'The Creative Habit' by Twyla Tharp

While reading the work set for my upcoming tutorial (a little late, perhaps, but oops! At least it's still fresh in my mind) I came across the thirty-three questions asked by Tharp in her book 'The Creative Habit' that supposedly help build "Your Creative Autobiography". Well, given this is a Fine Arts course on creativity, and it is the set reading for this week, I thought heck, why not give it a spin?

(The following answers were originally scrawled all over sheets of paper as the answers occurred to me, with little thought or follow-up, as per Tharp's request.)

My Creative Autobiography:

1. What is the first creative moment you remember? Drawing dragons in red marker on every page of my (and my friends') art pads in kintergarten, despite the teacher's wishes not too (we were each supposed to work in our own notepads).

2. Was anyone there to witness or appreciate it? My kindergarten friends, the teachers there. They later told my parents they "saw potential" (praise and attention has been there from the start).

3. What is the best idea you've ever had? 'Only In A Harem' http://canadian-rainwater.deviantart.com/art/Only-In-A-Harem-52633081 - my own comic with an original cast and story that actually went anywhere (50 hand-drawn pages, a hand-drawn and colored front and back page, drawn during my summer break, self-published, and sold in school for fundraising).

4. Wht made it great in your mind? That I finished something that was entirely mine (the end product is important to me).

5. What is the dumbest idea? My cast of RATS characters. http://canadian-rainwater.deviantart.com/art/RAT-Infestation-68142025

6. What made it stupid? That I not only tried copying the idea from another artist on DeviantArt, Jenadelle, of who's style and characters I absolutely loved at the time (and who, admittedly, influenced my fashion sense towards neo-gothic baggy pants and neon additives and what have you), but that I then warped the characters to suit the interests of a "friend" I had at the time, just to make her happy.

7. Can you connect the dots that led you to this idea? Jenadelle -> Apoptygma Berzerk -> I'm a wannabe -> Nic -> the RATS.

8. What is your creative ambition? To go somewhere with my art.

9. What are the obstacles to this ambition? I'll be competing with other good/talented artists for jobs, or, in the case of personal projects such as publishing my own comics, I'll be competing with major names like DC and Marvel to have my own published and noticed.

10. What are the vital steps to achieving this ambition? Never stop drawing (something I'm more than happy to comply with) and to finish my studies (so I can do what I want for a living, and not get stuck with a second-rate job I hate, with horrid hours, and minimum wage).

11. How do you begin your day? Waking up easrly, sometimes by alarm if I have to, to steal time online on Aion.

12. What are your habits? What patterns do you repeat? Wake up, shower/dress, brush teeth, run for breakfast, wolf down breakfast, run back to dorm to roleplay/play Aion for a few hours, head to class.

13. Describe your first successful creative act. A picture I drew (in 1st grade?) of my family and I based on our trip to hot springs while living in Japan; it got noticed by the teachers and even got stolen. I can't rightly remember if I ever got it back ... I never thought it was that great.

14. Describe your second successful creative act. 'Only In A Harem'. 'Nuff said.

15. Compare them. 1st = stand-alone picture that got "successful" competely by accident. 2nd = first (and only) successfuly completed and self-printed comic that also sold.

16. What are your attitudes towards:
Money: Necessary for a good life. I just need enough to get by with my lifestyle.
Power: Nah.
Praise: Comment whore on DeviantArt!
Rivals: Can get competetive/easily riled up if provoked.
Work: Work first, fun second, even if said work bores me to tears!
Play: ONLINE!! Fun/free time is always good!

17. Which artists do you admire most? Frank Frazetta, Brian Froud, Voltaire (NYC), Brian Jacques.

18. Why are they your role models? Frank Frazetta & Brain Froud are two known artists whose styles I absolutely love. Voltaire I admire (and will admit to being slightly envious of) due to his skill in almost every "artistic" field: he makes music, stop-motion animations, draws a comic, and is writing a novel now!! Brian Jacques is the author of the 'Redwall' series, and my favorite series of novels to date. I love his ideas and storytelling techniques.

19. What do you and your role models have in common? Frazetta & Froud = we're all artists, Voltaire = music taste ... I guess ... given I listen to his stuff a lot ... Jacques = fantasy stories, warrior mice, and Medieval ages!

20. Does anyone in your life regularly inspire you? My sister, who is like Voltaire, and can do every damn thing.

21. Who is your muse? Online games/music.

22. Define muse: Something that inspires me to draw.

23. When confronted with superior intelligence or talent, how do you respond? I admire them and usually seek to learn what I can from them.

24. When faced with stupidity, hostility, intransigence, laziness, or indifference in others, how do you respond? I usually ignore annoyances at first, or try to put up with them to the best of my abilites, just to be nice, but I can just as easily get hostile and ahead of myself.

25. When faced with impending success or the threat of failure, how do you respond? Success = happy, failure = potential aggression, otherwise wonder where it went wrong and possibly learn from my mistakes.

26. When you work, do you love the process or the result? Of course drawing is always fun for me, or should be, but it's being able to sit back and stare contentedly at something I've created - the result - that I aim for.

27. At what moments do you feel your reach exceeds your grasp? Usually at the coloring stage! No really, all jokes aside, usually what comes out of the pen never looks like what I have in my head, and I'm constantly aiming to try difficult angles of foreshortening or expressions I can't quite nail.

28. What is your ideal creative activity? Drawing/sketching/cartooning.

29. What is your greatest fear? Mathematics and all things associated with it!!!

30. What is the likelihood of either of the answers to the previous two questions happening? Drawing = very likely, math = not at all, if I cna help it.

31. Which of your answers would you most like to change? The ... last? To not have to do it at all, and make it a not-so integral part of all things in this universe ...

32. What is your idea of mastery? In art I can't imagine "mastery at all, even from "masters" like Leonardo DaVinci or Michelangelo. We're always learning; I'm always trying to push myself just that little bit father.

33. What is your greatest dream? To make a name for myself in the art industry one day.