So, finally I got last night's picture to post. Apparently Firefox updated something which screwed up the blogspot stuff. Anyway here he is. I'm not very happy with the fella. I really ran into trouble last night coming up with something I liked and just defaulted to a character sketch.

I think tonight's image is much better.

I went back to "Mister Gone Fishing" and added a little monster action. I must say, I really prefer working in pencil. Every time I put ink on something I think it begins to look stiff. I think I am just freezing up and then trying to hard.

Ugh, last night was terrible. Don't you hate when you get...er, I guess we'll call it doodle block? I couldn't think of a single image. I just sat there with white paper in front of me for a couple of hours. It really drags you down.

I believe this happens in everyone's creative pursuits, you just lock up from time to time. I've talked to writers who've had it happen and met other artists who've gone through it. Have you? What was the thing (or was there a thing) that broke you out of it? I usually go back to books and look for inspiration or watch a movie. Today, I think what happened was we went to brunch with our friends David and Tim, and after brunch David said, "Hey, I'll pay for a cab to take us to a neighborhood and let's go explore!" Whoa! Simple, but very original.

We went into a neighborhood in Chicago called Old Town, I've been there many times, but never with Tim and David. There are some cute shops and we walked around for a while. I bought some spices at a place called The Spice House, and thought about buying some fancy olive oil at the Oil House (which happens to be right next door). It was so much fun and yet it was such a simple idea.

Sometimes, those are the best ones, the simple ones. You spend your time wracking your brain to be more clever, more interesting, trying to really show how creative you can be and then someone shows you the simplest way and everything becomes much clearer.

After we got home I immediately pulled out my sketchbook, and without really thinking just started drawing. I felt great and I think I'm going to try and remember this situation for next time. I get stuck, I go out and do something simple and fun, take the pressure off, relax and see what comes up.

What a great weekend.

Cheers!

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