Gallery – Inkober/Drawloween 2016

There are a lot of different drawing challenges on the net. Mermay. Junicorn. Kaijune. I think a couple of the oldest are Inktober and Drawlloween. I think. They may simply be the most famous or the ones I was first aware of. In any case, back in 2016 I posted a drawing a day during October. I used the Drawlloween prompts rather than the Inktober ones. I don’t remember why but I suspect the Drawlloween prompts just seemed more fun. It was fun and I’d enjoy doing it again sometime. This year I’ll just post a gallery of the work I did in 2016. Boo!

Story Seed #60-#90

Every picture tells a story. Or suggests one. There are 31 possibilities up there. Pick an image. Write the story that it illustrates.

Recommendation 

127 Terrifying Creepypasta. In keeping with this week’s early Halloween theme, here’s a list (with links) of 127 creepypasta – short internet based horror stories. Have fun reading!

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I’m been thinking more and more about what projects to handle in 2021. It’s easier for me to manage time and projects when I plan ahead, when I figure out what I want to be doing and set out some goal posts that I want to pass.

Last week I wrote that I was thinking about suspending commissions so that I could spend more time creating art for and marketing my zazzle and redbubble stores. I thought about it a bit and decided that I’ll be spending the first 6 months of 2021 just working on the stores. I may take on commissions again in July. If I do, it will be at a higher rate. I don’t think I’ve raised my rates in 10 years. The new rates will still be less than what I make while working for the post office. (If you want my rates, just ask.)

It always feels odd to write about pricing my illustrations. Art is one of those cultural necessities that seems sullied by putting a price on it. And yet, I live in a determinedly capitalist culture that insists that everything has a price. When I gave people art when I was young they would often say that they would hold on to it until I was rich and famous, implying that they’d make a tidy profit by selling it. Someday. And I’d be happy if they did get a handful of cash for some sketch I did 30 years ago.

I’ve read plenty of stories about paintings that sold for more money than the actual artist who painted them made in their lifetimes. Mostly I’m appalled. The painting isn’t better for having been traded for a higher stack of cash. It wasn’t improved. And the person who did the work didn’t benefit. Yes, there are living artists who sell their work for ridiculous amounts. I don’t begrudge them. I’m just not impressed by rich folks competing for ownership of more things.

I used to think of art as low in value in life. We need to eat. We need to sleep. We need places to live and clothes to wear. When things break we need people who know how to fix them. But art? I figured that we could live without it so getting paid for it or getting rich at it or doing it for anything but fun seemed weird. And by art, I mean all the creative arts – writing, cartooning, singing, acting, poeting, painting, etc, etc, etc.

The thing is, art is culture. Culture is the stories and metaphors and ideas that our brains use to organize and communicate our thoughts. Culture is the software that our brains use to think. No art, no thoughts. American culture is obsessed with money and status. I try to look at my thoughts and attitudes to determine whether those thoughts and attitudes are ones I developed consciously or if I’ve just absorbed them.

I’m heading off on tangents that I can’t really explore without doing a lot more writing than I have time for. And time is what has become more important. I believe that the value of any work of art is reflected in how long it survives after it becomes part of the general culture. Frankenstein. Starry Night. The Road Not Taken. MacBeth. Lola. Superman. Kafkaesque. Lovecraftian. Oz. Peanuts. The art that survives is the art that matters. There are artists who were financially successful in their lifetimes who are forgotten now. There are artists who struggled financially whose work is now known by millions who have never experienced it directly.

I never expected to get rich doing art. It’s always been a way for me to relax. The process of drawing shuts off more annoying parts of my brain. Writing does the same but I need a quiet environment to write. I can draw in a noisy space. At this point I’ve got a job that pays all my bills and, barring the economic collapse of the USA, should continue to do so until I retire.

What I want to do is create some art, some stories, that has(have?) the potential to live on after I’ve stopped. Living that is. The art that has its own life is generally the art that is original. Using comic book artists as examples – consider Jim Steranko and Berni Wrightson. Both brilliant artists. Both illustrated some lovely stories that feature established corporate owned characters. Outside of comics Wrightson’s work is more likely to be remembered because he co-created Swamp Thing with Len Wein and his illustrated Frankenstein presents a definitive version of the story.

It’s not so much that I want to be remembered after I’m gone. Once I’m gone I don’t expect to care. History and culture will save what it deems important. There are images I want to see and stories I want to read that don’t yet exist. No one is commissioning me to create them. People commission me to illustrate their own ideas, not mine. If I want to see those specifici images and tells those specific stories I’m going to have to create them. And that means I’ve got to dedicate some time to creating them.

The Mighty Nizz. Misspent Youths. Kaiju Weather. The Witch Engines.

More next week. perhaps.

Thank you again for dropping by. I appreciate it. Your time is valuable. I hope, in the next week, you’re able to spend some of it doing things that bring you joy. If that’s creating art, yay! If it’s experiencing art, yay! If it’s engaging with the world in other ways, YAY!