A few pieces of unfinished artwork, below. I hope to complete or start each of these anew.
Why do I worry about getting each of these ideas down before a day comes when I am no longer? How many echoes of that statement reverberate hollowly through forgotten history?
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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow under Creative Commons Licence.
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I love the Dawkins sketches... wow, a true likeness!
ReplyDeleteMiss me? Love the finished Banner, dude!! The Crinoids are amazing!!
ReplyDeleteY'know? I feel the same way with my life. Sounds like another thing you and I have in common. I missed you, my friend, and your artwork.
Have a great evening!
Thank Mo! I think a re-do would need the good man with his hair cut shorter.
ReplyDeleteHi Raptor! Thanks for your compliment about the banner. It feels like my favourite piece at the moment.
Oh, how I hear you on this one. In a lot of ways the main obstacles in my path for years and years were:
ReplyDeletea) Not being able to select an idea out of the swarm of glittering visions and stick with it until it was done, and:
b) Feeling as though I needed to do justice to any given idea; that if I failed to live up to the pictures in my mind it was something serious.
These days I still deal with that a little -- some of my short fiction has been through fourteen or fifteen drafts. Hell, one of the pieces I'm currently revising has already been published...
But for the most part I've figured out that ideas are cheap and it's the execution that counts.
I've also learned a little more about prioritizing, and sticking with a particular idea or concept until it was finished, and that you solve most creative problems by creating rather than pondering.
(Pondering does have its important place -- but that place is in the context of the creative act.)
And dude, I've got to tell you -- you are still a young guy. It's taken me a long time to figure out a lot of things that you have down.
Allow yourself a little breathing room and know that you've got a lot of development ahead of you and that a lot of it is gonna take you by surprise.
Sean;
ReplyDelete"b) Feeling as though I needed to do justice to any given idea; that if I failed to live up to the pictures in my mind it was something serious."
This is basically how I felt about the Darwin Day piece. Umm, I think that was probably obvious, which is also sort of embarrassing.
"But for the most part I've figured out that ideas are cheap and it's the execution that counts."
This is a fantastic quote. I always try to live by the ideas, but this has had me thinking since I read your comment last night. (Okay, I may have slept in the middle...)
It's like you handed me an epiphany like it was spare change. Thanks, man.
This really struck a note with me, and Thanks to Sean, his A) + B) have often frozen me in my tracks. I have to learn better prioritization, and am learning good enough is plenty good for 95% of the projects I take on.
ReplyDeleteSometimes Eric, the pieces of art I personally think of as not quite good enough end up being other people's favourites. I have this one called The Basement that I really don't care for (I can spot the exact brushstroke where I gave up on caring). It's weird.
ReplyDeleteSean has an excellent point about letting some things go, and at the same time execution being more important than ideas. I have a feeling I'll be staring at the ceiling late at night soon on a new piece about this very problem.
Thanks guys.