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Beau Peep Notice Board => Outpourings => Topic started by: Diane CBPFC on August 13, 2008, 10:34:12 PM

Title: Brain usage and cartooning
Post by: Diane CBPFC on August 13, 2008, 10:34:12 PM
Brain usage and cartooning

I read an interesting article in the September, 2008 Walrus ?The Quiet Art of Cartooning? by Seth. He says when he is writing/drawring the strips: 

Quote
?Writing requires a special kind of focus. Your mind must be utterly devoted to the task at hand. When I?m breaking down a strip or hammering out dialogue, I am using that writer?s focus. But drawing and inking are different. That uses different parts of the brain. I often find that when I?m drawing, only half my mind is on the work ? watching proportions, balancing compositions, eliminating unnecessary details. The other half is free to wander??

Do you think this is true Roger? Is Andrew using only half his brain?
Title: Re: Brain usage and cartooning
Post by: Roger Kettle on August 14, 2008, 09:46:27 AM
Absolutely true. Andrew listens to plays on the radio while he's working which is something, for obvious reasons, I can't do. I pretty much work in silence. Peeps, Tarks and Malc all write AND draw so they will have a more complete view of this.
Title: Re: Brain usage and cartooning
Post by: Tarquin Thunderthighs lll on August 14, 2008, 10:09:00 AM
What was the question again?
Title: Re: Brain usage and cartooning
Post by: The Peepmaster on August 14, 2008, 11:25:07 AM
I can draw while music or the TV is on, but when it comes to writing something, I have to have silence, with no distractions.
Title: Re: Brain usage and cartooning
Post by: Tarquin Thunderthighs lll on August 14, 2008, 12:00:41 PM
And that's just his shopping list.
Title: Re: Brain usage and cartooning
Post by: The Peepmaster on August 14, 2008, 12:48:18 PM
I even have to send birds home.
Title: Re: Brain usage and cartooning
Post by: Vulture on August 14, 2008, 02:28:12 PM
I even have to send birds home.

I like the way he manages to sneak the plural in!  :o
Title: Re: Brain usage and cartooning
Post by: Tarquin Thunderthighs lll on August 14, 2008, 03:57:12 PM
Threesomes, eh? Shocking!
Title: Re: Brain usage and cartooning
Post by: peter on August 14, 2008, 04:36:00 PM
it probably takes two of them to get him out of bed.
Title: Re: Brain usage and cartooning
Post by: Roger Kettle on August 14, 2008, 06:44:08 PM
Like it, Peter!
Title: Re: Brain usage and cartooning
Post by: The Peepmaster on August 14, 2008, 07:13:10 PM
"Birds getting me out of bed". Now there's an interesting concept...
Title: Re: Brain usage and cartooning
Post by: Malc on August 15, 2008, 02:09:52 PM
I have to have complete silence when I'm writing. I cannot for the life of me work out how anyone can write whilst listening to music or the racket from noisy neighbours, etc, I can't.

When I wrote scripts I had to be in a virtual isolation tank. This may seem a little self-important, but stuff that I wrote when subjected to noise and frequent interruptions was unfailingly (on re-reading it) kack .

Anything I ever wrote that was half good was done in solitude.

Drawing is a different matter. When I was an assistant animator I could work all day, turning out hundreds of drawings whilst listening to music on headphones. That's because assisting is more like production work.

However once I became a Key animator I had to have silence, and most other animators were the same, because the job required planning and preparation (writing, if you like).