Categories
creativity

Morning Pages Reboot

The last several mornings, I’ve taken up an old habit. It’s been good to get back into it, and a joy to have a habit come back that is a good one.

Several years ago, I read a book entitled, “[amazon-product text=”The Artists Way” tracking_id=”kevinspearcom-20″ type=”text”]1585421472[/amazon-product]” It is a book on creativity by Julia Cameron. One of the prescriptions in the book is to start every day with morning pages. It is three pages of longhand writing you do as soon as you wake up. I came back to it after several months and I’m really glad I did. There are several reasons why I find this habit helpful.

It Clears my Head

I can get a lot of nagging thoughts swirling around in my mind. Did I pay that bill? Do I need to get that flea medicine for the dog? Is four cups of coffee too much for this average Joe? I can clear some of those thoughts out of my cranium if I just write them down and let things settle.

It Helps me Focus

It seems every where I go, people are complaining they have Attention Deficit Disorder. I’m sure some people have a legitimate case of ADD, but I’m beginning to wonder if it’s our society that can’t stay focused for more than a few minutes. Writing things down in the morning helps me focus on some of the important things of the day. It also helps me see some patterns when I go back and read what’s been on my mind the last few weeks.

It Gets the Creative Juices Flowing

Most of what I’ve done has been in the visual arts. Yet this writing habit has made me realize I can paint pictures in words too. It feels good for me to get things out in writing and see if there are any pictures that need illustrated among the text. I am constantly mulling over whether the pictures inspire the words or the words inspire the pictures. Getting some words down gives me a starting point. It’s a lot like doodling on paper to see what shows up. For me, morning pages are a form of doodling.

I encourage you to start the habit. I would also encourage you to find

“The Artist’s Way.” It’s a good book to read when you’re looking for a creative spark, no matter what type of creative work you are in to.

Categories
Illustration Friday

Can You be Popular?

Cartoon of a girl with a can of tuna. She is surrounded by cats. The girl says, “Popularity is easy. All you need is a can of tuna.”

How can someone be popular? Why is it some people always have a flock of admiring fans around them? Some people have charisma. Others have money, skills and a winning smile that seem to flock people around them like cats to a can of tuna. I can’t control whether I get the red carpet treatment, but there are a few things that I’ve learned will help.

Be Generous

It doesn’t matter if you have much or a little. I’ve seen rich people who were selfish and poor people who were generous. Guess which ones were more popular? Generosity with your time, resources and compliments always bring people your way.

Smile a little

So often, I forget to smile. Yet when I do that simple thing, it’s amazing how people react to it. It’s another thing to be generous with. We all search for a pleasant look and a friendly face.

Forget About It!

Whenever I’ve fretted over what people thought of me, I’ve made myself so nervous I didn’t want to be around me! It’s one of those paradoxes of life. If I fret about being popular, I turn people away. When you relax and just be yourself, people will begin to relax around you too.

I drew this cartoon for Illustration Friday. This week’s theme is “popularity.”

Categories
Illustration Friday

Suspense!

Sketch of what suspense means to me.

This is a page out of my sketch journal. This week’s word for Illustration Friday was “suspense.”

When I heard today’s theme for Illustration Friday was “suspense,” I decided I would take a page directly from my sketchbook. The word reminded me of old radio drama shows and comic books. It reminds me of a little grime and notes taken on napkins. Something seedy is going on when there’s some suspense!

Categories
sketch journal

Do computers age you?

Sketch of a man who is aging thanks to his computer

Sketch of a man who is aging thanks to his computer

Do you ever have those days where you feel the computer is aging you? My problem is I forget to take a break every once in a while. If my eyes didn’t scream it me to blink, I could stay in a trance indefinitely.

This sketch came from a sketchbook I drew in 1999. I was spending a lot of time in front of a CRT then. Yes, you can tell by the blue line we were using CRT’s with humongous picture tubes then. I saved a lot of room when those monitors went the way of the mastodon.

What about you? Do you feel the computer adds a few extra laugh lines to your face?

Categories
books

Is it a Book?

I read an interesting blog entitled, “I Declare the War is Over: We need a new word for the things we used to call books.” The premise is we are in an era where the traditional book doesn’t adequately describe the many ways we package book content.

The article complemented the Pew research study that says e-reader and tablet ownership nearly doubled over the holiday season.

This threatens many people within publishing. But should it? All these readers still need content. Without something to read or view, e-readers are useless. Authors and publishers need to come to grips with the fact we are in the content business, not the product business.

I’ve come to realize we’ve fooled ourselves over the millennia. Publishers claimed it was all about the content, but the profit came in the physical book. We claimed the ideas within the books were important, but we were really selling the pages and cover.

Now that we’ve entered a new age, the ideas within the “book” really will matter. Let’s start selling worthy content, and not worry about what form it could take. Leave that to the consumers.

The businesses that the most to lose are the printers, not the publishers. Heaven help them!