Superstars and Whatnot (etc)

Over the weekend I wrote up an inkpunk post, some (meandering) thoughts about talent, ability, and creative success:

"It was at the Illustration Masters Class where I first heard Greg Manchess declare that there is no such thing as talent. A rather startling premise to tell a bunch of aspiring artists. But no, Greg stated that artistic skill “is built, not possessed”, created by hard work and training. I wonder about this idea, chew on it occasionally, still not sure what I think. It makes me think of films like Amadeus and Finding Forrester that portray bitter rivalries between merely adequate creators and their brilliant counterparts. I have no idea how historically accurate the portrayals are, but today Mozart is a household name while Salieri is mostly for history buffs. I itch and scratch away at what that thing is that makes one individual a superstar while another is just adequate." ~read more

Then this morning John Scalzi posted about Self Loathing as a creative person, how, basically, it is NOT a given that all writers (or artist, etc) must deal with the throes of depression and self loathing. It was a good one for me to read this morning: last night I was actually agonizing a bit, feeling utterly talentless and terrified of my mediocrity. Today is looking to be a much better day. Shake it off, get back to work. It's all good. Anyways, here's a bit from Scalzi:

"...Are there writers who are self loathing? Absolutely, because there are people who are self-loathing, and writers are a subset of people. There are also doctors who are self-loathing, plumbers who are self-loathing, farmers who are self-loathing and so on. There are also writers who are not self-loathing. There are excellent writers who grapple with self-loathing; there are excellent writers who don’t (there are mediocre and terrible writers in each category as well, of course). Trying to typify all writers as self-loathing is as useful as typifying all writers as anything, save the base, practical definition of “someone who writes.”...
I think people who are writers and who are also the sort of self-loathe can possibly use that self-loathing as a tool in some way, but personally I suspect if you’re genuinely deep in the throes of self-loathing, as a writer or whomever, your first stop should be a doctor, to see if that’s something that’s treatable. It might be easier to deal with the writing the sucks if you’re not thinking that therefore, you suck."  ~ read more

 Now, here... I leave you with a page from my sketchbook from two year ago,

A short collection of past inkpunky advice

I have a new post up at the Inkpunks. Well, actually, it's collection of stuff that my fellow inkpunks have written over the past few years:  inspiring, motivating, informative stuff! Go check it out!

"Ya know, these inkpunk people have written a lot of really smart stuff. I remember when I first started reading the blog a few years ago each new post was a breath of fresh air and inspiration. At the time I was trying to restart my own creative life with ambitions to write an epic fantasy novel or maybe create a webcomic, or at least start drawing again, SOMETHING! Every post left me feeling energized and ready to do it.
So today I decided to select a few inkpunk gems from the past, focusing on inspiration, setting goals, style, writing exercises, etc. Whether you are gearing up for NaNoWriMo* next month, looking for motivation to start a new creative endeavor, or full tilt in your current WIP, may this help fuel the fires and release the madness." ~read more

 
btw, you can follow the Inkpunks on twitter and facebook for updates from this fabulous little collective of creative individuals.

Speaking of stuff from the past, here's a page from my sketchbook a few years ago. (And here's the flickr set with more.)

sketchbooky stuff by galen dara.

. 

Random Miscellany of Inspiration and Insight.

(a link to my latest post over at the Inkpunks.....)

"For my post today I just wanted to share an odd assortment of stuff that inspired me, motivated me, made an impact in some way, and was usually stumbled upon at just the right moment.  It’s an eclectic assortment, little bit of this, little bit of that, just a chance to indulge in some very cool stuff other people have said and done.  Here we go...."~ read more

(with stuff from Wendy N. Wagner, Amanda Palmer, Amy Sundberg, Theodora Goss, Christie Yant, and more. Because there is just so much awesome out there, I can hardly breath sometimes for the wonder of it all.)

Podcasts!

I have a new blog post at the Inkpunks. A bit of stuffs about podcasts, and I interview Sandra Wickham about her experience as a listener and a podcaster. You should check it out.

An excerpt:

"When I’m up to my elbows in an illustration and my music library is feeling overplayed, I often turn to podcasts for some background stimulus while I work. A random sampling from the past month: I’ve been fascinated by the princess who thought she swallowed a glass piano, by sensory deprivation chambers,  by Greg Rucka on writing Punisher (etc), by a tour of the alimentary canal with Mary Roach, and by an interview with rock climber and artist, Kate Rutherford.  (Yes I have eclectic interests and a lack of focus.) The information is vast and varied, the conversation scintillating. All while I’m holed up painting away in solitary confinement.
Now, to bring some focus to the subject. In the SFF community podcasts are extremely valuable for keeping current with happenings in the publishing field, geeking out over shared interests, and as a powerful storytelling venue. Our very own Sandra Wickham has a good amount of experience in the podisphere, hosting the podcast Sound Bytes for Bitten by Books and co-hosting on Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing. Her short story, Brothers, is included in the podcast anthology, Chronicles of the Order. She has kindly consented to answering a few questions about how she got involved...." ~read more

 Interesting thing is, I have to be at a certain point in the illustration before I can turn on a podcast. I have to be past the research and thumbnail phase. Otherwise, I miss everything that is being said.   It's at that point, when I know where the illustration is going, THAT'S when I can turn off the ambient background noise, and listen to something a bit more stimulating.  Just saying.

okay, that's all. Back to work.

some alternatives to drinking alone in the dark

my latest blog post for the Inkpunks.
********
I've had this conversation several times lately:

Friend: "Hey, what cons are you going to this year? Will you be at [ComicCon? Rainforest? IMC? Norwescon? WHC? IlluxCon? WFC?... etc]"
Me: "No, i'm not going to that one either..."

It usually feels a bit like this:
 

Let's face it. Conventions and workshops are great for networking with those in your field, pitching project ideas, promoting yourself, getting immersed in your craft etc etc. But also, cons are this magical alternate reality in which your scattered tribe, who you usually connect with only via the Internets, will all converge in one geographic location and have a good time!
[read the rest....]

All Quiet Like

My latest post over at the Inkpunks, a bit about twitter:

"....My own relationship with twitter has been a shifting, morphing thing. In the spring of 2010 I was trying to get back into art making by drawing every day. I happened to discover an active twitter community of artists doing the same thing and sharing via the hashtag #draw365. I am absolutely certain I would not be where I am now if it was not for that online creative community being a place to get my my feet under me again as an artist...." ~read more 

Also, and this is purely random, today is the second day in a row that I've walked over to the local rose garden and just smelled the roses.

Storytelling with Ian Mccaig.

Today over at the Inkpunks blog I posted about what Ian shared at the Illustration Masters Class on how to take a character idea and flesh it out into a whole storyline:

"The very first question Ian asked, for every character idea I pitched to him. was: “What does your character WANT”. (A bit of a tricky question, I found.) Once we had established what my character wanted Ian used a three act structure to help me nail down the plot line with pivotal steps strategically placed along the way.* He used Star Wars as his example (of course) and so I’ll do like wise.
Okay. Here we go... " (read more)

(Meanwhile... I really haven't had much chance to go and revisit the story I started there. I'm working on exciting stuff coming up in other places: Currently finishing illustrations for issue 2 of the Fireside magazine and art for the Geek Love Anthology. Gearing up to do the internal art for Dark Depths by Wendy N. Wagner. And I just got new fiction from Lightspeed to work with. Loving all of it. But aiming to look at ways to make sure I carve out time for little start of a something that happened at the Illustration Masters Class.)

Workspace (thank you Evan Jensen)

So, last year we moved (and I lost my studio space and was relegated to a tiny desk in the corner of the bedroom.)
At the end of this month, we are moving again (final destination; still a tad bit up in the air.)

Therefore it was Oh So Fitting when Evan Jensen wrote a guest post for the Inkpunks on the topic of Workspace, particularly with an eye to relocating:

"...When Lisa and I started looking into building or finding a place across the country (Did I mention we’re moving to Seattle this year?), we knew we needed to find something that allowed for a great studio space somewhere inside or nearby. This got me thinking about what makes a perfect little nook where you can write, paint, or draw your work in peace without as much outside stress. I must point out that what works for us, might not work for all. Everyone’s comfortable in different environments, so do whatever you feel is best for your workspace...."
~ read more 

Have any advice on the topic of creating your optimal work space? Go over to Evan's post and leave a comment!

((meanwhile... I am keeping my fingers crossed on a possible location for us with a spare bedroom. I want my studio back.))

the good ol' days. i miss my studio.

Day Job

Over at the Inkpunks, Wendy has distilled almost two weeks worth of us talking back and forth about day jobs and creative life into an excellent post, The Job Continuum:

"One of the most difficult aspects of working in writing and the visual arts (all of the Inkpunks are involved in one, the other, or both), is that they are arts people seem to only value when they are earning money. No one asks a knitter if they’ve ever sold a sweater, but people tend to smirk at authors who haven’t sold any books. There’s a lot of pressure to measure your success as a writer by the amount of money you’ve made." ~read more

There you will get a glimpse into our various paths and life situations as we try to balance family, money, and creative life.

Me, I just turned in notice at my day job. Not something I did lightly:

"It has just become time for something to give.
I was struggling to keep up with illustration deadlines, spending a good amount of time at my day job doing freelance work (it’s a slow job, I am usually able to get away with that), and constantly worried about how I was neglecting my partner and son to keep on top of it all. I’d hoped to wait till my freelance income matched my day job income. I’m not quite there yet. But still, it is time."

All of us, Sandra, Erika, Wendy, Christie, John, (and tho they didn't have direct quotes in the post, Andy and Adam) all have different life situations and different ways of negotiating this topic.

Incidentally, Kat Howard also blogged along a similar thread, Stealing Sands from the Hourglass:

"Here is the thing about writing: if you wait until you have free time to do it, you will write very few words. If you want to write, you must steal time from other places of your life, and protect those stolen moments vigorously, because otherwise, things will encroach on them, the time will disappear, and you will still never have written.

How do you steal time? You make sacrifices, you give things up. You get up an hour before the rest of the house, or go to bed after everyone else is asleep. You write on your lunch hour. You don't watch television. You lock yourself out of the internet...

Sometimes, though, stealing time isn't enough. Sometimes, it's finding the energy...."
~read more

It's a different answer for everyone. How do you do it?

The Taxman and the Artist

(now posted at the Inkpunks)

So.

A few weeks ago, I took my receipts, pay stubs, and pages and pages of handwritten notes to an accountant to see about filing taxes as a freelance illustrator. It was my first time doing this and I was nervous the accountant would take one look at my stack of tattered papers and tell me to go play with my paint-by-numbers kit, or something. (I was wondering myself if this wasn’t just a glorified hobby). He didn’t laugh. He sat me down, walked me through my first Schedule C, gave insights into a few deductions I had not thought of, and complimented me on my record keeping. I had spent more than I had earned, but the IRS expects that in the first few years of freelancing/independent employment. I have the next few years to see if I can close that gap and start making a profit. *gulp*

Which will, of course, bring its own set of challenges.... ~read more

********

Much appreciation to Robert Jackson Bennett, James L. Sutter, Steven J. Scearce, Lisa A. Grabbenstetter, Evan Jensen, and Jacob Ruby who are making a living as writers, artists and freelancers, for sharing their expertise with me for this post.

heading to WORLD FANTASY CON

Here's programing for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Here's the schedule of various Inkpunk events and appearances (we're all over the place, wow.) I'm nervous and delighted to be on a panel myself: Beautiful Monstrosities with Sue Dawe, Nancy Hightower, and April Lee! (*in awe*)

And also, just because it's SO COOL.... here is Chef Morticia's Super Rad Hotel Room Cooking Challenge (for people who do con's on a budget: how to make healthy yummy food in your hotel room using a rice cooker and a clothes iron :P) (ROLLERDERBY ftw.)