To build on my last post:
Between the weed smoke wafting up through the floorboards and the howling dogs in the apartment above, I am having a little distraction problem in my workspace. I usually work at my desk in my book-laden bedroom or at my magazine and mail-strewn table. I sit in one of a few uncomfortable chairs--and they've got to be near a plug because the built-in obsolescence of my laptop's battery is in full effect. On a pretty day I get souped up by the sun, but recently the drear is getting to me. When I am writing, I prefer quiet. Let me tell you, the stimulating powers of avant jazz don't knock the words loose, no matter what some people think. But, if I am doing research or making a spreadsheet or something, it's talky podcasts all the way.
How do you do what you do?
10 comments:
i work to a carefully calibrated and constantly-evolving playlist, the tenor of which, i find, has a discernible impact on what ultimately gets made. curating the list is a delicate business: too exciting, and i can't hear myself think; too quiet, and i have to listen to every damn thought.
Huh, I have a really hard time doing anything with music on, if the music has lyrics.
By the way, kenan is a cartoonist...
Since my workload has risen and hours don't stop, I have been distracted by music as well. I'm loosing the zillion of details flying around and drift off when I listen.
But talk radio is nice! Not the super-excited lafflaff babble (ISR excluded), but someone with a good flow to their talk.
These days it's mostly silence. Too much noise in ma head anyway.
On more calm days, with not so much paperwork buzzing in my head next to the drawing thoughts, I can dig Kenan's take on music - it's pretty much the same for me. The sound helps shelling in with your ideas, I guess.
I like music when I'm designing stuff, Harry Potter audio books when I'm drawing, TV when I'm sewing, and quiet when I'm writing.
The way I do the things I do is, complete silence, with a small black and white cap nipping at my hands.
Since I'm still in the coal mines of WebMD, I do podcasts. Loads, and loads, and loads, and loads of podcasts. Mostly podcasts about movies, comics, news, and cooking (though there are exceptions.) I put an ear bud in my left ear (my dad, who is not an expert in such things, thinks it has to do with the left-brain/right brain split, in that my right brain is bored with the job I do, and so it needs to be entertained.) They do make the time pass.
But they also help when I'm working on my own things in the office, as well. Most of my creative projects are at the point where they require more "mechanical" work (for lack of a better way to put it) than the fun creative stuff. I still enjoy it much more than the work I do for WebMD. C'est la vie.
Any other details on your work spaces?
My workspace contains:
1. my desk
2. my computer on my desk
3. several big windows (nice in summer, leaky in winter)
4. my armchair (which was once my Granny's armchair)
5. a kitten
6. my bed
7. my television, which is smaller than my computer
8. my bookshelves
9. my books (on and off the shelves)
10. a white carpet
11. a red carpet
12. a brown carpet
13. my radio
14. eleven of those records from when I was small that prompt you to "read along with me in your book. You will know it is time to turn the page when the little bird chirps like this..."
I try to wrestle the mess down, the cat peeing on anything (...paper preffered) on the floor helps to keep it down.
Else: Mail by friends (I'm glad to get nice cards and letters.) news-paper-clips, critters - dead and alive, paper (looooads of paper for drawing - I'm a paper nerd!) and old drawings with flaws that I need to punish myself with.
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