From the Seat of a Train (Weekly Update)
Usually, I like to write my blog posts from the comfort of my local cafe. With a nice cold drink and warm piece of coffee cake by my side. Tonight, I’m typing this from a heavily delayed train. Some folks have been coming onto the train, some are leaving, some are just standing on the platform. I got on and figured the first car on the train is always air conditioned and it’s a seat that I can use to work it. I’ll take what I can get.
The art world for me this week has been a little all over the place in terms of content. I can feel both my creativity center and my hand rearing up for some quality stuff and I don’t want it to go to waste. My brain and my hand rarely align in their goals. Sometimes I’ll have great ideas but am cursed to draw only draw stick figures, while other times I’ll be itching to draw something spectacular only to met with art block. So during the times they both want to work together, I try and make the best use of it.
I have a few things lined up on my art docket right now. I’m working on another line of Project Hail Mary stickers for Etsy and my website’s store. People really like my other two lines so might as well give the people what they want! If they want Rocky, then Rocky is who they’ll get!
I’ve also been working on a sticker for the little coven that me, my mom and my dog, Esmarelda, are members of. I actually got the idea of this sticker in a dream I had over the weekend. In the dream, I was at a tattoo parlor and didn’t know what design I should get. I had Esmarelda on my lap and for some reason, she jumped up at me and put her paws on my cheeks. Then, a random coworker of mine came over and put her hands on my face. I looked up at her and said “This is the design!” and then I woke up with this idea of a pair of hands and paws under a set of eyes. I just knew I had to draw it! Plus, I’ve always wanted to draw something and say “It came to me in a dream”.
A few days ago I finished up the piece I was working on for my “to be eventually released” interactive graphic novel, “Anomalied”. When I posted it, it got the attention of 8 people. Not sure what’s going on with Instagram lately but it just feels like I’ve been blacklisted or something. Not a single one of my posts has gotten beyond the realm of my current followers. It’s always the same 15 people that see and like my things. I know I mentioned this last week when I mentioned my artist friend with a far larger following and how even he has been experiencing a significant repression of his posts too. I don’t do it for the likes or the fame, but I at least want the reach! To know that my art and stories will find an audience that might be interested in it! I’ll just continue doing what I’m doing and hope that it get’s better.
Also in that post, I added on a quick sketch of my two main characters sharing a lil’ kiss. I can’t remember the last time I drew two characters kissing, I felt like I was making fandom shipping art, especially when drawing a character with horns. It’s giving “I read Homestuck in high school and am not over the crush I had on Tavros when I was 13”.
Artists often create in response to people or things they love and feel strongly about. And this often shows up in their work. I recently read a textpost on Twitter that said:
I feel like so much of my really choice portrait work has been fueled by how attractive I found my subject to be. From Brendon Urie to Daredevil, I’ve always been drawing from the heart….and other places. My thinking is always that if you’re going to stare at someone’s face or body for a prolonged amount of time, you might as well enjoy the view.
I believe this far more eloquent quote about inventing products can also pertain to creating art:
In my last few years as a hopeful romantic, I’ve drawn at least two portraits where the subject was a man I was swooning over in my real life at the time. I liked them to the point of artistic creation. I dedicated real time to sitting there and studying their faces because I felt so strongly about them. They never saw what I drew and I’ve never shared them publicly. Those art files are now tucked firmly away in the far reaches of my hard drive where I can cringe and quickly scroll away when I happen upon them.
But creating out of attraction is 80% of the reason why I’m so successful on Etsy. If I didn’t find Daredevil (AKA Charlie Cox) hot, I would never have created the volume of Daredevil fanart and stickers that I have. Of course this isn’t to say that all art has to come from having the hots for whatever or whomever it is that you’re drawing, but it can certainly help some of us! Art comes from passion and the heart and some otherworldly need to express your mind in the physical realm. Horny art is just a little part of that.
Machines can never create true art because they don’t have a soul from which art can be conjured. They can never yearn or feel. They can never be moved in such a way that compels them to make something. They can never love to the point of creation.
And no, they can never be horny.
I’m now approaching my stop after my train departed about an hour and a half past schedule. Several hours past schedule for the trains who were delayed before me. I’m just grateful to not be someone who has to be home at a certain time….or someone who gets bored easily! As long as I have a Wifi signal and project to work on, I could’ve sat on this train all night! Wouldn’t have bothered me.
That’s all from me this week! Draw often and don’t be afraid to draw what your heart tells you!
All the best -Shelby :)