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Rebellion is over
Nov. 29th, 2015 06:10 pm... my NaNo rebellion, that is. Because I'm done.
Well, not in the traditional NaNo way of writing a story of 50,000 words. But in the way I'd planned to use this NaNoWriMo. To recap, the plan was to produce the illustrations for two children's picture books I had in my mind. Each piece of lineart would count as 1000 words (because one picture is worth a thousand words). The words of the storyboard for both books also counted towards the final score. But, after 45 illustrations (and about 1500 words of storyboard)... the stories were told. At which point I was personally ready to consider myself a winner, but the number is still 50,000, not "about 46500".
So I went and wrote the next chapter of Golden Days, which clocked in at 4000 words. Problem solved. NaNo won. Just not, as I said, in the traditional way. So you may consider me a cheat. (I don't.)
It's been an intriguing experience. I've taken part in Nano often enough to have several three-quarter novels on my harddrive (some of them longer than 50K words, some of them shorter), and then there's my usual fanficcing where I have also produced shocking amounts of literature, so I'm quite familiar to the process of creative writing. But this year was completely different. Since the birth of my sons, writing has taken a bit of a back seat, so NaNo used to be a welcome excuse to prioritise it for a month's time. This year, it was a welcome excuse to take up a pencil again. Having to produce art on a daily basis after months (practically years) of abstinence was strange and fun. Having to follow a storyline was even more strange. Aside from my attempt to produce a webcomic a few years ago, I've never done anything like that.
It went astonishingly well.
I used to draw relatively often, and I always had the problem that the picture I was visualising didn't match the result, making me more or less unhappy with my art. I expected that the inner critic would be a huge problem this month, and was surprised that it actually wasn't. It's not that I've suddenly become a great artist, or become less critical. But it appears that under the premise of "telling a story through pictures" and "telling a story for children", my focus is different. (This shouldn't be surprising, but it's a new experience to draw stuff that I doesn't make me want to weep at my shortcomings!) Does the picture tell the part of the story it's meant to tell? That's good enough.
With these lowered expectations - and also with the expectation that I'd find translating the story into lineart really hard - I'm actually really proud of a few of my pictures. Well, I'm proud of all of them in that I managed to illustrate two whole stories (however short). But some are very basic. Others are more elaborate. Among those, I have a some that I really love.
I deliberately took some shortcuts, especially when it came to backgrounds. I think it works. I know it's fashionable to put a lot of stuff in children's books' illustrations. I didn't do that. I wanted to tell the story, period. At the moment, it seems to be popular to mix Wimmelbilder with linear storytelling. I'm not sold on that. I didn't want to do that. So I mostly didn't bother with background or just used washes. I like the result. It seems to be a style that works well for me.
In "normal" drawing (that is, in fanart), I find it hard to depict people satisfyingly, especially if I have to convey motion. I thought this would be an issue here, but it really wasn't. Motion, dynamics, even gestures came surprisingly easy for this project. Initially, I thought it was because I simply wasn't too bothered about realism. TATER TROLL ANATOMY IS DIFFERENT. But my tater trolls turned out surprisingly human in their movements. And my pictures, which could have been static for all I cared, turned out surprisingly dynamic. So it's not just that I had different expectations than usual; it's also that I accidentally succeeded at things that I normally find hard.
Why? No clue. Perhaps because even though I haven't drawn in ages, I've kept observing how other artists solved the problems that stumped me, so my subconscious had a bag of solutions ready. Or perhaps because I didn't put myself under so much pressure this time. Or something else entirely. Whatever it was, it worked! Will I be able to apply any of this to future attempts at drawing - fanart or otherwise? No clue, either. It's nice to think so, though.
What I hope I will take away from this is that I still can draw - that it doesn't actually take as long to produce lineart. (And 20 pictures are already coloured, too!). I don't think I'll manage to draw daily anytime soon (even after Christmas). I was a little burned out in the end - the last five pictures were a chore - but then I really enjoyed writing again. The trick's in the mixture, I guess. At any rate, I can't neglect the dishes, the floors and the approaching holidays forever. But I'll definitely attempt to produce a little art or a little creative writing per week. (Unless it's good gardening weather, of course! ;))
Because - and that's the most important part, I guess - I felt like I had found a missing part of myself again. That is, I hadn't missed anything, per se, or pined for creative work. But it made me happy on a deep and personal level to produce stories again. And it'd be nice to tap into that source of happiness more often. Maybe I'll manage to illustrate some of my fanfic. Maybe I'll even tackle the graphic novel adaptation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight that I'm dreaming of?
I'm also happy on a less deep and personal level - on a base money-making level, so to say. I actually think I'm good at producing children's picture books. I have enough faith in these little things that I'm already thinking about researching tax regulations for freelancing illustrators and everything! (And you know how much I hate thinking about practical regulations!) Once I'm done colouring all the lineart and putting it together with the text - work I'll do during the "Now What" months if I don't manage to do it at once, I hope I'll find a publishing company that likes these books as much as I do. Cross your fingers?
(I first typed "Cross your gingers". Now that's a mental image...)
[My test audience reacted favourably, anyway! Whenever I sat down with my drawing pad and pencil, Felix got all excited. "Are you painting tater trolls again?" "Is this another picture of Mister Milchstraße? What is he doing this time?" Eeeee!]
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