October is my favorite month. Not only does the weather finally start changing, but my favorite holiday is waiting at the end: Halloween. Horror has always been my favorite genre — books, movies, art — if it’s creepy, I tend to love it. As a child of the 90s some of my earliest spooky addictions included Nickelodeon’s “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” and Alvin Schwartz’s “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.” Of course, the driving force behind the horror genre is fear. It can be fun to be scared, especially when you know for sure that there is no monster and Michael Meyers is not around the corner. But fear can also creep into everyday life, which is a little less fun.
While working on a cover recently, I realized that fear can play a huge role in my creative process. Some story presentations require a little more out-of-the-box thinking and artistic takeover. Last week’s “Ghost Kitchens” cover was one of those. As is often the case with a story that doesn’t have a concise way to present visuals through photography, I opted to illustrate the cover. I love illustrating — I was an artist long before I was a designer. Some illustrations come easy and when I sit down to work on them, things just click. But others — in fact most— leave me frozen in fear for the better part of a day.
Fear can be paralyzing, but it can also push us forward to do something we didn’t think we could do.
As a creative, the fear can be intense. Sometimes it’s the voice in my head feeding my imposter syndrome: “Is the concept clever or clear enough? Is the style I chose to illustrate with right for the subject? Why does this not look like other editorial illustrators’ work? Why did I think I could do this?” Sometimes it’s waiting in the dark to wake me up at 4 a.m. to tell me the approach I took was wrong and I wasted a whole day. But it always finds me.
Inevitably, though, the Jamie Lee Curtis in me kicks in and I let that fear fuel me. Instead of pushing a hulking, undead villain out of a window, though, I’m turning those nasty thoughts around into something useable: My illustrations don’t look like other editorial illustrations? That means I’m developing my style. The concept isn’t one I’ve seen done? Good. It’s original.
Looking back at my career so far, I’ve often only elevated myself when I did something that scared me — when I’ve said yes to doing things I was afraid I’d fail at. Fear can be paralyzing, but it can also push us forward to do something we didn’t think we could do. Last week’s cover was far from one of my favorite illustrations, but when I looked at the finished product, I realized I’d developed some new techniques I hadn’t used before and that I’ll definitely use again. I had grown in my process. So, during this spooky season, I encourage you to face the fears you have whether at work or somewhere else in your life. Does it scare you? Good. It’ll grow you.
Fun to be afraid: Scary movie picks for the Halloween season
- Something classic: “The Uninvited” (1944)
- Something creepy: “The Haunting” (1963)
- Something funny: “Tucker & Dale vs. Evil” (2010)
- Something meta: “Scream” (1996)
- Something foreign: “A Tale of Two Sisters” (2003)
- Something “found footage:” “Hell House, LLC” (2015)
- Something unnerving: “Midsommar” (2019)
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September 30, 2021 at 07:09AM
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Up Front October: From our Creative Director - Does it scare you? Good. It'll grow you. - Greenville Journal
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