And if ever an idea pops into your head without having to dig for it – and this sometimes happens – it’s rarely usable straight out of the gate. Ideas need to go through a process of development to become usable, and sellable. Those tools I’ve mentioned are in fact actual methods used to do this. It’s not easy, but it can be a lot of fun when done successfully. (You’ll pull hair and teeth when done unsuccessfully!) I think it’s important to add that when you’re churning cartoons out by the hundreds, they can’t all be stellar – some will be better than others, and some will be real clunkers. If you’re in the business of making cartoons, you accept this as unavoidable. (Maybe this can be the topic of a future blog post.)
Tina’s Groove and Velia, Dear creator Rina Piccolo talks about where her ideas come from.
Full post here:
http://www.rinapiccolo.com/uncategorized/where-do-ideas-come-from/
Cartoonists do seem to be asked where their ideas come from more than, say, writers, painters, sculptors, etc., and I think it’s because they produce so many new ideas day after day after day until there are thousands of them. So the sheer number prompts the question.
I’ve also thought there are two ways to answer the question: 1) explain how an idea comes about in the case of one or two comics; 2) explain how it comes about in the brain. The first one is easy, the second is the one that prompts the usual response: “I don’t know.”
🙂