Monday 7 October 2013

Colouring in - how hard can it be?

My son has just started an art project at school, where he has to focus on a particular artist.

He's a pretty good artist himself - he prefers to draw very detailed miniatures in black and white - hence his choice of artist: the wonderfully talented Chris Riddell, who illustrated the amazing Edge Chronicles, Coraline, the Grayeyard Book, Platypus and loads of other titles of his own and others authorship. (And his blog is amazing - lots and lots of sketchbook pics!)

T was really excited, thought it would be a great project. Based on what his sister had had to do two years ago, we knew you had to reproduce pieces of the artist's work, which, given that Mr Riddell works mainly in black-and-white, T thought it would be right up his street.

Until this week.

For homework, T had to use coloured pencils on his chosen image. Not a problem, we thought - all Chris's book covers are in colour.



There's just one teeny-weensy problem.

T hates adding colour to his drawings. (Unless it's great big, bold blocks of it on robots and fantastic creatures.) He feels that it ruins all the hard work and detail he's put into the basic pencil drawing, and he is never, ever satisfied with the end result - because he hasn't chosen to use colour often enough on detailed pictures to get good at it.

So then we start to slide down a vicious spiral...

'My colouring in is rubbish, so I won't do it...which means I'm not getting better at it...which means my pictures look rubbish...so I'm not going to colour anything and why does the teacher want colour anyway? I don't like colour - I like pencil! Why can't I just do it in pencil?'

I like drawing and colouring - heck, I even had some designs made into rubber stamps a few years back - and I'm trying to help and encourage as much as I can. Ultimately though, it's up to T, and whether he can accept that school art is there to broaden his experience, allowing him to use different artistic media.

But it did set me wondering. Do I do the same in my writing sometimes? Stick to what I'm comfortable with, refusing to push the boundaries of my creativity and refusing to persist with something 'cos it seems too hard?

Well, blog reader, you'll have to be the judge of that. Every even-numbered day through October, I'm posting 'a little piece of flash', here on Squidge's Scribbles. I consider them my 'practise pieces' when I'm trying something different - you'll have to let me know whether my 'colouring in' is OK?

Or do I have to practise a bit more?

Note - added later by viewer request...one of T's pencil drawings and THE coloured-in one that sparked this post...



11 comments:

  1. So much of this resonated (and I'll look up Chris Riddell) because I fully understand the appeal of monotone - printmaking allows for experiment with both that and colour. As for extending one's writing boundaries, I found my way to what is now Prediction Fiction, which asks for noir/SciFi/horror or similar, something I'd never before done. At 100 words a time it's proved amazingly useful to just 'play' outwith my wip.

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    1. Sandra - not heard of Prediction Fiction! I'll have to look THAT up!

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    2. http://predictionfiction.blogspot.co.uk/

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  2. Hello Katherine. My degree was in English Literature and Latin, although for 30 years I have written for business. I've realised that my default writing style can make me sound like a press release or corporate statement.

    I have to work very hard to write fiction or drama now. It's good to make ourselves do something different though and it keeps us fresh. I have a book and some comedy sketches in my head so I must focus on getting them down.

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    1. Hi, Robert - yep, totally understand where you're coming from with that one. I used to write Standard Operating Procedures in my job - it's hard to let go of the familiar. Mind you, in my case, the SOP's were more like fiction as I couldn't stick to the facts!

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  3. Just to say that this evening, T revisited the 'ruined' picture...and it looks amazing. So. I need to keep revisiting my writing too...

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  4. What a great way to think of it. I have to say, I'm with T on this one, isn't it great that he knows his own mind and his own preferences and that he's willing to fight for what he believes in.

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    1. Amanda - yep, I'm pleased he knows what he wants! Sometimes it's a fine line to encourage him to try other things as well, so that he makes a more informed decision - he might surprise me and take to oil paints in future, but I doubt it! Thanks for dropping by, K

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  5. Yes! I stuck to my comfort zone in writing for 9 years and then this last year, I took a few tentative steps in other directions and suddenly I've discovered a whole new voice. Go for it T and Squidge! :-)

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