I have a confession to make: I fell off the illustration bandwagon this week. Most of my working hours were spent on a new project. Well, kind of new. For the past six years, off and on, I’ve been working on a novel. And for the last few days, it completely captured my attention.

Don’t get me wrong, I love writing. But here’s the thing—whenever I get a great idea for a story, I go all in. I plan it out, outline the chapters, figure out the ending, and then… I lose interest. It’s as if once I know how it all turns out, I no longer want to work on it. But this time, I decided to push further. Over the past week, I went back, blocked out the scenes I had outlined probably more than a year ago, and actually started drafting. And here’s the surprise: I’m enjoying it! But, of course, that has nothing to do with illustration.

Back to the drawing board

I did manage to get some drawing practice in. I learned how to do what Nicolaides calls “Weight Drawing,” which focuses on capturing the model’s form through mass. At first, I was a bit confused—why does he keep referring to it as weight? We aren’t talking about gravity here. But as I worked through the exercise, I started to understand: it’s all about seeing form as the living expression of mass, just as gesture drawing is about seeing form as the living expression of energy. Surprisingly, I found it much easier than contour drawing, which, to be honest, I’m thrilled to be done with.

As for my 2D Design studies… well, I completely gave up. The book was just so dry and dull, I couldn’t take any more of it. To be fair, a lot of the material was familiar to me from reading Mary Stewart’s Launching the Imagination a few months ago, so I figured I could always come back to 2D design when I really need it.

I continued with SketchAwesome, though. It’s fun, it doesn’t take a lot of time, and it’s something new and different every week. I don’t have to think too hard when I’m following along.

This week’s project was urban sketching with a fountain pen and watercolor.

A change in direction

But perhaps the most significant part of my illustration journey this week wasn’t even about drawing. I had a realization while reading Heller’s The Education of an Illustrator, specifically the chapter on the short history of illustration—how it evolved with the advent of movable type and photography, and then, BAM! Digital tools. Illustrators were wringing their hands and pulling their hair out because they were going to lose their jobs to the stock photo and clip art industry. It hit me that today’s debates around AI are just the latest chapter in this long history.

But I’ve said this before. So what’s new?

I put two and two together. The illustrators who succeeded during those big changes were the ones who figured out what to do with the tools to make their job more efficient. They weren’t focused on copying the tried and true formula of the previous generation as much as forging a new trail. They relied on their foundational knowledge of design but played around with it in new ways. Take photography, for example. The camera didn’t replace the need for images, it made images appear more realistic. An illustrator who wanted to compete in the post-camera era learned how to use their skill with composition to make the photographs better than someone who simply knew how to point and shoot.

Today’s illustrators need to stop crying that they’re about to lose their jobs and start playing with how to use AI to make illustrations that are better than what they used to make. Because the need for illustration isn’t going away; people still want images and artwork. If art directors can’t get what they want from you, they’ll get it from AI, regardless of how bad it is. If an illustrator wants to keep churning out the same old flat-style pen and ink work when his neighbor is making AI-assisted animated shorts with their pen and ink work, who do you think is going to attract more attention?

Anyway, that’s just my two cents on the matter. I think Heller gets to me sometimes. Too much whining.

Shhhh....I'm working on a new project!

Which brings me to another reason I didn’t do a heck of a lot of drawing this week. Not only was I working on a novel, I also started another new project. I’m not ready to tell you about it yet, but it’s big.

See, when I started working on the Illustration Quest, it was because I needed some direction, a way to figure out what to do with my art. And it came to me this week while I was reading Heller (surprise).

I need to take my own advice. Instead of trying to learn the methodology of the past, I need to figure out how to take what I know and apply it in a new way, a way that will keep me motivated. Something that combines all my interest in illustrating with my interests in novel writing and editing and worldbuilding and…

Yeah, you get it. It sounds simple, but until that idea actually hits you, it’s not. To be fair, I think a person just needs a lot of time to play and experiment, throw the pasta on the wall and see if it sticks. Throw it out if it doesn’t work and try again.

I’m not sure if The Curious Illustrator will survive if this new project thrives. But I’ll still keep chugging away at it in the meantime because, well, it’s one of those interests that I have, and I suspect that I’m not the only one who goes through these crazy ups and downs of trying to figure out what to do with their skill sets.

But stay tuned, friends. I think you’re going to like what’s coming!