Amelia Carson: I draw, I write

At the moment your drawings mostly seem to be of characters- I’d like to know a bit more about how they evolve- do you hit the page with an intention or does it form during the process of drawing?

Most mornings I have no idea what I’m going to draw. I’m still half asleep to be honest. It’s quite a nice way of doing it because the part of your brain that is saying ‘Oh, don’t draw that, it’s far too weird’ is still asleep so my drawing inhibitions are not a factor at all.
I agree that a lot of them are characters but honestly I don’t know who they are and where they come from. It’s almost like the ‘stream of conscious’ style of writing where you just write the first thing that comes to mind and let it flow.( But obviously for drawing). I just put pen to paper and see what happens. The fun part is where you can add backstories and names to them after you have finished.

Sometimes I do worry about some of the things that turn up on the paper though.

How has this project affected your work? Your technique, your materials and your, well, general approach to you know your work?

It’s affected it in lots of ways. As I mentioned earlier I started it to take illustration more seriously, and you can kind of see that in the earlier drawings where it is just random doodles.
To be honest it wasn’t until a few weeks in to the project that I really started to think a bit more about what I was doing. I realized that a few random people who I didoject as a way of experimenting and trying out new things. There are a lot of mistakes in the drawings and a lot of drawings that don’t work, but I still put them on-line because I see at the project as a big on-line sketch-book that people can see and comment on. 

HERE ARE SOME OF THE DRAWINGS FROM THE FIRST HALF OF THE PROJECT:

David continues:

I am shocked at the interest it’s gathered. This past year has been a bit mental to be honest. Because of Drawing A Day I have won a few illustration commissions such as a CD cover for the band Sweetheart and some private commissions. Also, Rue Royale asked me to draw their album cover which I was super chuffed about.


I’ve also had the opportunity to work with Matt Witt and Creaturemag regularly since starting the project.
One of the funnest things I have done is a 13 page children’s book written by Pamela Page. It’s called ‘The Big Hairy Spider’ and I had the best time drawing it. I have just finished it but will let people know when its available.

Recently, a few galleries have contact me regarding showing the whole ‘Drawing A Day’ project when its completed. This is super, super exciting. There’s going to be 365 drawings so I’m not quite sure how it will work, but it will be great.

But really Drawing a Day has made me look at techniques and styles of drawing. I like to think that I am developing in terms of style (or a few sub-styles at least) and I’m trying a few things out. For example I had never used water-colors before and I’ve started to play around with pastels too.                           

It’s made me think about what I’m good at and what I need to work on. I really like how I draw trees and feet. But I need to work on my noses and ears. Also, I don’t draw many buildings and this is something I should try out before the project ends.

Just thinking about all these things from the last year is just crazy really. I’m really pleased that I decided to do the project. I would recommend it to anyone.

Now David mentioned Creature Magazine and it is through watching his contributions to this fabulous website that I too grew the courage to give it a go: AND VOILA my pictures have been included in an article on the magically sounding CYRA MORGAN by the lovely BETTY WOOD. HERE IT IS!

I am this weeks feature artist on the ABC POOL'S home page.

What you see here is one of my contributions to the 30 Days of Creativity Project which the POOL is participating in. Basically the aim is to engage in an act of creativity everyday of June.
I figured I should participate as I am doodling like mad and drawing like crazy, as well as creating my book for the 2012 SKETCHBOOK PROJECT, (more news on that baby down the twisting track).
I started participating in the pool and the project a fortnight ago and lo and behold: feature artist!
So huge THANKS to the POOL team and Jonathon Hutchinson for featuring me. It is super chuff worthy and I am a little stoked. Especially as the POOL is just such a great place to see other creatives, disciplines, styles and thinkings at work. If you create you should pop by and see if it has anything on offer for you. I also think it is a good example of the diverse media and community opportunities and support good old aunty provides us.

Madonna, the mother of reinvention has grandma hands. She is considering surgery.
My grandmother, a mother of seven, had flat, cracked, orange hands stained ochre with nicotine. Her thick yellowed nails were painted a metallic 80's apricot- garish like the nylon she preferred.

Last week I watched a documentary on Karl Lagerfeld- sigh-dreamy-sigh. Anyway he prefers his desk cluttered too. I feel slightly vindicated. Thanks Karl.

So if you voted, thanks everyone- I no doubt will ask again, ask you to ask your friends pester and prod- you know. But not now- now I am just idling at a blog spot wondering. Wondering about competitions and blogging and the press and squeeze of being a mother with a weekend job, grand artistic dreams, a backlog of ideas, a constipation of nerves, a choke of doubt, a gut full of determination; a lisp of a social life and dreams of a relaxed stomach and teeth that would stop disintegrating under the pressure.

I might have said too much.

I might have, but that might be just the choke and the churn talking.

 

I am endlessly twitching art into tight spaces- it copes- it survives and in some ever learning and growing way thrives in the dark damp tight places.

Like moss and butcher boys and worms.

The art does but I am not sure the artist does.

The mother does- her goal is fortified by all those bigger things that the wonderfully dense archetype arouses and for all the history and future of reasons, she copes.

So does the wife. And not without her fair share of hiccups and tolerances: the friend.

The artist, (squeezed between fetching lunch, between a squeal, between a glance at a newspaper  (between piggy backs and a miniature train track being invaded by play dough aliens) between an appointment in a broken car, between a broken cup and a grazed knee and a cold coffee) rushes into blogs and comps and public attempts and regrets her lack of research, the spelling mistakes, the typos and endless missing bits. Guilt ebbs the churning mess of everything else untill she picks up the pen and pours and draws and leans and dozes into the paper and thinks

Thank Fuck

it boils down to this

She breathes

So people have you done your good deed for the week? If not I offer thee an easy solution. I have entered the Design Your Own Barina Spark competition and I need your vote!
If charity isn't a big enough incentive you also go in to a draw yourself to win all sorts of goodies just by clicking a few times on the following links:

Here:
http://www.designerspark.com.au/gallery/view/#/489d8626-00e4-4459-992c-9edb0162fdee/

And Here:

http://www.designerspark.com.au/gallery/view/#/fce3c3a0-32e4-41f4-84a5-9edb017efcfc/
  
 Did I tell you I could win a car: A BARINA SPARK of all things. I think there would be some wonderfull symmetry to learning to drive in the same year as winning a brand spanking new car. A my poor Sky- as dear as I love her- is missing a large part of her exhaust and she keeps draining the batter, so a new car- not that I'd be replacing you Sky- would probably be very usefull especially as i live in the hills a neighbour to Victoria's isolation and bush.
You might also want to give it a crack I promise to vote for you because you can vote for as many different designers as you like- Wish me luck folks- better yet- throw a little click in my direction AND THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!