Well, yesterday I had a bit of a breakthrough and it definitely came from an unexpected direction. The morning had been filled with life tasks like laundry and on my way to the coffee shop I stopped and chilled with my neighbors. They were sitting out, and, of course, I couldn't say 'no.' Well, I could, but I didn't want to.
While chilling they started to tell me some interesting stories.
Vague, yet pointed, on the ghost and death theme. About a tall man wearing a black suit that shouldn't be there. And, when I say tall, I mean unnatural height...if that makes sense. I guess you could say a good comparison would be slender man, but that's a whole genre in itself. I kinda just shrugged it off as more stories but...
When I got to the coffee shop I was suddenly struck with a series of imagery. It was a really weird feeling. I could almost see the pictures as clear as day. And, well, that kinda disrupted the next several hours of what was supposed to be business stuff. But, instead of saying, 'I'll work on that later,' I followed the inspiration and just ran with it.
For the first time, I think ever, I was like, 'I have an idea!' and I was able to, in at least some ways, put that into physical form.
I should be clear, I'm pretty good with words, but turning words into images, that's always been a struggle. I think I've talked about it before, but one of the greatest frustrations, at least for me, is getting my hand to translate the thoughts in my head into art. I can do it spontaneously, a type of passive form of creativity, but actively... Over the last 4 months things have been changing though. The muscles in my head are getting stronger, and how the talk to my hands, well, the messages are getting clearer.
Enough babbling on about the stuff in my head...let me talk about the story that came out. I'm sure it's been done before, this way, but not by me. Either way, I wouldn't care.
The first image that popped into my head was:
'The tall man in a black suit who stands behind a fence. He wears a hat and you cannot see his face'.
I did in pen, because that's all I thought I had laying around. It was a spontaneous thing. I'm pretty sure I was in the middle of a conversation with another regular at the coffee shop when I basically cut what we were saying off, turned around, and started sketching. I even started to turn on music, but didn't realize nothing had started until the image was almost done. It's simple, rudimentary, but, that basis for a lot more.
From there, my head started to blossom with another idea. A continuation about this tall man.
It's definitely creepy. My mind was going to places that are kind of scary. I mean, what kind of stuff would scare you? A man in your house? Keeping your eyes closed at night when you wake up to noises? Seems pretty weird to me. I get shivers when thinking about it...but, what could be scarier?
Not following the advice given in the previous panel and opening your eyes...I'd think, hehe.
All this stuff is pretty rough, I know. Sketches, basically. But, a framework to build so much more on to. Basically, painting goals :)
It was just after this drawing I remember that I had more drawing tool in my backpack, which made me really happy, for a number of reasons. I could now make creative choices when it came to how I drew what I was thinking. This was another of those breakthrough moments, when I really began to think about how I wanted to put together the next piece, and what tools would be best.
Working with permanent markers again was a blast. Having a clear vision in my head of how I wanted him to look made things so easy. It took me a second to think of how to draw an all black suit...and I decided on inversion. The surrounding is all black, which makes you think he might be wearing white, but then there's the line, 'His favorite color is black.' Which makes you wonder why he's wearing white, unless you realize he's wearing black and everything else is white...a work in progress, hehe. But, still a step forward when it comes to thinking creatively. When that moment hit, it was pretty damn cool. Like getting a 94 on a spelling test in grade school :)
So, where else would this dude be? How else could he be scary?
Oh, just before I did this I quickly ran home and grabbed my inks, so I would have another way to draw out what was in my head.
But, yeah, a dude who stands on the sidewalk alone at night, just waiting. This definitely needs to be refined, but, I'm cool with it for now. To me this moved the narrative forward and I can always come back later and redo it. Well, I'm 100% sure I'm going to be revisiting these in the future. Mine this creativity for all it's got, hehe.
Locked doors won't stop him from coming in.
Wow, right? Talk about a fear. It was about this time that the concept began to firm up in my head, and some symbolism started to find it's way in. I was also really happy with the way the drawing came out. I decided to play with perspective and didn't have to think too much about it, which was trippy. I was like, 'I wanna do this,' and I did it. To some this is a 'duh!' moment, but not for me :)
For this one I was thinking
How cool is the suit he's wearing? My buddy at the coffee shop asked why he was wearing jeans, which means I definitely need to come back to this one, hehe. But, he knew the man was facing away, which was my huge accomplishment.
So how do you turn a frown upside down?
By using more symbolism, hehe. This one might take a second to figure out. So far I've had a bunch of interpretations and all of them have been pretty interesting. Not sure where exactly this is all going to go, but, like I said, a framework for a concept, the hardest part of anything creative.
It was a wild ride, and as simple as all this might seem, very draining. I had plans to work on a bunch of creative concepts but ended up mostly doing routine tasks. It was worth it though. When inspiration strikes, you gotta run with it or risk losing it. Do I think this is particularly original in terms of character...perhaps not. But, I did what I set out to do, which is an accomplishment. Baby steps, baby steps.
Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed this walk through of the creative things I did yesterday. Big or small, every day is progress if you work at it :) Be well!
Wessel
Previous posts:
My Creative Journey 43
My Creative Journey 42
My Creative Journey 41
My Creative Journey 40
My Creative Journey 39
My Creative Journey 38
My Creative Journey 36 + 37 + Watch me Paint! Ep. 16
My Creative Journey 35 + Watch me Paint! Ep. 15
My Creative Journey 33 + Watch me Paint! Ep. 14
My Creative Journey 32 + Watch me Paint! Ep. 13
My Creative Journey 31 + Watch me Draw! Ep. 7
My Creative Journey 30 + Watch me Paint! Ep. 12
My Creative Journey 29 + Watch me Draw! Ep. 06
My Creative Journey 28
My Creative Journey 27
My Creative Journey 26 + Watch me Paint! Ep. 11
My Creative Journey 25 + Watch me Draw! Ep. 05
My Creative Journey 24 + Watch me Draw! Ep. 04
My Creative Journey 23 + Watch me Paint! Ep. 010
My Creative Journey 22
My Creative Journey 21 + Watch me Paint! Ep. 09
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