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.

Gesture Drawing

Doing some drawing this weekend. While doing some warmup i felt like i needed a refresher on some gesture drawing (not to mention doing it more often. Found these videos that did just that. A nice refresher from art school (explained a little better i might add)

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.

Interview at Flickering Myth

I was recently interviewed by FlickeringMyth.com.
Check out the interview. Woo!