Gone Fishing.

Can’t really say I’m not glad to see the end of last week. I wouldn’t say it was the worst week of my life or anything close to that but lets just say I’m glad we’ve moved on. The main problem being that I’m in that period now where I need to start thinking up new ideas to be getting on with. Ideas for short stories and maybe a couple of pin up. I normally don’t have a problem doing this but last week my brain well of creativity had gone dry. Must ideas come to me while working on other projects. So while I draw one thing I’m always thinking about what I want to jump onto next. Now this did happen while I was drawing my last comic and I sketched down some ideas at the time but when I recently came back to them I had maybe lost heart a little in those ideas and felt maybe I could do better. I liked the idea (big mistake) of just throwing out what I had and seeing if I could come up with something better. And so this is what I decided to do.

Now I’ve read that David Lynch book ‘Catching The Big Fish’ and a very good book it is, but the idea of coming up with ideas being a bit like a fishing trip maybe makes the situation seem a little bit more romantic then it sometimes is. A nice sunny day out on the lake in your little boat of dreams. It’s all a matter of time before that big idea takes the hook etc, etc. This wasn’t really how I found last week. I just wanted something to be getting on with and for the first time in a long time I found myself at a loose end and not really sure what to do with myself. I did all the things you do when you want to come up with something. I went for walks. I tried to do other things so my mind could wonder and when none of that helped I just sat with a sketchbook and pen and tried to doodle an idea into existence but nothing happened or rather any ideas that did happen weren’t the tasty fishes I was after. Don’t get me wrong I like free time as much as the next man but I also like to get to the end of a week and feel like I can look back on that week and feel I’ve got certain things done. But nothing really seemed to be coming together last week. It reminded me more of something I had heard someone say that trying to write when your not feeling creative is a bit like trying to make yourself go to the bathroom when you don’t need to. Just painful and unpleasant. Which is pretty much how I’d sum up last week. Painful and unpleasant.

After a couple of days of no good ideas it started to get to me and as the week wore on I started to feel lower and lower. I wouldn’t say I’m out the woods yet, but over the weekend I did have one idea that I’d like to develop over this week. It’s a pretty big idea even for a short story and also means I’m going to be drawing things I’ve never even tried to draw before which is always dangerous. Because of the concept it going to need a lot more developing before I can start then any of my previous strips. Plus towards the end (and at the start now I think about it) it got every comic book artist worst nightmare to draw. Large crowds scenes. Which anyone who has had to draw one will tell you are pretty hard going on the nerves. Anyway I really hope this idea pans out over this week as I’m in no hurry to return to that constipated fishing trip that was last week. I guess ideas maybe flow better when you can give them time to come to the surface on they’re own and also maybe sometimes it about what part of your brain your fishing in and how do you pick up your fishing gear and change spots when the fish just aren’t biting?