clever violet

new year, new blog

2012-01-03T21:16:00.000-05:00

Posting here from now on:
the illustration deadline

a single man

2010-02-21T20:29:00.003-05:00

A Single Man
I saw this movie Friday...it was GREAT. Really great. I always appreciate a movie where there's more to enjoy than just the acting/writing/story...this is one that's just a total joy to see. What would you call that...cinematography? I usually call it the movie's "aesthetic"...It's something that's true of many of my favorite movies, like Lost in Translation, and The Royal Tenenbaums.
This isn't really my usual style. I'm not sure how I feel about this...I mean, I could make one billion of these, and I think it's a pretty popular sort of style, but it doesn't feel very unique, and I'm certainly not pulling it off as well as a lot of great illustrators with a similar style. I need to give this more thought and do more experimenting.
Also, I've been working mostly on Illustrator recently, but I did this one totally in Photoshop. That means giving up a lot of things I've been doing in Illustrator with texture, but it means a whole host of other great things, like getting to keep pencil-y-ness without pulling out all of my hair. Always a good thing, right?

Update

2010-02-15T10:13:00.003-05:00

Ok! Here are the things I've been doing lately to promote myself, directly or indirectly.

1. Joined illustration mundo. You can view my little page-y here.
2. Started linking to my portfolio site whenever I comment on other people's blog posts.
3. Sent out my first query letters. (Then, became super depressed when I realized that in a letter to a magazine I totally want to work with, I included a horrific mistake in the letter. LAME.)
4. Sent out my first few emails to magazines.
5. Submitted my info to 15+ different agents. Then, learned about rejection from most of their responses. (Probably best to learn that feeling sooner rather than later, right?)
6. Ordered/received postcards and new business cards from moo. They're gorgeous. Some of them have been addressed, and are ready to go once I buy postcard stamps. Some of the postcards will just get dropped into new query letters once I verify addresses/names tomorrow.
7. Designed half of the response postcards that will get stamped, addressed, and put into query letters so editors can send them back, letting me know if they're interested. (I still have to design the front of the postcards.)
8. Scoped out some projects that will let me practice design/illustration work for free. I have an idea in mind for the Haiti Poster Project...screenprinting! Whoo!
9. Read an extra thousand advice/FAQ pages on various illustration-related blogs. Then got depressed over chances of success. Then came back slightly, remembering that success is linked to how hard I work...right?
10. Created 2 complete pages from the book I'm working on with my friend Lizzie, who wrote all the text and is giving me lots of help illustrating it. We even got a really positive response from an illustration agent! So hopefully over the next month or two, we can put together a dummy book etc etc etc...
11. Printed out a ton of copies of pdf's of my work, for sending to various magazines/publishers, depending on what they specialize in. I have an Education sheet, a Childrens sheet, and a general Editorial sheet.
12. Printed out a nice full sheet of each image I've made, and put it in a portfolio.

I'm also doing lots of indirect work, creating a huge document with all sorts of contact info, mostly gleaned from the Artist and Designer Handbook, but somewhat from some of my own research as well. Still to do:
1. Generate a list of blogs to write to about my work.
2. Make those calls to magazines to verify contact info.
3. Work on Haiti Poster.
4. BE MORE PRODUCTIVE. I haven't created anything in what feels like aaages. I need to make more new images and improve my portfolio.

it's here!

2010-01-23T09:55:00.002-05:00

Hello! My portfolio is here!!!

There are not enough exclamation points in the world to declare how excited I am about this. It was not a pleasant journey. I made some pages from scratch, using dreamweaver, and got them all uploaded, painfully, to my hosting site. Some of the pictures wouldn't load - namely, a pretty sidebar I had made with clickable pictures that took the user to various parts of the site. I didn't know what to do. Plus, in general I just wasn't loving how it looked. So I gave in to the far-off whisper of indexhibit, the CMS (?) responsible for some of my favorite artist porfolios (namely, meg hunt and Lizzy Stewart). I love the clean, white spaces and kept reading how easy it is to set up one of these accounts. And IT IS.

Ok: Disclaimer. It was super stressful/scary/hair-pulling-out for like an hour or two there, but not because of indexhibit. Rather, because I couldn't follow directions. Once I sorted out my issues and spoke to a lovely godaddy.com representative, and waited a little bit for my site to be moved to a linux server, all was right with the world.

And now! I'm up and running! Come check it out! Let me know what you think!!!

portfolio coming soon!

2010-01-17T15:03:00.001-05:00

I'm hard at work on portfolio-related activities. I made the self-portrait above to put on my contact page. Yay! It's very exciting/scary.

happy new year!

2010-01-01T10:37:00.002-05:00

An illustration inspired by a recent article in the New York Times about a collection of essays all about The Big Lebowski. (Look! A background!)

As it's New Years Day, some goal-writing for the new year is in order...
1. Take more risks - ie, start working freelance.
2. Get more organized - particularly when it comes to finances.
3. Make more thoughtful purchases - no more clothes hanging around for months in the closet with the tags still on!
4. Have my artwork displayed somewhere...A coffee shop, a gallery, a book store, whatever.
5. De-clutter - I have a move coming up in the summer, my first in 4 years, and I've amassed waaay too many belongings. Some things will be donated, some will be sold, but I need to start moving on that, because the clutter is weighing me down!

And I am not calling these "resolutions." The word makes me shudder. I don't resolve to do these things. I aim to do them. It's an important difference!

avatar

2009-12-28T11:17:00.002-05:00

I don't think this is the most original idea I ever had for an illustration, and not the best execution ever either. But I am trying to produce more, and trying to stick with certain techniques and within a certain style, and that is working out well. I'm off all week so let's see what else I can make happen!

good advice

2009-12-25T09:50:00.005-05:00

Frank Chimero did a series of inspirational posters "to help clarify a few thoughts I had about the creative process". You can see them here. *The one I always think about when I'm procrastinating reads:

Remember! Looking at design is not making design

I desperately need to remember this. I could happily spend hours and hours looking through illustrators' portfolios online, looking at good illustration blog/sites (illustrationmundo is a current fave), and oohing and aahing over a pool of illustrations on flickr. I need to produce more, and "look" less.

Above: A little illustration I did based on a drawing I did of two of my students during class this week.

*I was totally unsure about just lifting that pic off his portfolio, so I only put the words up here...I know I have to save the picture to my desktop and not just link to his, but somehow, for something that fantastic, I don't know...Just putting it up here feels totally wrong. Go look at it. It's awesome.

Playing with Textures

2009-12-20T18:52:00.004-05:00

Playing with texture = tons of fun. Today I had a bit of an epiphany in Illustrator, realizing the enormous potential of the Brush tool. Somehow, though, adding these textures makes my computer/Illustrator enormously tired...I mean, not that that will stop me or anything, but it sure is a pain!

Meanwhile, in life, I have a big break coming up and plan on going all out producing illustrations so I have enough that I'm proud of to put together an online portfolio in January. I currently own cleverviolet.com, but it forwards to my etsy site...I wonder - should I use that as my portfolio site, or look into buying my full name? Or both??? What do you think?

winter wonderland

2009-12-12T20:14:00.001-05:00

I'm working on lots of projects all over the place, trying to build up the number of pieces I can put in an online portfolio later this month...eek! I am happy with this new one but there's so little time left till my Christmas/New Year's deadline, and so few pieces that I'm happy enough with! I gotta keep moving.

on the up and up

2009-12-05T11:26:00.002-05:00

It makes me happy when I create a new illustration and promptly hate everything else I've done. It indicates progress, right? Here I was trying to do something that's mainly digital, but without any fake textures...I don't know, when I add textures, it's so clearly, "Hello! Look! She dropped in color, pasted in a texture, and played around with some options! Whee!" Bleh.

This feels better, somehow.

feeling better

2009-12-02T20:03:00.002-05:00

The style is coming along more. Kind of. Yes. I'm experimenting more with photoshop, putting illustrator work on hold for now. I read a tutorial on how to isolate pencil sketchings, and have been a lot more successful with it than I expected at first. I love all the smudges that are visible!

hard at work

2009-11-29T17:31:00.002-05:00

I've been feeling frustrated over this whole no-coherent-style thing...It's really much more than the style. It's kind of...well, I can make an illustration. And it can be fine, and my friends/family are happy with it and impressed, but there is a clear sense that it's nothing more than just a cute little picture. There's no particular originality or style. It's just whatever I felt like doing that week. It's more than just whether or not all of the stuff I'm creating fits together - it's that none of it is particularly good. Good, yes, maybe, but not particularly so.

I'm not sure if/when this will be resolved but for now I suppose it's a matter of making a billion more illustrations and waiting for magic to happen.

illustration progress

2009-11-03T13:16:00.004-05:00

Taking a class makes producing artwork a necessity, rather than an added luxury, every day. I love it. I am totally accomplishing things - and not just stuff for class, but personal projects - on a regular basis. I've been forced to figure out all sorts of tools on Illustrator and Photoshop that I usually try to get around, because "getting around" these issues would normally hinder my progress or take away from the quality of the work. Which is not to say my work's quality is improving dramatically...at the very least, being so productive means getting closer to finalizing my style, and hasn't that been the goal all along?

And today! I have been painting. For fun. Which I haven't done in ages (weeks). Hurray!

getting things done

2009-10-11T23:29:00.003-04:00

I had a huge to do list to work through this weekend and surprisingly, I've made a lot of progress. Yesterday I did schoolwork, then in the evening I tried to do some illustrating, and it was a TRAINWRECK. I was miserable. But I woke up with some fresh ideas, and completed three different illustrations that I'm very happy with. And started one other one that may or may not get finished, depending on how much time I want to spend learning about textures on photoshop. But today...Today. I have made some new buddies. One of them I will call Illustrator, one I will call Cut Out McFilter, and one I will call My Printer. I am getting them to help me in new exciting ways and I couldn't be happier about it!

Above: The first illustration assignment for my class, based on an article from the New York Times about parents letting their children run around without clothes on, and other adults finding it inappropriate. Well, something to that effect I believe. 5x10" acrylic/pencil on wood.

Richard and Leonard have the same favorite color

2009-10-04T18:46:00.001-04:00

Acrylic on wood, 10x10"

It's so nice to be able to do a teeny bit of painting while school is in full swing and super crazed. It's also soooo nice that my illustration class is happening, and starting Tuesday!!!

2009-09-23T16:25:00.002-04:00

My scanner does some excellent scanning of little drawings when I put it in the "Magazine (Color)" mode. I feel like it's revolutionized how I'll be able to get my drawings into my computer, and how I'll be able to edit them or add color in Illustrator. I'm thrilled!

This one came out a little silly because the colors are way more intense in the scan than in real life. I'm ok with that. The plus side is that the figures are also better defined now.

is this an illustration?

2009-09-22T20:43:00.003-04:00

It must be, right? It's illustrative. Right?

It's been extremely challenging to find time to paint/create now that the school year has started up again. I've been a bit disappointed by it. I've found a little time over the past week or so though - there's a weekly meeting where my drawing little pictures isn't yet frowned upon, and a few days ago I started trying to create little silly illustrations like the one above, on a hopefully daily basis. I hope to paint a bit over the coming three day weekend. Also, I'm signed up for an Editorial Illustration class in Manhattan that starts in a few weeks - here's hoping it doesn't get cancelled! (Currently I'm the only person registered. Whoops.)

Ted

2009-08-28T12:12:00.003-04:00

Ted, acylic/pencil on wood, 6x6"

This is my first self-driven "assignment" - a portrait of the dear departed Ted Kennedy. So many well-known figures have died this summer, and often after reading news of another death, I am temporarily fixated. Do other people do this? After Michael Jackson's death I spent way too much time on the internet reading up on him, not to mention watching all the youtube music videos - including Thriller, multiple times. Something similar has happened in the past few days with Ted Kennedy. Obviously, there are way fewer music videos to watch on youtube, but I'm so intrigued by everything I've read about him. I don't know a lot about politics, but I've watched enough news parody programs/Saturday Night Live skits to know a few things. I read through Kennedy's obituary on nytimes.com last night, though, trying to get a sense of why people speak so fondly of him, and I found out quite a lot! Here is my favorite quote they posted of his, from after he lost the 1980 Democratic presidential primary.

“For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die.”

zebras and going back to school

2009-08-27T13:31:00.004-04:00

"Jason and Peanut dress alike on Wednesdays"

I finished this one a week ago. Now I have four kids + animals paintings! It's very exciting to see them all together. It's also confusing...I want the paintings to all have a similar "look" but I don't think they really do. They all have a child, and an unusual pet, and that's all well and good, but the way they're painted isn't similar enough for me. I'm not sure.

Meanwhile, I start teaching again in two weeks, and I need to start strategizing about how I'm going to keep myself motivated to create when I'm not at school. Last year I did pretty well painting on week nights, but I didn't complete anything too big or exciting...mostly it was just little exercises at abstract stuff, which is still so hard for me. I plan on taking an Editorial Illustration class starting in October, that meets once a week for two months, which will help.

Bears and Goldfish

2009-08-18T12:11:00.003-04:00

"John Trains Victor to Stand on Command" Acrylic on cradled wood panel, 8x8".

Victor will do anything for a goldfish.

Found on Etsy: Pins

2009-08-16T12:41:00.005-04:00

As seen on: thepinpals, amypanda, ohmycavalier, jeunebugs

In Julie & Julia, the Amy Adams character is constantly wearing pins. I think I'd like to start being a pin-wearer. What do you think? Can I pull this off? I'm not particularly hip/gutsy, but I have high aspirations for myself when it comes to fashion. I have several badges collected from various etsy sellers and groups I'm a part of, and those are nice, but some are mostly advertising. So I have been collecting a list of pins on etsy, and even purchasing a few favorites. They're mostly so affordable! I think this might really work out.

Painting vs Illustration

2009-08-16T12:30:00.004-04:00

Donna and Herman Start a Puzzle, acrylic on wood panel, 9x12".

I'm very pleased with how this one turned out. I have this idea of several paintings where children have unusual pets. (It's mostly because I myself am constantly wanting to take all the animals from the zoo home with me.) So first I had Joan in the Kitchen with her pet bear, and now I have Donna with her pet giraffe, Herman.

What is it that makes something an Illustration? This painting feels like an illustration, and I'm not totally sure why. Perhaps it's the fact that it's a complete scene, instead of just a character and a plain background, like so much of what I've been doing lately. I could see it in a children's book. It's not a bad thing, per se, but it's not what I was going for. What is the difference between Fine Art and an Illustration? Obviously, what an illustrator creates is art, in itself, but still. Why do some creations get called "illustrations" while others are just "artwork" or "paintings"?

Joan in the Kitchen

2009-08-12T09:54:00.003-04:00

Joan in the Kitchen is my new favorite painting. There are lots of potential issues with it, I suppose, in terms of composition/contrast, but I'm so pleased with it. I like the way she kind of sinks into the background, and the way the bear sticks out. The most exciting part is how it's a little fanciful, and how it seems like it's telling a little story. I know what story I have in mind, and why the bear/dishes are there, but another viewer could have a totally different idea.

more portrait plaques

2009-08-06T17:12:00.008-04:00

I worked on more portrait plaques yesterday, ending up with two new ones that have a fairly different quality from the others. They have this watercolor/pastel look about them...I'm not sure how I feel about it.

I also made a larger painting (7x10" MDF) where my goal was for the first time to make one of these little portraits have a body. I'm still working on figuring out backgrounds though...I tend to just want some striped wallpaper and call it a day. This is a little more detail than I usually add, but still very very little!

Seen on Etsy: speaking of my love of bears...

2009-08-05T14:05:00.006-04:00

This is My Boyfriend by Julia Pott

Giant Bear in a Tiny Village by Lizzy Stewart

the giant suburban bear monster visits new york city by matteart

natural history museum inspiration

2009-08-05T13:51:00.006-04:00

A few months ago I started craving a visit to the Museum of Natural History here in New York. I wanted to see those lush, old, retro-colored dioramas filled with stuffed animals. After many failed attempts to organize a trip, the big day arrived yesterday.

What's not to love about these dioramas? (Except for the depressing part about the dead animals/taxidermy, and seeing baby animals and wondering how those were collected...Let's ignore that part.) The aesthetic is fantastic! And there are so many different hallways and exhibits to walk through! The bears will always be my favorite, but the African Mammals exhibit was amazing as well. Two floors of all sorts of familiar and unfamiliar creatures, like elephants and ostrichs and greater and lesser koodoos and elands (a word I know only from crossword puzzles) and so many more.

The highlight of the visit, besides the diaromas, was seeing a special exhibit called Extreme Mammals. We learned about the biggest and smallest mammals, yes, but the best part was seeing lots of creepy weird mammals that went extinct thousands of years ago...beavers with horns, whales with four legs, and a wooly mammoth-type monster with a long silly gonzo nose, to name a few. We watched sugar gliders hop around a little mini-environment, and discussed the pros and cons of having baleen instead of teeth. Just fyi: humans are apparently the only two-legged mammals who "walk" - I think all the others hop? Or most of the others hop, and some do other things? Still. We are unique!

Meanwhile, I'm still working on finding a local place to show some art. I have organized the results, but there is a bit more fact-finding to do before I narrow it down to a few places to actually approach. I started working on my artist statement, and am varnishing a few pieces that I want to move out of here. More information to come!

Game on!

2009-08-01T09:34:00.004-04:00

Today I go on my first fact-finding mission throughout the area, looking for potential venues for showing/hanging/selling artwork. Coffee shops, diners, small stores...Game on!

Normally I'd make a nice template that I could fill out for each location, just so I could stay super organized. Unfortunately, my computer and printer are no longer speaking so I am going to have to take notes in a little notebook with no formatting whatsoever. Still, exciting, no?

Things I will consider:
1. Does the venue already have artwork on its walls? If so, what kind?
2. Does it seem like my artwork would fit with the venue's vibe?
3. How crowded is the venue? How many people will be seeing my artwork?
4. What kind of customers come to this venue? Families/yuppies/hipsters?

After I've gathered the information, I plan on choosing my top 3 venues and organizing everything I need to approach them about my artwork. I might have some brochures/flyers made. It's very exciting! And I need to work on an artist statement so I can join the local artist group here.

5 Tips

2009-07-31T15:50:00.001-04:00

5 tips to developing a unique art style, from imagekind's blog.

Seen on Etsy

2009-07-31T13:44:00.002-04:00

Romantic Space, original illustration by dropesdementol

I love the work of fricdementol - she makes these incredible gocco prints, very colorful and fun, with lots and lots of patterns and details - so I was excited to see she opened a new shop for her original illustrations. This one is my current favorite. You can also find her on flickr and on her blog.

more portraits

2009-07-28T16:45:00.006-04:00

Sometimes when I look at all my portraits lined up around the apartment it's very much like they're part of some secret conversation. Now they can have something to say!

Also, a friend in Denver cut all sorts of beautiful wood panels for me in varied sizes. The wood is very thick - about an inch - and the sides have this great striped texture. I'm so in love with them! I have painted two so far - the one above and another that I haven't taken a picture of yet - and it's so much better than masonite/canvas. (I'm very sick of the texture of canvas...getting coverage with acrylic is a huge pain. And with masonite, the painting feels a little flimsy, and the colors can get lost if I don't put on enough gesso.) I'm so pleased with the results!!!

double date

2009-07-22T16:12:00.003-04:00

I started this last night. I'm thrilled with how it's looking (and as usual, my photography skills are quite lacking) but have no idea what the background will be. Right now it feels like a double date, with both men looking in different directions, but if I make the background something crazy and fun, that title might have to change.

This is the exact painting style I am trying for all the time...however, the acrylics are still fighting me every step of the way. Things look great while I'm painting, but as the paint dries the colors seem to disappear into the canvas. Actually, that might be the low-quality canvases I've been buying. I have some new wood panels to try out soon so we will see!

hank

2009-07-21T16:28:00.000-04:00

I met Hank while in Denver for the past two weeks and needless to say, fell desperately in love. This portrait is one of two Hank-related paintings I created while there. I have many other Denver pictures uploaded to my flickr so more Denver paintings should be coming soon. Oh, Hank.

animals in love packs coming!

2008-12-14T20:53:00.000-05:00

Today I made 2 new cards in the "Moose in Love" area. I'm so excited! I'm going to make one more (the animal is yet to be decided) and then I'll be able to finally make some mix packs!

I also did some painting today that I'm extremely proud of. No progress shots yet. I don't know what the final product will look like, necessarily, but again, the style feels very unique, which, you know, is most of what I'm going for here.

back in the saddle again

2008-12-13T13:24:00.000-05:00

After a particularly rough week at work, I am feeling newly inspired to return to painting every day. We'll see how long it lasts.

Here is what I "finished" last week - my series of travelers. I'm calling them "Where have you been?"

I also just finished three little mini-paintings that feel Finally! Original! Sort of. No! I refuse to be a downer. They look like my own. I can see shadows of the many many artists I admire, but these are Truly My Own. I'm super happy with them. Pictures to come!

In progress

2008-08-20T18:26:00.000-04:00

Maggie, in progress. I am liking how it's looking, but have no idea what the background will hold. There are a few options but nothing too enticing so far.

back to work!

2008-08-19T16:31:00.000-04:00

I went by school today to meet with another teacher. Suddenly all I can think about is planning and students and advising and meetings. I was planning on stopping by utrecht on the way home, but decided against it. Will returning to work completely end my creative streak?? I certainly hope not!

Last night I made some gocco prints to touch up with acrylic paint. I think using acrylic paint on paper might be some sort of no-no, but I am not concerned. It doesn't make the paper buckle like gouache or watercolor would.

These are printed on some nice cover weight papers I got from a cute store in Manhattan whose name escapes me at the moment. I also have them on white paper, but I think I prefer the brown. I hope to get them up on etsy soon!

keep doing it!

2008-08-17T12:15:00.001-04:00

Two big things have inspired me in the past few weeks.

1. Matte Stephen's interview at Grain Edit. In the interview, he talks about how he got into painting. I expected a background full of art awards, MFAs, and success. Instead, he talked about how he decided he'd be a painter, did a ton of research and experimenting, talked to lots of people and read lots of books, and finally found success. I mean, I'm sure he's always been talented, but to hear that there can be success from hard work, rather than just success from general awesomeness...that's amazing. (Also, check out his etsy shop. I love his style.)

2. I have been painting consistently for the past few weeks. I recently whined to my roommate that I'm going to be a painter, except that perhaps I can't be a painter because I'm not good enough. She replied, "Keep practicing!" Again! Apparently, awesomeness can come from practice. I cannot be reminded of that enough.

Finished triptych:

outlines

2008-08-15T10:55:00.000-04:00

My illustration teacher commented that in my work, I was doing something with outlines that was interesting. I thought, hey, that's true! Maybe that's my thing!

"Mugs" was painted on 6"x6" artboard of the most delicious quality. It's some sort of gorgeous wood that I loved painting on. I also am loving overlapping figures and trying not to decide what's in front and what's in the back. And oh, leaving wood to show through is also great. Seriously. That is some awesome wood! I am thinking about making a whole series of these. We'll see. I've been painting every day for the past week or so, and am almost out of surfaces to paint! I might try to scrub off some old ugly paintings and reuse the wood blocks I was painting on a few months ago.

I finished the triptych I was working on, with the lady in the forest. Pictures are coming soon.

I'm also having fun considering this site.

lady in the trees

2008-08-12T12:49:00.001-04:00

I am finding a lot of things that I like about acrylics. Unlike gouache, I can paint layers without the paint cracking when it dries. Unlike oils, I don't have to wait for days for it to dry. Of course, unlike gouache, the colors aren't as opaque. And unlike oils, I have to mix the colors much more quickly. Getting a stay-wet palette yesterday was a huge renovation, however, so that is awesome.

When I painted the first one, the one on the left, I was thinking I had come upon a new style that was completely my own and going to be awesome. I'm a flighty idealist, and quickly saw where most of the influence was coming from. The nude on the right is from a drawing I did at the Society of Illustrators, of this fantastic amazing model with a heart-shaped face and an enormous gray/white/black wig. I loved that pose, and have been trying to figure out how to make it into something else. This painting is not as successful as I had hoped. Something about it bothers me...perhaps it's a bit boring? Also, the trees aren't really clearly trees, they're weird circle lollipops until you sit the canvas down next to the one with the swing. I'm not sure how to fix that.

Why I Am Doing This

2008-06-23T17:12:00.000-04:00

1. For as long as I can remember, I have been a lover of the visual arts. For almost as long, though, and probably like many people, my artistic endeavors have filled me with as much anxiety as happiness. There is invariably someone else doing what I'm doing, and comparisons have to be made. I'm not sure when that point comes in life when drawing stops being awesome and starts being borderline misery. Luckily, I've always been a bit arrogant about my artistic skills, so I was not affected as much as most. Still, why do we want our drawings to look good? And if we want them to look "good", why is it that so many of my current inspirations draw in a very youthful style? What is it that makes some less accurate drawings "good" while others just look like chicken scratch?

2. How do people find their creative voice? Can you have a voice without seeing it? When does it come out, and what makes it original?

3. I spend many of my waking hours consumed by a need to CREATE! something, RIGHT! NOW! There are lots of exclamation points involved.

4. I have a lot of crafty hobbies. I'm probably not alone. How do some people maintain their creative voice across different mediums? Not like, drawing and painting. More like, printmaking/sewing/design. And can you have too many hobbies? Is it like too many cooks spoiling the broth?