“Blogging On”
pen and watercolour illustration 9″ x 12″
Jean Burman Copyright 2008
It’s been one year today since I wrote my very first article for this BLOG! Back then I didn’t have a clue what I was doing! And 52 weeks… 66 articles and 40 cartoon/ illustrations later… I still don’t! ~grin~ But one thing I do know… it’s been massive fun!
I have learned a couple of things though.
I’ve decided there is a very good reason why the word blog also rhymes with the word slog… not to mention the words plod, flog, job and sob. And they say there are no coincidences! ~grin~
Blogging is not for the faint hearted. Topics don’t just fall from the sky on the day you would like them to… but having said that… I’ve been very surprised how often they turn up at the eleventh hour and pretty much write themselves! Like all creative “process”… it can’t be hurried. I firmly believe there is a time and a place for every story… and every picture ever made or written. Having faith and trusting in the “process” really helps!
Blogging is hard work. Especially when you need artwork to go with stories at least once a week! The cartoons and illustrations have really helped here… as once the idea has been “conceived” the work materialises onto the page fairly quickly. The cartoons are pure joy… I love to do them! They generally take around 3 hours to complete… sketching out… inking in… then applying the watercolour washes… (allowing for drying times in between). By the time I’m done I’ve become firm friends with many of the characters who turn up on the page. And they all pretty much remind me of “someone somewhere” in the real world!
Blogging is a solitary pursuit… (but way less lonely than the pursuit of the practising studio artist). It does however require that a certain amount of solitary time be set aside “just to think”. Ideas percolate continually… and I’ve learned the hard way how imperative it is to write them down as soon as they surface… even if it means getting out of the shower with your hair still in a lather… or screeching to a halt in the express lane on the Motorway… or crawling around on the floor in the dead of night looking for your glasses! This past year I have written and sketched on pretty much whatever I had to hand when the idea struck… from paper napkins to toilet paper… but even then… the best ideas slipped by in the middle of the night when I was too tired to get out of bed… and too sure they would still be there in the morning! They weren’t……. alas! *sigh*
Blogging is a great way to find out who your friends are (okay just kidding)… but this place would be way less fun without the loyal support of the many friends (who visit here from the four far-flung corners of the earth)… and who choose to step up to the plate to comment on what’s been said… or what’s been painted… or just to say “g’day how are ya’ mate!” I love you all!
Blogging is a mystery to most people in the real world. Sad but true. I can’t tell you how many times friends in the real world have enthusiastically told me “Oooo… I love your BLO(B)… I read it back in September… anything new since then?” Sheesh… I can’t even remember September… a year’s a long time in the blogger’s world! LOL
Some interesting stats…
In excess of 17,000 people from a total of 25 countries have visited this website over the past 12 months. Kinda scarey eh? (but in a good way!)
There have been 1,085 comments made over that time… (probably at least half of them mine! ~chuckles~) as friends and visitors participate in the many and varied conversations that go on “behind the topics” on any given day. For those not in the know… it’s a whole ‘nother world back there and a great place to be! Conversations sometimes ramble on for a week or more and have reached the over 40 mark on several occasions as we banter back and forth on relatively tame topics ranging from politics to sex to religion (!) So next time you visit… don’t forget to check the COMMENTS… and jump right in if you want to!
I’ve discovered that Blogging is a lot like life really. Unpredictable, unreliable, unrelenting, and consistent only in it’s inconsistency… but thoroughly absorbing and fascinating too! The pays nothing to write home about… but then that’s not the reason we do it. So why do we do it? (As a working artist, writer, wife and mother, with my work cut out for me already… I really can’t say! *wink*) No-one really knows. We just do it because we can’t not… and it IS a heck of a lot of fun!
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