So I've spent a whole week procrastinating and pretending that I'm doing something useful. I wish my work were more of a constant, rather than ebbing and flowing as it does - sometimes I feel swamped and then it all goes away very suddenly, leaving me floundering in my own inability to self-direct. I am at a loose end this week, so I've been thinking about the things I could be busying myself with if only I had the get-up-and-go that I am so severely lacking on days like these. I saw this post over on illustrator Dani Jones's site the other day (via another blog I can't remember). It lists 101 things to do if you are an illustrator with a bit of time on your hands between projects. I thought it was a good list but UTTERLY terrifying. I am so bad at self motivation that all these great ideas just scare me.
So maybe I should have a go at some of those things, or find some of my own. I've long wanted to get back into proper painting: doing something a bit more 'arty' than just drawing silly characters and scenes. And maybe I'll have a go at papier mâché - creepy masks and cool animal puppets with fabric clothing could be fun to make. I only ever made a very bad papier mâché hot air balloon when I was very young. Time to play, I think. Now I just need to find a place where I can make a sticky mess!
Today I've been playing with my blank matryoshka dolls and have finally started to colour a second set. See the original set here.
This weekend the husband and I are off to North Wales again to nose around yet more houses, and we will be dragging my Mum with us because she's all lonesome at home with my Dad and sister away. I can't wait! Have a good one, whatever you're doing.
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Self motivation can be a scary thing sometimes. When I sit down to write, I get so hung up on thinking "should be writing, should be writing something AMAZING" that I invariably panic and end up eating biscuits and drinking tea. I always imagine somebody is being far more productive and creative than I am, and it stifles me. That's on a bad day...some days are good though, too!
ReplyDeleteI like your dolls. Some creepy masks in a grotesque, slightly Venetian masquerade sytle would be very cool!
Have a good weekend x :)
I feel like this on such a daily basis that yesterday I tried to apply parental controls to my mac to prevent me faffing and looking at certain websites at certain times.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately it only works on separate user accounts not the admin account so is naff all use.
Am seriously thinking of switching to firefox and its "leechblock".
Mind you, then I'll probably find something else to suck up time like a big fat whale.
I don't think you should beat yourself up though. You do lots of cool things. Its not like every moment of every day has to be productive-faffing is great as long as its happy faffing not sad faffing (the latter being horrible).
Laura - thanks for saying that. I know I'm not the only one who struggles with being terrified of not producing something 'good' when I sit down to create something. It's so easy just to say 'I'll do it tomorrow' or 'I'm just not in the mood today' and never get anything done. Tea and biscuits win the day more often than not!
ReplyDeleteKat - I don't think I could possibly set parental controls or anything like that to limit my procrastination. I couldn't do it! I think most of us feel like we waste a load of time and that everybody else must be working like demons whilst we potter about reading crap on the internet :-) But yes, a lot of my faffing is happy :-)