C.A. Hall's Blog, page 9

Your Friends Hate Your Art

If you're looking to succeed in some sort of creative endeavor, then you're biggest enemy will be apathy. At some point or another, you're going to create things that you're damn proud of, maybe things that you've never been prouder of and your first inclination will be to share what you've made. If you do (and you should) you first need to prepare yourself for the fact that nobody is going to give a shit, not as much as you do. It sounds terribly negative, but it's a fact. It's just somethin...

Learning to photograph snow

Funny how one word can spark an image correlation. "Beheading" instantly made me think of the Futurama heads in jars. It was such a brief connection but I wrote it down. Having pen & paper around is integral to capturing those impulses. They won't all be good but even the best ideas have a brief life in our heads. Sometimes creativity is learning to photograph snow.

What Cannot Be Mended

I feel like I am just beginning to explore the connection between words and images. I'm surprised to learn that communication so readily travels between the two. Words inspire images and images inspire words. It seems so damn simple but sometimes those dead simple things take the longest to penetrate our dense skulls.

My quotation library is a continual source of inspiration (even just for doodles) and I find this Clive James quote particularly moving. I doubt that anything , concerning The Bl...

Your competition

When it comes to making a name for yourself online, know what you're up against. Thumb you nose at it, make a fart noise and laugh. If you don't you'll lose your marbles. Not everyone is shopping for what you're selling. You'll end up having your friends for not liking your fifth post in the last hour. So, do something silly and get over yourself. Go make something.

Every answer breeds its own questions

Things I Enjoyed in 2014

BOOKS

Wired For Story by Lisa CronRichard Yates by Tao LinCloud Atlas by David MitchellStart With Why by Simon SinekInvisible Cities by Italo CalvinoThe Call of the Wild by Jack LondonAs a Man Thinketh by James AllenNot That Kind of Girl by Lena DunhamHarry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by R.K. RowlingThe Black Dahlia by James Ellroy

MOVIES

Mary & MaxBirdmanNebraskaHerCashbackBlue ValentineRoom 237Don JonThe Station AgentValhalla Rising

MUSIC

Trouble Will Find Me by The NationalMorning Phase by...

No Pencil

I'm skipping the pencil and going straight to the pen. Ink is unforgiving but it reinforces two important principles: 1) think first 2) don't worry about perfection.

Drawing with ink is an apt metaphor for all forms of creation, and clichéd but true metaphor for life itself.

You're gonna make mistakes. You're gonna get ink on your fingers. Deal with it. Fuck up as fast as you can so that you can get over that fear. Finish what you start, learn something and remember, if you never draw that fir...

This Soup

Silly little things pop into all ofour heads. You can feel stupid and let them die like fizzled embers or you can grab a pen and make yourself smile.

Equalizing: The 5 Commandments of Creative Sanity

Ambition aways seems to be a problem for me. After having found a thousand tiny cuts to kill my inert lack of ambition, I'm now learning how to deal with over-abundance and itseems to revolve around these five things:

Ride the wave. When you feel like your teeth are sharp enough to rip through steel, then keep on chewing. Energy is not infinite, use it while you have it. Be superhuman for as long as you possibly can. Fueled solely by inspiration, this is the momentum before the work. This is...

Mind of a Rampage Killer

We have to name everything now, don't we? Human beings: the great labelers. We can't sell news without snappy labels. We can't televise trials without sensationalizing theexpectations.'Angry kid with a gun; isn't goodenough copy; we have to call them 'Rampage Killers' cause it looks powerful in boldfonts and inspires monstrous images (like the giant creatures smashing buildings in the 1986 video gameRampage.)

Now, I didn't watch this because I have any particular interest in rampage killers....