Practice makes...

...whatever you want.

So yesterday, as I lounged at home on my mid-week day off (I know I'm spoilt), I was removing the excruciatingly frustrating malware from Mooncar's computer (fracking retail sites!) I was doodling away on a piece of paper as I'm want to do.

Now, most people say they can't draw but be assured it's a practiced skill. I'm not very precise when drawing doodles but I'm still practicing the hand-eye co-ordination it takes to manipulate a pencil which enables me a certain amount of skill to execute more detailed and professional looking renderings when needed. Like with the children's book.

I was also reading a book about brain plasticity while waiting for the scans on the computer to run (may anyone who creates a single piece of Malware suffer with Tinnitus) and how imagining the use of a skill is almost as effective as actually practicing the skill. In one study people imagining an exercise increased muscle size by 22%, the people actually doing the excercise increased their size by 30%. There are complicated explanantions as to how the brain effects this change in the body which are still not fully understood by the people doing the studies.

So maybe if those people who say they can't draw (and want too) just imagine themselves drawing for a few weeks, how the lines form, how they would shade in a shape, etc. Then when they actually start drawing they will find themselves already in a position of increased skill. There is a name for that... Meditation.

I find that interesting.

Well, when meditating on my doodles I did 'it' again. Came up with another idea. Whoops. But hey, I wouldn't mind learning Flash. I think a Flash site with an entire body made up of drawings like this with stories and video associated with each body part would be a really fun way to navigate through an artists body of work. So. Lets add another project to the list to be done somewhere in the future.

All the Kings horses

wait... sideline before I get started, I just thought about that poem. Why would the kings horses be trying to put an egg back together. No wonder they didn't have any luck. Who ever heard of a cloven footed animal successfully undertaking fine-detailed restoration work?

Errr; Now; What was I going to post about? I'm sure it wasn't a lament about the pathetic funding in arts conservation courses at equine universities, and I don't think it was about osteoporotic eggs with little balance or sense to stay away from high places...

In that case it was probably about projects that seem impossible. For the first time ever I actually sat down and wrote out all the uncompleted projects, whatever their stage of conception, that I would genuinely like to complete one day.

I have;

1 Film Course (at least)
2 Web serials
5 Short Films
2 TV shows
8 Feature films
2 Features films which would have ongoing Mini-series
1 Childrens book (at least)
1 Novel
2 Music Videos
1 Scultpure
1 Family project that I promised to do.

That appears to be 26 projects I want to complete... and all I've done is some scribbling that doesn't relate to any of it.

I'm not sure I should be allowed any more ideas until I cross at least one of those off the list. Or... and this may just be the best plan... I should stop procrastinating by writing lists and get on with it.

Actually, this list is the first step in prioritising my projects. I really didn't realise I had that many... *whew* I'm in for quite a ride if I can get a quarter of it done this life.

Secret Squirrel Means Business