My Creativity Is... A Surfer?

I have (or maybe it was my wife who has) found out that my creative mood rides on waves. I've constantly felt this in a way but never really gave it any deeper thought, until lately.

When I started taking commissions, I noticed that, for time to time, it was really hard for me to keep my thoughts together and focus on the task in front of me. I felt lazy and unproductive. It had nothing to do with the projects that I worked with. I felt that I needed to hit the stones together a bit longer and harder to get the spark.

I've started to understand my mind a bit better while getting older. These seasons – the ones when I just feel like an empty and clean jar – are the tides when I either really need to push myself to do something creative or need to focus on something totally different, like go fishing.

But eventually I do find the spark.

These creativily melancholic tides are followed by the heaps when I just simply can't put my tools down and stop working. It feels great, like everything you do works instantly and looks superb, even after a good night sleep. The downside is that while on this mode, I rarely can think anything else than the projects that I'm involved in, until its finished. These are very difficult times for my family, as all I'd like to do is to get back to my cave and create something, anything.

The cycles do wary in length. Sometimes the mood stays for weeks, even months. Sometimes mere days. A good, long, productive heap season really gives you the boost and is even visible in your everyday life. Even the same coffee that you make every morning tastes better.

How is it with you? Do you have times when it is hard to grab the brush and start painting or are you in constant auto-fire mode, pushing out piece after piece of top grade stuff (like Jeff of Convertorum)?

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I think I'm currently climbing towards the heap, my mind working all the time, creating possibilities and processing ideas – and when one idea pops in my mind, it generates a dozen new ones.

Now, I'm literally neck deep in miniature projects. I have a couple commissions under way, all of them coming along with sure steps. Then there are some random projects that just materialized in front of me while putting pieces together. That is one good sign of the creative mood hitting the upswing.

Here's one of the randoms that is currently waiting for priming. Yep, it's another Inquisitor, this time a Puritan of Ordo Hereticus...

+ Inquisitor Valon, Puritan, Ordo Hereticus +

Inquisitor Valon will be accompanied by another character, an Underhive tracker who I will reveal to you somewhere later this month... Maybe they will play a part in the Punk Moth campaign at some point, who knows.

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I did mention the commissions, didn't I? Well, here's a sneak peak to one of them. This is a female Inquisitor of Ordo Xenos, high born and noble, very interesting project to work with...

Female Inquisitor, Ordo Xenos

All the details were given to me by the client. I started working out the idea of the Inquisitor on paper, thinking of which bits I would be using for her, sketching her out of my head while putting the pieces together.

This is my vision of her. We'll see how this thing will form out...

- Kari