at least you think you don’t) to paint what you were seeing.
I’ll definitely be pointing you to sources that can explain things better than I can like Marco Bucci’s 10 minutes to better painting series on Youtube. But having gone through my own evolution (and still going through it I may add) I think starting traditionally will not only help you develop so much more as a painter, but your work will automatically stand out from the oversaturation of digital art. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of strengths and perks digital has over traditional, but it can’t ever replace that tactile feel of putting actual materials to paper, the re-energization you get when working with your hands, and not to mention the amazing practice you get from not having an easy undo button you can hit when you make a mistake. Traditional art forces you to think on your feet, and although it may be cheaper in the long wrong, digital can act as a sort of stunt to your growth as an artist, at least it did for me. You don’t need anything too fancy to get started though. A plain, mechanical pencil in a toned tan sketchbook is what I started off with before I went off into my digital la la land. I LOVE working with color, but I’ve yet to be able to replicate one of my digital pieces traditionally, or at least create something comparable. Relearning traditional media is an ongoing quest for me as of right now, so it’s something I can draw from for this blog as well because we’ll be starting in similar boats!
If you can write you can draw
I still very well ask myself could this be an instance of the blind leading the blind? I’m a self-taught illustrator (but in no way an expert) and I’m still in the rudimentary phase of my writing career. I’ve always found it more comfortable to write when there was something important I needed to express for instance, and other than being a voracious reader in my former years and one creative writing class I took in college, I imagine I’m going to be a self-taught author as well. Technically I’ve already released my first author/illustrated picture book WHAT MY DADDY LOVES last year, but I had a lot of help and the refrains (if that is the right word) were relatively simple. I want to write more books on the subject of mental health, and there’s a book that I’ve been working on and off on for the better part of two years that I’ve been taking my time to develop into the right story I’d like to tell. The text is in a good place, but the visuals are still coming in murky because of the subject matter, but I digress. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m not hip to all the author lingo (like literary devices) to be able to effectively draw these parallels and show you that illustrating is just another language under the art umbrella. You already write, so you’re just a hop and a skip away from being able to illustrate (like only you can I may add because everyone has their own unique style just like everyone has their own voice when they write).
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Well I threw out some fancy terms without really explaining/going in depth so perhaps subsequent posts can tackle those questions. Trying to figure out how to explain Assuming you’ve been following along this writing journey from my first blog post is also not a given, so I think I’m going to abandon my strikethroughs and just do my best not to use the backspace (which to me is like taking an eraser to a pencil sketch over and over). Trying not to ramble and keep these things at a manageable length is also something I’m playing with, and I definitely want to incorporate more pictures (because they automatically make things more interesting) but to do so means I have to keep good on my promise of making more traditional art. Incorporating more of the design elements from my first couple of blogs will also make my artsy side sing! A whole paragraph of to-do’s and observations? That’s what happens when you record a song in one take. It’s by no means perfect but it gets the soul out there more I think. Editing has its place for sure, but sitting here and pouring over my words and whittling them down isn’t something that interests me at the moment. I’m still writing! And what works works, what doesn’t doesn’t. I’ll learn as I go. A helpful attitude I think when you’re tackling something you’ve never done before, like illustrating your words for instance ;)