Psychology of the Artist: How to get more creative

I'd like to start a general series of post over time about something that we tend to avoid addressing as artists, writers, and anyone doing any type of creative work, and that is the our general state of mind and approach to things. Its easy to psyche ourselves out and put ourselves in a place were we don't do any creative work, or if we do our work suffers do to our mental state. I like some of the points brought up in this video, something I've heard from several artist and its a good thing to remember: Don't obsess over what others are doing! "Don't be competitive, be creative" – Wallace Wattles

More on the Monomyth

This is in response to the bit Lynn posted a month ago, with the puppets discussing Joseph Campbell.

If you want to write these days, especially genre fiction, then you've definitely heard of Campbell and the monomyth. I first heard of him freshman year in high school, when my English teacher had us analyze Star Wars. (I really liked that English teacher.) Even then, though, part of me rebelled against the idea of Campbell's monomyth as a formula for writing. Here's some thoughts on why.

Why Are Things Creepy?

Why do some things scare us when there is no actual element of danger?
This video by Vsauce tries to explain why we find certain things creepy. A helpful video if you're considering writing a scary ghost story someday.

WARNING: Some of the imagery shown are disturbing.

Yoshikazu Hamada Comic Digital Drawing Videos

A video of a 2 comic pages drawn digitally by manga artist Yoshikazu Hamada.
I'm not sure which program he using for these pages, quite possibly Manga Studio.  By my estimation it took him about 15-16 hours to finish these two pages. The pages are from his series つぐもも "Tsugumomo" published in the comic magazine Comic High!

In this other video he shows how he digitally draws an entire room, quite impressive. It was meant to be used for his comic series but was rejected by the editor.


Apparently he does not use any assistants and does all the backgrounds himself.

He has a whole bunch of other videos with both digital and traditional illustrations which I recommend you check out. If there is anything you want translated. Let me know.

The Hero's Journey as Explained by Puppets

Need a refresher on the Joseph's Campbell's Monomyth formula?
Puppets, Mario and Fafa the groundhog from Glove and Boots, are here to educate.

You can find out more of Joseph Campbell's theory from his book, A Hero of a Thousand Faces.

The Science of Insight Creation

Jonah Lehrer - Contributing Editor of Wired has a new book out titled, Imagine: How Creativity Works. I was intrigued so I decided to do a quick google search and found this video.

He shares scientific research on how the brain comes to those 'A, ha!' moments, why brainstorming doesn't work, how criticism is essential for creativity, and other tidbits on how creativity works. Planning to check out the book eventually.

Character Design and Sihouettes

A cool article using silhouettes to create strong character designs. The rest of the blog is pretty interesting too and worth taking a look.

Thanks to Alex for the heads up.

Charles Schulz Interview

It's Peanuts' 59th anniversary! Here's the 1997 Charlie Rose interview of Schulz in 1997.

Free Peanuts

Universal Syndicate's Comics.com has recently revamped their website. Along with a new look and navigation system, they now offer 50 years worth of free Peanuts cartoons!

Great news for people who don't want to schlep $29 (or $19 if you're buying it from Amazon.com) for those fancy Fantagraphic books.

The new Comics.com site also offers years of archives of other great comics such as Get Fuzzy, Liberty Meadows, Alley Oop and my personal favorite Pearls Before Swine. Another new feature is the ability to customize your own personal RSS feed or homepage to get only the comics you want see.

Snoopy.com, the official Peanuts site is also in the process of being revamped. Another thing to look forward to!

Travis Charest Step by Step

I am a BiiiiG Travis Charest fan, and I can't believe I haven't shared this article with you guys yet. It's a short tutorial on how he does one of his beautiful sequential panels. I have to warn you though, he uses good ol' ink and airbrushes, no computers!

To see more of his art check out the extensive Official Unofficial Travis Charest Gallery.

I also recommend you check out his Space Girl series.

All good stuff, all good stuff.

Samurai Champloo Art

Samurai Champloo is just one of the long list of tv shows (it's on my Netflix list!) I've been meaning to watch. Created by the same director of Cowboy Bebop, it's a wild and energetic comedy/action/samurai/historical(?) anime, infused with hip-hop and rap.

For any who's interested you can view production art from this fansite and this french fansite. Not only do they have some neat rough key animation art, there are model sheets of characters and their weapons too.

Early Star Wars Storyboards

Some rare Star Wars storyboards. Just love the composition on some of these shots.

John Romita Jr.'s Cover Sketches

Coverbrowser.com has posted several of John Romita Junior's rough cover sketches along with the final product.

If you want to browse comic covers, this site is a great resource. They have art from Action Comics #1 to the most recent comic publications.

Emmanuel Guibert: Cool Inking Technique

Check out this cool way Emmanuel Guibert inked his graphic novel, Alan's War.

Gorilla Artfare

Gorilla Artfare is a collective art blog of a 100 professional artists. The art consists mostly of illustration, concept art, character and environment designs.

It's a great source of inspiration, especially for character designs. I highly recommend checking it out regularly.

Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams: The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

http://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/index.shtml

What are your childhood dreams?

Excellent Read: Darth Vader's Blog

I highly recommend reading this faux blog by Darth Vader written by a Cheeseburger Brown. It chronicles Vader's day to day activities from New Hope to Return of the Jedi.

Extremely funny, well written and even touching, I suggest that you choose to read the blog chronologically as the writer added more entries.

I think this is a wonderful example of writing a story from a different character's point of view.

Drawing Day 2008!

What is Drawing Day? Here's the blurb on the website.

Drawing Day is a worldwide drawing event encouraging everyone to drop everything and draw for the sake of art. The internet is an open canvas. Help us create 1 million drawings online this day and boost online art communities.

Basically, it's an event to increase awareness of art on the web and to celebrate art itself. It was started by Mick Gow, who created RateMyDrawings.com. Check out the blog, I found it most informative.

The event is this coming Saturday, the same day MoCCa starts, so I might not have much time to draw, but to support the event, I will finally create that deviantART account, I've been putting off all those years, and finally upload some of my drawings.

You can also so support the event by just spreading the word, via blogs, forums, or putting up a banner on your website.

Whether it's Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, deviantART or MySpace, upload your drawings! Oh, and link those posts on the Sequential Salon too!

100 New Ways to Paint

Haven't posted anything as yet, so i figured i'd start with a good one, chock full of knowledge. Here is a link to a nice 18 page pdf filed with a lot of artists tips. Enjoy!

http://www.mediafire.com/?2mdsyyfgb5f

Leoartz's Link Collecter

A lot of artists have a list of their favorite art links on their website, but Leoartz probably has the cleanest most organized art links page I have ever seen.

Check it out!