AUTHOR: Monica Lee TITLE: Question DATE: 11:08 AM ----- BODY:

Question: Do you leave one genre and attempt another before you have actually mastered the first one? I was at my illustration group yesterday and there are quite a few of us whose creative sparks are “flying all over”. I have tried to rein my creativity into just a few areas. Illustration and writing deserve the most attention since I am making a living at that. But I see similarities in quite a few of my fellow illustrators and even my online friends; we just want to try our hand at SO MUCH! Should we concentrate on one thing and turn a bit of a blind eye to every thing else that may peak our senses? My friend Liz Dubois mentioned that she has been making toys. I just laughed and dug out my new “Toys to Knit” book. I am knitting a dolly right now and somehow think I am going to knit an entire family! Granted these are supposed to hobbies but when you get a “spark” you can get obsessed (or I do anyway), scouring the internet for toy patterns, sketching out my own designs …and trust me I am not that great of a knitter! What am I thinking? I am having a similar issue with the medium that I illustrate with…I have been playing with this for awhile, toying with it, if you may. This is the month I want wrestle it to the ground and move on to create the promotional pieces that I want to do. Then I ask myself…did I master the last medium, watercolor color and pencil? Today I played in the program Painter (see above) Last week it was acrylic on gesso paper. I have been working a lot in Photoshop but find it can limit me with the end result. I have opened up Adobe Illustrator (that I used to use) to find I can’t remember most of what I knew so I quickly close it down so the day is not a complete wash! So do I go back to square A and just work on different “subject matter” instead of different medium? Words of wisdom and insight are appreciated.

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