I think I am a writer/artist (as opposed to an artist/writer), but to be perfectly honest, what I am is someone who makes up stories. Sometimes they get written down; sometimes they get drawn. Sometimes the artwork is there to illustrate a story; sometimes the story comes from a drawing. And sometimes (quite often, in fact) they sort of grow out of each other in this haphazard, organic way in which there is no telling what came first. This is how I end up doing the cover art for a Professor Odd story that won’t be written for at least a year.
I’ve heard some writers express dissatisfaction with having a cover before the story is finished, and ordinarily I would agree with them; you never know what a story is going to pull on you at the end, and it’s better to create the cover to suit the story, rather than the other way around. That is, if the person writing the story and the person drawing the cover are two different people. But in my case it is the same person, and for me, drawing a cover is as much part of writing the story as the traditional typing part of it.
Everything is connected, and I don’t mean that in a New Age hokey-pokey way, or in the very real cosmic atomic way, but in the sense that everything I do, no matter what medium it is in, all tends to the same end: the Story, and how I tell it. Rather than think of writing and drawing as two separate and individual courses, I like to think of them as tributaries to the great River of Storytelling, which itself is that ethereal, magical thing that happens when the story meets the mind of the viewer and takes on a life of its own. And whether it comes in the form of words or pictures, or words and pictures, or sounds… doesn’t matter.
It’s a really wonderful way to work. It’s why I don’t get writer’s block. Ever. Because if I can’t think what to write for any of the stories I am currently working on (and I usually have two or three going at the same time), I go off and draw them. Keeping the creative juices flowing helps wash me over any boulders that might fall in the way.
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In other news: Radio Grimbald updated with its second episode over here. This week I’m reading two stories from Fiddler’s Dream and Other Stories, The Bells of Äsvi and Nobody’s Road. The podcast is also available through iTunes, which is exciting. Just do an iTunes search for Radio Grimbald or follow this link.
Also: some of you may already know my fuzzy red gay dragon from Wales, Dafydd. Well, he’s asked me to let you all know that, in addition to Facebook and twitter, he now has his own Tumblr blog, over at Dafydd Himself. You can ask him any questions you like, and keep up with his latest adventures. Many of his posts will be mirrored on his twitter (@DafyddEihun) and his Facebook (Dafydd Y. Ddraig Goch), so if you already follow him there you don’t have to get a Tumblr.
And that’s about it! I hope everyone survived Black Friday intact and un-pepper sprayed.
—Goldeen