Allison Danger

Unexpected & Unplanned

When you have multiple projects on the go, at various stages of completion, they all have their very own way of pumping the brakes on forward momentum from time to time.  

A graphic novel, or any other visual art based medium, like a children's book or even board and card games mean having artists involved in varying degrees depending on the project.  I can say without ego or pride that when it comes to illustration, I am by far the worst.  There are a great many things I CAN do, and well, but that is not one of them, and so, I am dependant on other professionals to make a project come to life visually.  From a planning and timeline prospective, this means unexpected delay based on their lives, workflow, unforeseen circumstances, and holiday.  I have heard a great many times, that raising a child takes a village, and I would amend that to fit this post in a way that it takes a village of artists to raise a project.

This brings to the forefront an important point as well.  In the immortal words of Jeff Goldblum circa Jurassic Park, in his perfect tone and stammer..."uuuuhhh...life...finds a way".  Life finds a way of derailing artists in great, and terrible ways.  Life, death, and a great many things in between that are not so dramatic take precedence over your creative time meaning things that ought to be done ages ago, get shelved until time can be allowed to them once more.  

The other dirty dog that whisks us away from our end game is motivation.  Finding motivation to do the things that are creatively necessary, but not your most favourite, or fun.  I struggle with editing quite often.  An integral part of the writing process, but something that has a difficult time at holding my attention, or getting it at all.  

Finding a work/life/create balance is something that all artists struggle with.  For the lucky ones, work and create can be the same thing, part time or full time, but what we all share is the constant pull between the three.