My Self-Made Podcast Artwork is Meh and I Couldn’t Be Prouder!
One of the biggest hurdles of my writing career has been the acquisition of art assets to pair with my finished goods.
Everything in my life is on a budget, and writing is no exception.
However, the panacea for lack of title-card images just-so-happens to be exactly the same as lacking an extra paycheck to blow at Whole Foods: Effort. In all situations and places, patience and exertion are the universal substitute for dollars.
Much to my good fortune, we live in a time when incredibly powerful image creation and manipulation tools are available for free on the Internet.
Upon the rather insistent recommendation of my good friend Luke Tarzian (author of Vultures), I downloaded Autodesk Sketchbook and decided to roll up my sleeves and break through this particular logjam.
First, I must appropriately set the scene and make sure you’re aware of just how out of my depths I was when I opened up Autodesk Sketchbook. I know next to nothing about the intricate digital manipulation software which have created most of the things I love in this life. I also happen to have exactly zero artistic talent. The only thing I’ve ever drawn with a sense of pride is a rather hectic stick figure gun fight on the slope of a mountain. IE: Straight lines and little else.
I envy the men and and women who are capable of creating beautiful drawings, paintings, and digital images. I want to be these wonderful Lisa Frankenstein’s; to bring a flat image to vibrant life and convey an entire story with nothing more than a colored pencil.
I am left with the more mundane task of bending twenty-six letters to my will. I will never be able to paint a picture pleasing to the eye, but with enough effort and study I’ve managed to create images pleasing to the mind.
As far as compromises go, it’s one I can happily live with.
When time came for me to get off my duff and make a title image so that I can get to the nitty-gritty of actually recording my podcasts, I was understandably nervous. Learning the bare-bones basics of storytelling has consumed nearly three years of my life and has involved almost daily personal growth. Tackling something so distinctly outside my wheelhouse took more than I would care to admit.
Most of my first hour with Autodesk Sketchbook was spent figuring out how to do the most basic of functions while watching various Youtube videos. I felt like a monkey tasked with a math problem, and turning to tutorial after tutorial for assistance in creating lines and textboxes felt like drowning in my own ignorance.
Nevertheless, he persisted.
It took the better part of my entire Saturday evening to bring everything I was learning together into the image which headlines my post. It’s not the best thing ever; it lacks a visually compelling centerpiece. Outside of the excellent choice in font, there isn’t anything memorable about it.
You know what it is though? Serviceable. It contains all the information that it needs to, while containing enough homage to be recognizable without devolving into straight-up plagiarism. There are men and women who put in time and effort to make that image, and I will not undercut my own integrity by stealing the hard work of others for my own benefit. Even if that does end up costing me extra hours, it’s time and effort well spent.
In the end though, my picture is nothing revolutionary. It is not the exquisite cover of my friends book, nor the fanciful talents at play in the beautiful work of the artists that I adore and envy. It is, however, and the more time that I spend with my butt in my chair head-butting one blank page after the other into submission, the more I realize that having anything at all is 95% of the battle.
Creating anything to the best of our abilities is still something worth being proud of.
I love my newest creation, and it is my hope that my efforts will give you the courage to go forth and create something as well.
Sketchfully,
The Unsheathed Quill
