This year I had simply hit a wall with self editing my illustrations. I decided to make my own hand made Christmas cards as little mailable gifts. At first I thought, "I'll send to all my siblings", eight total. Once I started painting I couldn't stop. The exercise was so freeing and uninhibited that it was like skating on ice. The skates were my brush , the paper was my ice, and the little bobbles and moves were my strokes of the brush. I simply put paint on a palette and let it glide me to a theme. Sometimes I repeated the theme , but in different colors. A quick light pencil sketch on the 5x7 paper, which fits nicely into an A9 envelop, and a loaded up brush with whatever colored moved me and off I went to my happy zone.
There's been a lot of chatter about style lately on social media. It is taught in illustration programs that one must have one style in order to market themselves. I can tell you that didn't apply to me. I started my career in 1987. I really just wanted to be an illustrator. I liked the idea of having my own business. This was before fax machines, internet, adobe, and other tools we use today to run our businesses. I had paper, paint, and energy. I kept sketch books and leather bound portfolios too. Lately I had really been missing those days of freedom. My days are bogged down with revisions, color sketches in procreate, revisions in photoshop etc. As well as, rarely speak with creatives in the illustration product process. It's too easy to ask of an illustrator " Can you make a change?" The reasons may be valid, but it takes away some of the spontaneity and freedoms my work once had.
Lately I have been becoming a little frustrated with my work. I don't want to become pigeoned holed. The nature of my work has always been varied. I use different mediums, paper, tools, etc. for many projects. I like that freedom. If an art director likes my work they like my work. I always deliver a good product. The least successful projects are the ones where I am forced into a direction. They still are great products, but from my persective they are missing something. This Christmas card exercise will help me transition into the next decade. Combining all the tools, but keeping the balance is my goal. Perhaps that's what this year of Covid did for me. It forced me to be free again and find balance, like skating on the pond of my childhood.
