In an Inking Mood

As sort of a companion to my blabbering about writing and other art forms, I wanted to point out one idea in particular. If writing is like drawing, then I believe it follows:

Editing is like inking.

I don't find myself drawing as much as I used to, but, for finished drawings, I basically go through three steps: sketching, inking, and colouring. I would usually have several sketches and ideas floating around at the same time, so I could either go sketch or ink when I felt like drawing. I inherently enjoyed making the sketches more, because it was undeniably a creative process.

At the same time, I didn't want to just keep a bunch of pencil sketches rotting in a drawer, so inking was still a necessary thing to do. Usually I would still put it off until I was in the right mood—usually a little less excited but still artistic enough to have an interest in the drawings. This was also when I wasn't terribly inspired to create anything new, so why not go over the old stuff?

Writing is the same way. The actual writing is the exciting and creative part, but I'm not always in the mood for that, and the first draft isn't complete (as much as I love posting serially). So I still have to go back over what I've made, strengthening the needed points and erasing the errors and irrelevant strokes. It's not as amusing, but it's a good pursuit for those times I'm not inspired enough to churn out new material, and it's a necessary step in creating a polished, finished project.

Does anyone else think the same? Are there any other comparisons you'd like to draw (haha) between the two forms?

Art!

Because true creative minds cannot be tied to one medium alone!

...That doesn't necessarily mean we're good at all of them, but still.

Some of you may be aware I have a deviantArt page, although I don't post much. I'm always more inspired to put things into words than pictures. Occasionally, though, a single moment or idea presents itself, and it cannot be hacked out on a computer keyboard. That, or it's something that really doesn't interest me that much, such as fluffy romantic pictures for certain Hetalia characters, so I'd rather sketch it out than try to construct a whole story of any length. And then sometimes I just feel more like drawing than writing.

I've already done a few posts on how connected music is to writing, but it is, of course, its own art form. I've humoured the idea of becoming a classical composer (or rock star, let's not lie), but I'm never really inspired to make music. I'll sing along to Fleetwood Mac or play "Crazy Train" on oboe, sure, and I'll often find myself humming a random, classical-style tune that I find catchy (usually this happens when I start adjusting a tune to something annoying that's stuck in my head and go way off on a tangent), but it's not the same as creating a story. It sounds pretty, and it can tell stories in some sense, but there are less specifics, more hinting, and less time to get through it all. It's kind of hard to describe my view on music because it's so many things to me—a background to writing, an inspiration to writing, a way to shift my focus away from a stressful situation, a means of worship, and sometimes just a means of amusement.

All I can say is, these mediums are different, as they should be, and can't serve quite the same purpose for the same person. Of course, they can be mixed, but that's another story altogether.

To conclude, here are a few random ideas that I want to draw but haven't yet. I may start posting these like I do Fragments, although they have little to do with writing and might not belong here.

• A collage of anatomical sketches (e.g., nephrons, neurons, stratified squamous epithelial cells) overlaid with the text "I AM FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE"
• [fan art] A shipping picture featuring Russia and (OC) Antarctica with the title "To the Ends of the Earth"
• Personifications of Mississippi and Alabama standing back-to-back
• [fan art] A shot of a really, really battered WWII England with an almost crazed look of tenacity, the background being a particularly bad bombing of London
• An American flag made by snippets of red, white, and blue portions of other nations' flags (with a few other colors so the other flags can still be identified)
• Pairs of characters from The Long and Winding Road, including Emile brushing Monique's hair, Charlotte and Arthur back to back shooting down monsters, Jordan trying to teach Silas violin, and Martin joshing around with Manfred
• Not exactly a drawing, but I'd love to make some chaotic war/battle scene with no sound but "Scarborough Fair"