I have been reading a lot of writers’ websites. I’ve noticed as they make their lists, I often say, yes, artists think that way as well. For example, A. K. Andrews asks, Can Your Computer Drain Your Creativity? One could certainly make this argument for writers or visual artists. In this post, I’ll explore what artists and writers share in common.
Here is my list:
If you don’t write, you won’t have good or bad writing. So write. If you don’t draw, you won’t have a good or bad drawing. So draw.
Creativity drives the work of both artist and writer. Artist’s block or writer’s block can hamper that creativity.
Artists and writers can both make use of blogs as platforms to show their work.
Inspirational exercises can stimulate both artists and writers.
A blog can be used as a platform to teach art or writing. An artist or a writer can thus demonstrate their skills.
Artists think in images. Writers think in words. Both tend to hyperfocus when at work.
An interviewer asked Hemingway, why did you rework the ending so many times? What was it that stumped you? He replied, “Getting the words right.” An artist in a similar fashion can rework a painting many times, especially one or two details.
What do you think – what do artists and writers share in common? How are they different?
Note on the drawing: I found the drawing of a young girl in a sketchbook – it must be from almost ten years ago, when my daughter was a toddler.
I got some nice shots of a female cardinal visiting in our backyard. You can even see her feathers.
This is a close-up detail of her feathers.
Hello, Mrs. Cardinal! What a fine bright red beak you have.
Is this the same female cardinal? She looks a little different than the one shown above.
Mr. Cardinal was a bit further off, hiding in the lower branches of a neighbor’s bush.
On a different topic, I put some scallion ends in water in my kitchen. Truthfully, I forgot about them; oh, my, I see they really have grown! I did change the water at least once. I think you are supposed to change the water every other day.
After much pondering and going back and forth and almost picking Rough Sketch, I went with Sketching Out as the new name of this blog. If Sketching Out reminds you a bit of the Joe Jackson song Stepping Out, so be it. If not, I hope it at least makes you think of sketches of art, sketches of books, recipes to try, food cooked up in a kitchen to be sketched into a watercolor or photographed on a plate of china, and photos of nature. I tossed out Rough Sketch because I didn’t care for the word Rough. I ruminated over A Sketch in Time for a few minutes, mostly because I realized the ‘S’ would bump me down in the alphabet instead of up to an ‘A’ (for a smart ‘A’ – see ‘A Mother in Israel’).
The font in the header is called Sketch Rockwell. It goes well with the new name, does it not? I can say that I may change the header once again, but I will probably instead concentrate on gathering new content. One idea for the blog in the future is to have guest posts of artists teaching some simple artistic technique. Long ago, Jill Caporlingua wrote a post on using Salt in Watercolor Painting. That is a great example of a post that would fit this blog. I also hope to continue artist interviews. As spring approaches, I plan to fill up posts with lovely photos of local nature. And whenever a Jewish holiday approaches, you can count on me to find some creative approach to preparing for or celebrating the hag (holiday). One of the topics I have written about in the past may come up again: a popular post is about How to Pay a Shiva Call: A Guide for Non-Jews. Difficult topics such as shiva, death and mourning may make the occasional appearance.
I will continue occasionally post about Highland Park, New Jersey, but the old name of Here in HP is now happily laid to rest. So long, old-fashioned name. Hello, new ideas, new energy, new focus, new readers (I hope), and your input, too.
If you have been reading this blog for a while, is there any category or topic in particular that I have posted about that appeals to you? Any ideas of what might fit this new title of Sketching Out?
