Richard Sutherland (that’s the man himself, in the first photograph) is a professional copywriter who started Tiny Wee Fiction to share his love for prose. And what’s tiny about them is that he keeps them at only a 140 word character length, per story. What’s beautiful about his work is how it can stimulate minds to create an entire storyline just by those short bursts of text. Follow him on Twitter here.
Discovered lovely illustrations from Hannah Warren today. She’s an artist based in the UK who has put out quite a bit of her work out there, and she has lots of personal projects too (something that I feel is really important for independent artists!) What I love about her is that her work can be deceptively simple – limited color palettes and great lines (according to her bio, she creates bold, colourful digital illustrations inspired by the strong graphic aesthetic of mid-century design); or it can take on a whole new dimension that incorporates a little complexity whenever the need arises – like this NOMA book from Phaidon, where she was commissioned to illustrate maps and create hand-drawn type.
Bumblebee is my favorite Autobot!Here’s a little conversation I had with a student a few weeks back:
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*A student was showing me his sketchbook for the assignment*
Me: Why do your robots look like the ones in Transformers?
Student: No it doesn’t.
Me: Yes it does. Are you telling me that your robots look better than Transformers – right now?
Student: Yes.
Me: Right. You think your robots are better looking than Transformers, when it’s not done nearly as well, but it has the same elements as their robots?
Student: Yes.
(At this point I almost wanted to gnaw at my fist which was hovering near my mouth)
Me: Why don’t you try drawing them in a different way? Why must your robot be the same as everyone else’s? Look at things differently. Why not offer your own opinion of what it should look like instead of following them to a T? Where’s your take in all this? What are you trying to say?
Student: Hmmm.
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I have more of these sort of hilarious exchanges (kids these days…) but, my point is this:
The challenge isn’t to be the second best at something. Why copy other people’s style and drawings – like manga? (I know some of you are going to shake your head at this, but it’s the easiest example I can muster!) Why should you try your darndest to produce a drawing that’s as close as realistically possible to what you see?
You’ll never be as good as a camera, that’s for sure.
You’re not going to be better than the best replicator out there, that’s for sure.
So why should you continue on a path that will set you to be the second best?
Why not be the best that YOU can offer? A different view. An interesting angle. A story. Something that’s uniquely yours – that no one can take away.
Get into the habit of creating so that others can only be second best when they’re up against you.
Now that’s something to shout about.
[box icon=”heart”] Every week, I teach about the creative process of illustration at a local college. And when I come home, I realize that I’ve forgotten to point this out, or to remind them about something. Dear Students serves as my own personal compilation of thoughts, and is a series dedicated to students around the world who might find my musings useful. To read the entire series, click here. [/box]