Doodling

Hey, my pal Chris Conway opened for Jefferson Starship recently! For more exclamation marks, see the end of this Blathering!

I made Sicilian Seafood Stew last night, one of my current faves from the Moosewood Cook-At-Home cookbook. It's incredibly easy to put together and makes a special dinner with some crusty bread and a bottle of wine. Jeff and I opted for Strongbow Cider instead of the wine.

I've been somewhat surprised to be getting regular checks from Google Adsense. I used to pay more attention to where my traffic went, but since turning down the Dummies book earlier this year, my focus has been on novel writing. Inkygirl takes a lot less time now that I've dropped the job listing section, but it looks as if people like my writing-related comics just as much, perhaps even more. Go figure. When I've accumulated enough comics, I'm going to go through them all and select the best for a book compilation. Perhaps along with some Will Write For Chocolate strips as well!

In any case, so far I've found Google Adsense to be pretty painless. I know there are some out there who feel that personal blogs should be ad-free but as a freelancer, I figure every extra bit of stress-free income is a good thing, especially if it allows me to spend more time on novelstuff.



My writing cartoons generally don't take me much time and are fun to do. For the one at the top of this page, I sat down this morning, opened up a blank Corel Painter canvas and stared at it for a few minutes before coming up with an idea. The entire cartoon took about 20 minutes; I'd want to do a more polished version if I was going to include it in a book.

By now, some of you are thinking, "Hey, if it only took her 20 minutes, then why can't she draw a quick xxxx for me?" where xxxx is an LJ icon, blog header, or other "quickie" cartoon. The answer: because it wouldn't be as quick and painless if I was doing it on demand. When I draw my Blatherdoodles and cartoons, I can draw whatever I'd like and however I'd like it, plus I don't have to do it at all if I change my mind halfway through.

Plus doodling on demand isn't nearly as fun as free doodling. I've found that since I started drawing for pay, free doodling is even more important to me. In a way, it's very much like Blatherings -- writing and drawing whatever I'd like is good for my creative soul. I've heard of too many artist-types who used to draw (or write or play music, whatever) just for the fun of it, but stopped once they actually started doing it for a living. :-(

Some days the ideas come easier than others. Some days something like this comes out instead of a cartoon:



I was pleased by the following comment that someone posted on this doodle's Flickr page:

"Debbie

I caught my breath when I saw this - a great doodle. Without knowing the back story, I found it melancholic when I looked at it and imagined the worst. Further glances then had me thinking differently and imagining sulking or a time-out. A picture that provokes and challenges is a good thing.

Buzz in Aotearoa"

I was happy because yesterday's doodle was meant to be exactly this: capturing a moment that may or may not have had a backstory when I created it, but hopefully inspiring those looking at it to come up with their own backstory.

Anyway, I actually did turn down a paying drawing assignment yesterday because the person needed it before Christmas, and I've promised myself that I wouldn't take new illustration jobs until the New Year so I could focus on my book.

Below: Christmas Ornament Craft Exchange contribution from Lyanne. Lyanne and I are seeing Wicked in less than two weeks, woohoo!





And a Happy Birthday to Chris Conway! Chris recently opened for Jefferson Starship. I added the line at the beginning because I was so amused by his LJ comment:

"I might've opened for Jefferson Starship but on Blatherings I only got 5th billing to Sicilian Seafood stew.
I'm a failure...:-)"

Anyway, I've been very much enjoying listening to Chris's newest CD, Close The Circle. Perfect for mellowing out...

Speaking of mellow, here's one of my favourite photos of Chris, taken at GAfilk some years ago:



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