5 Tips To Your Creativity While Working Alone From Artists Who Do It All The Time Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Jeff Kinney has been spending a lot of time sitting in a cemetery.
The creator of the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” book and film franchise is not there to mourn. Rather, he needs a place to think alone when much of his Plainville, Mass., town is closed and his kids are home from school.
Some head-clearing time amid the headstones speaks to how artists must be flexible to remain sharp — and how some of us can take tips from such veteran isolators on how to stay creatively engaged at work and in our spare time during a quarantine.
We can binge show, exercise and hold Zoom meetings for only so long before the mind needs something more. Plus, creative activity has been scientifically linked to improvements in mental health. (This as nearly half of Americans surveyed say their mental health has declined during the pandemic.)
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The Washington Post asked some visual artists what they are doing to stay professionally-inspired in the face of the intensifying pandemic. Perhaps these techniques will work for you:
Find an inspiring place to think
Many of Kinney’s familiar haunts are shuttered during the pandemic — including An Unlikely Story, the bookstore and cafe he owns in town. (Closed for nearly three weeks, the store had to cancel even Hillary Clinton’s scheduled tour stop.)
Sign up for our Coronavirus Updates newsletter to track the outbreak. All stories linked in the newsletter are free to access.
“Theoretically, the coronavirus quarantine shouldn’t affect a cartoonist’s productivity, because we’re experienced at working from home,” Kinney says. But “I’ve lost all my spaces in which I could generate ideas.”
So, he now spends his workdays parked at the local cemetery. Even his supplies and goodies support his creative routine.
“I bring an iPad, a blanket for cold days, noise-canceling headphones,” he says, as well as “a bag of Starburst jelly beans, a bag of Mega Stuf Oreos and a Kind bar.”
A page from a visual journal that cartoonist Paige Braddock is keeping during the pandemic. (Paige Braddock)
A page from a visual journal that cartoonist Paige Braddock is keeping during the pandemic. (Paige Braddock)
And even the best cartoonists sometimes draw purely as a creative exercise.
“This is a stressful time, and it makes it a bit hard to focus,” says Paige Braddock, the Bay Area creator of the comic “Jane’s World,” “so I started keeping a stream-of-consciousness visual journal.”
“I have no idea where the story will lead and try to put no pressure on myself for it to make sense,” says Braddock, who is also the studio director at Schulz Creative Associates, home to all things “Peanuts.” “The exercise has been very relaxing.”
Artists such as Oregon-based cartoonist Kelly Sue DeConnick (“Captain Marvel” and “Pretty Deadly”) keep a list of “sweater threads.”
They are “ideas or images that tug at me for some reason,” DeConnick says. “Sometimes it’s a character, sometimes a scene. Sometimes it’s an idea — sometimes something as abstract to the narrative as a color combination.”
Fire up the audiobooks
Sometimes you need more than music piping into your earbuds when you’re trying to be creative.
“My go-to for keeping my brain from puddling into bored art goo is listening to audiobooks while I draw comics,” says Faith Erin Hicks, the Eisner Award-winning Canadian cartoonist (“Pumpkinheads”). “It helps keep my butt in the chair and my brain focused on the task at hand.”
So what’s in her literary playlist right now? “I’m listening to ‘The Terror’ by Dan Simmons, a fictionalized account of the doomed Franklin Expedition to find the Northwest Passage,” says Hicks, noting that she gets her downloadable audiobooks from the library. “It also reminds me to be grateful while in quarantine: At least I’m warm and not being hunted by a demon bear.”
And Juana Medina, the Washington area-based children’s book author (“Juana & Lucas: Big Problemas”), says long hours at the drafting table “results in too much time to think and overthink,” so she listens to audiobooks, podcasts, and music “to enrich my mind and lift my spirits, rather than falling in the pits of dark ‘what-ifs.’ ”
- Give yourself creative freedom
Even the professionals can struggle to create when a crisis dominates the headlines, let alone becomes personal. They give themselves permission to fail.
“A lot of bad art is going to come out of this nightmare — including my own — and that’s okay,” says Dean Haspiel, the Emmy-winning illustrator and creator of “Red Hook” comics. The Brooklyn resident has several acquaintances who have had COVID-19, including one who died.
Haspiel knows some colleagues who say creating art during a pandemic is frivolous. He strongly disagrees — for him, using one’s creativity can be healthfully addictive.
So he encourages such engagement: “Look around you. Listen to others. Listen to your heart. Take it in. Let it steep. Make art. Express yourself.”
- Forgive yourself and others
Even artists accustomed to being alone are naturally thrown off by the crisis. “While working from home and in relative isolation is not a new thing,” Medina says, “but the level of fear and uncertainty that we are facing is most unusual.”
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Medina has to trade work hours with her partner, as they care for 3-year-old twins.
“We have had to keep in mind how this new situation limits our performance in both areas,” she says. “We are trying our best to be forgiving, patient and loving.”
And Dan Perkins, who creates the Herblock Prize-winning comic “This Modern World” under the nom-de-toon Tom Tomorrow, says self-forgiveness extends to deciding at times not to create.
“Rather than trying to ‘engage your brain,’ I just think people should cut themselves slack — watch all the comfort TV they need,” Perkins says.
“If it’s useful to learn a new instrument or study quantum physics, by all means, do it,” he says. “But don’t berate yourself if you just don’t have that kind of mental energy. This is an overwhelming moment.”
Read more:
Seven ‘Twilight Zone’ episodes that eerily timely during the coronavirus pandemic
Chinese American cartoonist finds satire in coronavirus crisis — with a perspective from both cultures
New Yorker coronavirus cover shows Trump with a mask over his eyes
Coronavirus: What you need to read
The Washington Post is providing some coronavirus coverage free, including:
Updated April 6, 2020
Live updates: The latest in the U.S. and abroad | The latest from the D.C. region
More news today: Across the U.S., the coronavirus is killing more men than women | Rate of infection among Navajos is a major concern
Mapping the spread: Cases and deaths in the U.S. | Map of cases worldwide
What you need to know: Ho
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Jeff Kinney has been spending a lot of time sitting in a cemetery.
The creator of the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” book and film franchise is not there to mourn. Rather, he needs a place to think alone when much of his Plainville, Mass., town is closed and his kids are home from school.
Some head-clearing time amid the headstones speaks to how artists must be flexible to remain sharp — and how some of us can take tips from such veteran isolators on how to stay creatively engaged at work and in our spare time during a quarantine.
We can binge show, exercise and hold Zoom meetings for only so long before the mind needs something more. Plus, creative activity has been scientifically linked to improvements in mental health. (This as nearly half of Americans surveyed say their mental health has declined during the pandemic.)
AD
The Washington Post asked some visual artists what they are doing to stay professionally-inspired in the face of the intensifying pandemic. Perhaps these techniques will work for you:
- Find an inspiring place to think
Many of Kinney’s familiar haunts are shuttered during the pandemic — including An Unlikely Story, the bookstore and cafe he owns in town. (Closed for nearly three weeks, the store had to cancel even Hillary Clinton’s scheduled tour stop.)
Sign up for our Coronavirus Updates newsletter to track the outbreak. All stories linked in the newsletter are free to access.
“Theoretically, the coronavirus quarantine shouldn’t affect a cartoonist’s productivity, because we’re experienced at working from home,” Kinney says. But “I’ve lost all my spaces in which I could generate ideas.”
So, he now spends his workdays parked at the local cemetery. Even his supplies and goodies support his creative routine.
“I bring an iPad, a blanket for cold days, noise-canceling headphones,” he says, as well as “a bag of Starburst jelly beans, a bag of Mega Stuf Oreos and a Kind bar.”
A page from a visual journal that cartoonist Paige Braddock is keeping during the pandemic. (Paige Braddock)
A page from a visual journal that cartoonist Paige Braddock is keeping during the pandemic. (Paige Braddock)
- Keep a visual journal
Lynda Barry, the Wisconsin-based artist-educator and recent MacArthur “genius grant” recipient likes to emphasize that the mental act of experimental drawing is more important than the formal standards your art does or does not meet. She has published educational visual diaries, which offer readers mental games and collect the engaging “naive” art of some of her university students.
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And even the best cartoonists sometimes draw purely as a creative exercise.
“This is a stressful time, and it makes it a bit hard to focus,” says Paige Braddock, the Bay Area creator of the comic “Jane’s World,” “so I started keeping a stream-of-consciousness visual journal.”
“I have no idea where the story will lead and try to put no pressure on myself for it to make sense,” says Braddock, who is also the studio director at Schulz Creative Associates, home to all things “Peanuts.” “The exercise has been very relaxing.”
Artists such as Oregon-based cartoonist Kelly Sue DeConnick (“Captain Marvel” and “Pretty Deadly”) keep a list of “sweater threads.”
They are “ideas or images that tug at me for some reason,” DeConnick says. “Sometimes it’s a character, sometimes a scene. Sometimes it’s an idea — sometimes something as abstract to the narrative as a color combination.”
AD
- Fire up the audiobooks
Sometimes you need more than music piping into your earbuds when you’re trying to be creative. 5 Tips To Your Creativity While Working Alone From Artists Who
“My go-to for keeping my brain from puddling into bored art goo is listening to audiobooks while I draw comics,” says Faith Erin Hicks, the Eisner Award-winning Canadian cartoonist (“Pumpkinheads”). “It helps keep my butt in the chair and my brain focused on the task at hand.”
So what’s in her literary playlist right now? “I’m listening to ‘The Terror’ by Dan Simmons, a fictionalized account of the doomed Franklin Expedition to find the Northwest Passage,” says Hicks, noting that she gets her downloadable audiobooks from the library. “It also reminds me to be grateful while in quarantine: At least I’m warm and not being hunted by a demon bear.”
And Juana Medina, the Washington area-based children’s book author (“Juana & Lucas: Big Problemas”), says long hours at the drafting table “results in too much time to think and overthink,” so she listens to audiobooks, podcasts, and music “to enrich my mind and lift my spirits, rather than falling in the pits of dark ‘what-ifs.’ ”
AD
- Give yourself creative freedom
Even the professionals can struggle to create when a crisis dominates the headlines, let alone becomes personal. They give themselves permission to fail.
“A lot of bad art is going to come out of this nightmare — including my own — and that’s okay,” says Dean Haspiel, the Emmy-winning illustrator and creator of “Red Hook” comics. The Brooklyn resident has several acquaintances who have had COVID-19, including one who died.
Haspiel knows some colleagues who say creating art during a pandemic is frivolous. He strongly disagrees — for him, using one’s creativity can be healthfully addictive.
So he encourages such engagement: “Look around you. Listen to others. Listen to your heart. Take it in. Let it steep. Make art. Express yourself.”
- Forgive yourself and others
Even artists accustomed to being alone are naturally thrown off by the crisis. “While working from home and in relative isolation is not a new thing,” Medina says, “but the level of fear and uncertainty that we are facing is most unusual.”
AD 5 Tips To Your Creativity While Working Alone From Artists Who
Medina has to trade work hours with her partner, as they care for 3-year-old twins.
“We have had to keep in mind how this new situation limits our performance in both areas,” she says. “We are trying our best to be forgiving, patient and loving.”
And Dan Perkins, who creates the Herblock Prize-winning comic “This Modern World” under the nom-de-toon Tom Tomorrow, says self-forgiveness extends to deciding at times not to create.
“Rather than trying to ‘engage your brain,’ I just think people should cut themselves slack — watch all the comfort TV they need,” Perkins says.
“If it’s useful to learn a new instrument or study quantum physics, by all means, do it,” he says. “But don’t berate yourself if you just don’t have that kind of mental energy. This is an overwhelming moment.”
Read more:
Seven ‘Twilight Zone’ episodes that eerily timely during the coronavirus pandemic
Chinese American cartoonist finds satire in coronavirus crisis — with a perspective from both cultures
New Yorker coronavirus cover shows Trump with a mask over his eyes
Coronavirus: What you need to read
The Washington Post is providing some coronavirus coverage free, including:
Updated April 6, 2020
Live updates: The latest in the U.S. and abroad | The latest from the D.C. region
More news today: Across the U.S., the coronavirus is killing more men than women | Rate of infection among Navajos is a major concern
Mapping the spread: Cases and deaths in the U.S. | Map of cases worldwide
5 Tips To Your Creativity While Working Alone From Artists Who
What you need to know: How to make your own fabric mask | What to do if you get laid off or furloughed | Calculate how much money you might receive from the stimulus bill | Follow all of our coronavirus coverage and sign up for our daily newsletter (all stories in the newsletter are free).
w to make your own fabric mask | What to do if you get laid off or furloughed | Calculate how much money you might receive from the stimulus bill | Follow all of our coronavirus coverage and sign up for our daily newsletter (all stories in the newsletter are free).
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