Category Archives: Inspirations

More work in progress.

Posted on by Soulcraftcandyman
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Having wrapped up the two “megatwin” drawings thoughts turn immediately to what’s going to follow on behind them. As methodical as one might wish to be it’s not always a simple case of reaching over to shelf and picking up the next sheet in the pile and cleaning off the business end of the biro.

Not being in a position to work on the drawings every day means that the work flow can be a bit erratic at times. As much as one would like to have a selection of different pictures in various states of readiness to work on it don’t always happen like that. Gaps appear in the chain, as it were, when only doodles and quick sketches lie on top of the pile. At these times I reach for said sketch pile and skim through them looking for any likely candidates for refinement. My noodling sessions, coffee powered periods of ploughing through the image archive, bike mags and various web sites with a pen in one hand and a pad to hand always throw up a rich crop of little ideas. Now it’s simply a case of working a few of them up to a point where a more finished idea emerges.

The sketches here show that kind of process in loose form, from initial doodle to something I’ll transpose onto Bristol Board for inking in. It may very well end up as two versions, one with the question mark thought bubbles and one without. easy enough to do but there’s a good chance one may end up getting some paint thrown at it. The form of the bike may lend itself very well to that. Also, the detail on the horizon line in the initial sketch has been left off the latest version but may very well re-appear later on.

Inspirations part one.

Posted on by Soulcraftcandyman
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Whatever it is that forms the output from your creative noodlings everyone gets asked at one point or another where their inspiration comes from. Those tiny little seeds of ideas, they must come from somewhere right? Whilst the answer to this question is often an easy one for most creative people, sometimes it’s difficult to be specific. I find that both cases apply to my own ideas. The former seem to be the direct result of consciously absorbing influences, looking at photographs, taking pictures myself, books, looking at blog sites etc. Others feel like they come from somewhere else, some far fetched corner of my subconscious that has been busy reviewing stuff without my really knowing about it.

What’s often interesting is that what I think will influence me actually doesn’t. For example, I can spend hours browsing images on-line across a whole raft of sites, collect a few, and then promptly forget all of them by the next day. If I take pictures myself and go through the whole process of loading them into i-photo and editing some of them, then they work their way into my memory bank more. It’s something to do with interacting with an image or other material that seems to be the key. I’m still working out why all this is so as I’d like to get to the point where I know inherently how to feed the engine of my imagination prior to a big ideas session. That sounds all too controlling but at present it’s worth thinking about.

The sketch at the top of the post was strongly influenced by this image above. For once I made a direct connection between seeing and idea creation. As I said, it’s not always this plain and simple. I came across this image on a blog site called Le Containeur, which is a fantastic site. You’ll find it here.

There is of course another step to all this which is when something you’ve created heavily influences another idea. This drawing of a dirt tracker is a direct result of making that first sketch. Ill try to expand on this over the next couple of days.