If my blog was made by Ikea, these would be the ready-to-assemble pieces

I spent my weekend in a cottage with some friends somewhere in Cape Cod. And besides a handful of other cottage dwellers, the beach was essentially empty. It was also devoid of Wi-Fi, so it’s exactly the type of place I’d want to write if I were a more inclined writer, a place disconnected from the rest of the world and wrapped in an abundance of sunshine.

Anyway, my time away from my air-conditioned-less apartment got me thinking. Some of you remember that I’ve blogged a little bit about my creative process in the past, found here (there’s a drawing of me as a ninja turtle in that post, so you should prob’s check it), but now I want to blog about something I feel is just as important to my creative process, and that would be my creative space, along with a few ‘tools of the trade’ that I use.

The picture above depicts a few of the things I use to take a tiny idea all the way to a final product.  I’ll break down each item with a few bullet points to make this read quicker and more manageable for you guys.

Table

• A no brainer, but essential.
• The bigger the table, the better. I have a lot of crap and I’m always switching things out for other things.
• Right now I have a pretty good setup with my living room table. It gets a ton of natural light. I Gotta get that vitamin-D in while I’m workin’ y’all.

Macbook

• Keeper of illustration software
• Vehicle of Internet
• Inefficient grilled cheese maker

Big Sketchbook

• This is where I do most of the heavy lifting for illustrations.
• If I’m working on a longer project, I’ll lay it all out in the sketchbook before I even begin thinking of digital work
• If you squint hard enough, you may be able to tell that the drawing in the sketchbook is of “Drunk: what you THINK is happening vs what is ACTUALLY happening” comic I did recently.
• Squint too hard and you won’t see anything :/
• I also sketch non-comic stuff too sometimes, just to keep things sexy. Maybe I’ll show you guys sometime.

Tablet

• If I didn’t have this thingy, I would have given up on Second Lunch a long time ago.
• It isn’t by any means an amazing drawing tablet, but it is infinitesimally better than drawing on the track pad.

Headphones

• When I’m in a drawing groove and need help staying there, I grab my headphones and throw on a playlist attune to what it is I’m illustrating.

Moleskine

• This bad boy is more than just a mini-notebook. It’s an idea incubator.
• It houses things from one word ideas, to random sketches, to thought blurbs.
• Expensive, but worth it. I rock the hardcover sketchbook Moleskines.

#2 Pencil / Micron / Putty Eraser / Sharpener

• The facilitators of idea to paper.

Not Pictured

TV

• Typically, when I’m working, it’s the TV that’s on instead of music. I watch a ton of TV without actually watching TV. I’m essentially just listening to audio.

Coffee

• Without it Second Lunch is just another dead blog on the blogosphere.

So, in short, that’s the breakdown of my creative space when I’m illustrating. The few times when a majority of the post is written (like this time!) I’ll go for my back porch where there’s spotty wi-fi.

 What about you guys? What is your creative space like and what is essential? Tell me, tell me, tell me, so we can talk about. I love hearing about other peoples’ creative environments.

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Tagged: blogging, Hammer Time, Humor, Illustrated, life, Siri make me a sandwhich, Thoughts, Wordpress