By Danny Gregory

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2006 in retrospect

December 31, 2006

The palest ink is better than the best memory"
- Chinese proverb

One of the many pleasures and benefits of journaling is the ability to get a clearer picture of one's own changes over time. I just sat down and flipped through the last year of drawings I've done and it's quite amazing how much experimentation I've done in 2006. I have always been a dabbler and though most aspects of my life don't change an awful lot (same home, same career, same wife, same inexorable slide toward baldness), I like to try on various guises, learning enough to be dangerous but rarely sticking with anything long enough to be particular expert.
This year, however, I have been searching mightily. If you'll bear with me, I'll take you through the convulsions of my year and try to draw some conclusions about what the heck's been going on with me.

In January, I had prepared the pages of a Canson watercolor book by staining the pages with Doc Martins liquid colors, mainly yellows, oranges and brown. Then I drew on them with brown PITT pens. When we were in Mexico, this was a particularly interesting technique but after a month or so of doing it, I moved on.
I published my thoughts on the difference between my experience of drawing from photos and reality and attracted a vocal minority who strongly disagreed with my conclusions. As an addendum, I would point out that a) I do believe that photography is an art form, b) that I often draw from photos myself and will continue to do so and c) that I still maintain it is an inferior experience and far less challenging than drawing from life.
I then began Vol. 44 which was a vertical drawing book with oaktag pages. I continued drawing mainly with brown PITT pens and a white pencil. In retrospect, I really quite like this book and the casualness and anarchy of its pages. I'm glad to have an idea of how to do this sort of drawing as I've always admired when other people draw on color paper.
I had an idea to harness the energy of our Sketchcrawls to some larger goal and so we had a get together at the Rubin Museum and raised a bunch of money for victims of the Pakistan earthquake. As usual my drawings at these events sucked but it was nice to see so many people who share my interest in drawing, many of whom did lovely work there.
We also held a contest to give away a book on illustrated letters and I received so many phenomenal responses. It is great to revisit the gallery of that work.
In February, I conducted a series of interviews with other people who had either fled or rethought their careers in advertising. I know so many creative people who are ambiguous about our industry and it was nice to share POVs.
I had long had fantasy that I should take some really good paper to a bookbinder and have the ultimate journal constructed for myself. I finally did so with Volume 45, a mixture of heavy watercolor paper and colored drawing papers. I took the book with me to LA.

At first I loved it. The pages were big, the paper was great. Most of all, I liked having perfect bound pages. I'd been dealing with spiral bound journals for a while and forgotten how different it is to design across spreads and how different the whole psychology of working in a real book can be.
Eventually though, I got tired of it. The book was too damned big and heavy so I neglected to carry it with me and eventually I stopped working in it all together, about 1/3 of the way through. In the meantime my drawings got worse and worse, more constipated, hesitant, crabbed ... yuk.
I did do a few things I thought quite lovely. I also had a great sketchcrawl with a bunch of Southern Californians. It proved to be the last sketchcrawl I did in 2006.

...In my quest for new media I grew a beard.

When I got back from my shoot in LA, I grew enamored of the idea of podcasting and after a lot of technical wrangling, I did a half dozen or so episodes of my podcast. I never really found my POV – somtimes I was too casual, at other time too grim – so I eventually gave that up too. I think my main motivation was to solve the technical issues and see if I could do it. Well, I could and now I'm done. For now.
In April, HOW Magazine asked me to design their cover as well as to write an article about drawing. It was new sort of creative challenge and I loved it. (Incidentally, I'll be speaking at the HOW conference this Spring in Atlanta. Details to follow).
I continued to flounder about. I started to get interested in cartooning and made a few attempts to chronicle my life in photo-comics, like they have in Mexico. I also drew a few, including one on the history of my hair.

Maybe it's because I walk past all the Chelsea galleries on my way to work, but I went through a brief neurotic period when I decided I had to make some fine art. My subject matter: work. I found a picture of a horrible business meeting and then laboriously reconstructed it in watercolors. It was one of the most unpleasant art experiences I've had, sort of like being in the meeting itself. The best thing to come of the experience was it led me to shave off my beard.
Disgusted with my journal book, I started drawing on loose pieces of paper, Acquarello hot press paper that is lovely and smooth. I also launched a new experiment. I reset my alarm and every day I would wake up and hour early. From 6 to 7 a.m., I would do something I'd never really done before, then draw and write about the experience. I listened to multiple takes of a Miles Davis performance, followed my dog around the park, communed with my turtle, reperformed a play I'd done in high school, and a bunch of other silly stuff, It was a great month which I never really blogged about.
In June, I fell in love with Kate Williamson's book on Japan and we had a great contest to give away copies. Great travel postcards showed up from all over.
Jack and I also got into stop motion animation and he made a few great little films, like Sunday Road Rage.
In July, I saw several photoblogs that made me think I'd like to take simple pictures of my daily life. I bought a teeny camera that also allowed me to film stuff so I started making short video journals.
I also had this massive fantasy of creating some sort of comprehensive creative resource onlone. That ended up becoming the EDM group wiki and Michael Nobbs' EDM Superblog, both nice things.
Not journaling properly was taking a toll on me. I started to freak out at the end of July and, in August, I bailed out and announced a sabbatical from this blog. It all seemed a bit random to readers I'm sure but I was having a bit of a creative crisis. I was getting increasingly wrapped up in others' expectations of me and feeling like I was far from meeting them. While my new book, The Creative License, has done phenomenally well for a book of its type, outselling my others by a factor of four or five, my huge publisher, Hyperion (part of Disney) wanted it to sell millions of copies and when it didn't, they said they couldn't do another color illustrated book with me. My original editor had quit to move to Colorado and I felt very unloved. I also realized, after dropping out of teaching an art workshop and declining requests for more Sketchcrawls that I am not an art teacher really and that what I am really looking for is a deeper more honest way to express myself and my experience of the world. Not having another book proposal on the stove was also making me antsy and shitty about myself but my imagination felt bone dry and I wasn't coming up with anything new I wanted to write about.
In late August, we went to Amsterdam and I started journaling again. I went back to my favorite old format — a little pocket-sized moleskine, this time horizontal and filled with watercolor paper. Within a few days, I felt like I had picked up the thread again.
I continued experimenting: after reading several books by David Hockney, I bought a camera lucida and experimented with drawing portraits and landscapes with it. Cumbersome but illuminating. I also started drawing and redrawing the view out of my kitchen window, usually at breakfast, quick sketches with a fountain pen and a little watercolor set.
Then in mid September, I bought a lush new set of Winsor Newton watercolors that added new zest to my paintings. I also begain drawing portraits in a larger Moleskine, page after page of men's head and shoulders, responding to various sorts of photgraphs, many quite old. I didn't care who they were but I was looking for an intuitive response to their faces. Like the drawings of the kitchen view, I was interested in repeating the same subject over again, going deeper and deeper.
When I was stressing out at the end of the summer, my pal, Tom Kane, who had begun blogging this year, made a liberating suggestion. Rather than feeling I have to post my work as I do it, I should pace myself and share drawings and journal pages when I am ready to do so. This has been very freeing and, though I don't make a big deal about it, the pages I have been posting have become increasingly out of synch with real time, giving me and more perspective on what I am doing.
For instance, in late October, I began drawing exclusively in shades of grey, painting with sumi ink. I also began doing a lot of cartooning, describing my experiences and thoughts in semi-surreal comic book from. I will post those in time.
I also found new fuel for my writing career. There are several significant new irons in the fire and I will share news about them soon (fingers crossed). I am more excited about this than anything I've done so far. Also, the release of Everyday Matters in paperback is going to initate a new PR effort from Hyperion that will bring in some new readers to the fold. I look forward to meeting them.
Well, that about wraps up a year of flailing around, a year that was far from pleasant in many ways but ultimately helped me grow. Much pain, some gain. I realize that these pregrinations and unpredictablity has lost me more than a few readers. I apologize to those who remain and hope to do better in the future. Past performance is of course no guarantee of future moodiness.

Comments

Hey Danny!

I just wanted to tell you, as I'm finishing up my fourth journal, that you really inspired me this year! In April, I found your book, "Creative Licence," by chance in a Borders. It looked so fun and interesting that I had to buy it.

I finished my first mini Moleskine in a month, the next one in the same amount of time. I experimented with small sketch, small watercolor, large sketch, large watercolor. It was your suggestions that lead me to be experiemental in trying the different types!

Since April, I've been making art/writing for the past few months on a regular basis, which I haven't done since I was in elementary school. It was your book, blog,and Flickr group that have really inspired me!

Thanks a lot and Happy New Year!

Posted by: Nichole | December 31, 2006 02:33 PM

Your 2006 retrospective was great as it led me to the life changes of Trevor Romain and when you were 'Pulled Back In'. I've been following your blog and others for only a few months now (so many archives to go through!), but most importantly I was motivated to sketch. Yes, I'd rather be doing something other than the job I do, but for now it pays, I can manage it better with a different attitude and I see opportunities that I never knew existed before to sketch before and after work, during lunch, at anytime when there are a few minutes. Most importantly, I am loosening my hand, tightening my focus and gaining confidence that I will reach whatever goal I set.
Time is a gift, usually given in small quantities and always hidden in the camouflage of all other activities. I'm tuning my eyesight to find these gifts and use them wisely.
Encouragement and Belief in Your Own Abilities to All in this moment and those *gifts* in the New Year!

Posted by: Bradley | December 31, 2006 02:49 PM

Hello Danny,

I just wanted to thank you for all you put into this blog. I am a new reader, having discovered your website when I got around to reading the HOW magazine this fall. I think I would agree with Tom Kane, you are an artist and are sharing your work with us. You should not feel beholden to post every piece, we are simply priviledged to enjoy & be inspired by what you choose to share. I believe that moodiness in artist is beneficial as it leads to new directions and keeps one from getting stagnant. So, please, there is no need to apologize!
Thank you for everything,
Sherry

ps. after getting Creative Licence, I was enjoying working through it so much that I had to get my mom her own copy for Christmas, complete with a wrapped bagel. The whole family was drawing bagels on Christmas afternoon.

Posted by: sherry | December 31, 2006 03:07 PM

Thanks for sharing, Danny. Nice peek into the (not always smoothly flowing) creative process -- and a definite connection to those of us for whom 2006 was a year of growth, but not always in a pleasant way.
Sherry, I enjoyed the image of your family sitting around drawing bagels on Christmas Day!
Wishes for many good things in 2007.
Karen

Posted by: Karen | December 31, 2006 03:34 PM

I, too, am moved to send heartfelt thanks for the inspiration you provide for so many of us. I think that floundering for a direction and feeling flummoxed in the process is much more part of the creative process than sticking to one thing and doing it into infinity. I'm tempted to recommend that you dip into Barbara Sher's book, "Refuse to Choose!: A Revolutionary Program for Doing Everything That You Love".

All I can say beyond that is another thank you for not abandoning us completely as you search for the next medium of expression. And I'm delighted to hear about "Everyday Matters" being issued in paperback. Then I can buy a copy to give to everyone I know.

Posted by: Jane humphrey | December 31, 2006 03:39 PM

I just wanted to respond as a new reader who is very inspired and seriously overwhelmed by your talent and tenacity. My 2007 journal, my first AND so very blank, is in my hand. Wish me luck!

Posted by: bettyfromtexas | December 31, 2006 05:06 PM

Sherry, I just LOVE the idea of giving a bagel along with the copy of Creative License - how immediate! No reason to delay, an invitation to jump in and start drawing.

Danny, I wish you the very best of years - I've enjoyed what you've shared of your process as well as your drawing in the past: it has sparked so much in me and others. I look forward to the future - whatever it looks like - with delight. Thank you for everything and happy 2007!

Posted by: Elizabeth Perry | December 31, 2006 06:15 PM

Danny I wanted to thank you for the wonderful sense of community that you have created via the books, blog and edm groups. I hope when you look back at the staggering number of individuals who are drawing every day as a result of your book it makes you smile. As for the publishing of your next book...personal publishing has come a long way, I'm sure you can find a happy medium (pun intended).

Posted by: melissa | December 31, 2006 08:33 PM

Hi Danny, I'm looking forward to the new directions you'll be taking in 2007 and if time permits, you sharing these endeavours with us. I also enjoyed the sparring re: the drawing from photos debate, it was quite an invigorating debate.

All in all thanks for sharing a part of yourself over the past 12 months, and your capacity to inspire. Onwards and upwards.

Posted by: Detlef | December 31, 2006 08:43 PM

Hi Danny
Moodiness is an essential part of the creative spirit (that's my excuse anyway). Without it you wouldn't be who you are. And do me, it's part of what makes you so interesting and inspiring. How good it is to know that someone with your talent still suffers the same self-doubt that plagues the rest of us.
Everything you do on this site fills so many of us with delight and inspiration. And the site itself has created so many friendships - really fascinating friendships with people we will probably never meet, friendships born from a love of drawing, rather than happening to live in the same town.
I hope that you don't feel pressured in future to blog and share your art for the sake of it, but that you share with us nevertheless simply because you want to. My world would be a poorer one without your contribution to it. Thank you and a very happy new year to you, your family and your(our) huge host of internet friends.

Posted by: helenlp | January 1, 2007 05:50 AM

Danny: When I posted my first awkward, childish attempts at sketching you most generously encouraged me .. and I was flabergasted that someone of your stature and fame would take a moment to wish me well. Those words, your books, YOUR OWN experimentation and floundering have encouraged me, as well as others in this journey/journal of life we call art. Your honesty more than anything else, is a tribute to the person you are --

May I, whom YOU have encouraged, repond likewise and encourage you -- to keep on keeping on ... thru trials, failings, successes ...

Much love, Danny, and gratitude -- May 2007 be abundant, creative and rewarding ....

Posted by: lin | January 1, 2007 07:53 AM

Reading your retrospective of 2006 was like reading one of those holiday newsletters! Blows me away when people can recall things from all the way back to January of last year! I actually have taken an artistic redirection at the moment myself...into quilting...although I DID draw someone as I was riding the train to Philly a few weeks ago. I am finally acknowledging that my interests run in cycles-- sometimes intersecting, at other times one outdistances another. I am better to just go-with-the-flow and not worry about not doing any one thing too much or too little. It's all good! I am always inspired by your work and experiences. May you continue on the good journey in this new year!

Posted by: Rita | January 1, 2007 09:22 AM

Hope you continue to diversify in 2007. Hope you continue to share your genius with us.

Posted by: Doris Mouton | January 1, 2007 09:49 AM

Do not forget that what you have given al of us, is a reminder that Everyday does matter! That whatever we do makes a difference. We might not be able to change the world but we can affect the people around us Thank You

Posted by: Lu | January 1, 2007 11:39 AM

You haven't lost me! I look forward to your postings and still find them inspiring.

Although, this one is making me feel a bit underachieved for the year. You have accomplished and experienced so much in one year and I sit here scratching my head wondering what I have done.

May you continue to grapple with your journey through 2007. Happy New Year!!!

Posted by: Robbie | January 1, 2007 01:00 PM

Thanks for sharing your insights with us. Though I have been an admirer of yours, I have yet to pick up one of your books. I know that will change soon. I have been journaling for 14 years, but often get tired of it. I hope to incorporate some drawings or "art" in my journal. That will be a challenge. But as a number-crunching former account person in the ad biz, I know I need to express myself more creatively. I enjoy reading about your creative struggles because they make me realize how challenging (and rewarding) creativity can be. Keep up the great work in 2007.

Posted by: Tim | January 1, 2007 01:23 PM

Hi Danny
Nice summation of the year. Your honesty of what we all go through as human beings and artists is what keeps me tuned in.
Happy New Year
CKP in chicago

Posted by: ckp | January 1, 2007 02:43 PM

Happy Newyear Danny!

Posted by: John Ediger | January 1, 2007 03:01 PM

But Danny you ARE a teacher! You teach all of us so much with your explanations of papers and pens and sketching and inking etc etc. And of course you teach by inspiring all of us to find our creative path. You know you could make a most wonderful class/es if you wanted to. Who knows, you may love teaching!
And may I remind you, boldly, that EVERYDAY MATTERS. I for one would love to see every sketch you do!
And thanks for clarifying the portraits are all in a watercolor moleskine. Now I have a visual of the 'guys.'
happy new year! I hope you'll post your hopes for 2007, now that we've had the restrospective of 2006. And thanks for mentioning the LA sketchcrawl! It was GREAT meeting you that day!
Jane
PS By the way, the first post I read of yours was http://www.dannygregory.com/2006/01/you_must_be_the.php January 1, 2006, and it was the one that got me hooked. Seems like you might want to read it again too.

Posted by: Jane LaFazio | January 1, 2007 04:03 PM

Hi, Danny--i really appreciate your sharing the times in 2006 when you felt as though you had "lost the thread" of your sketching, evolution, etc. I know I have times when I feel low because everything seems to have run out of steam, and I lose my sense of purpose and direction. I try all sorts of new stuff and it usually poops out after a brief time. Then suddenly the slender thread appears again and I am thrilled with happiness at re-d9scovering it leading me gently onward in a meaningful direction! I believe these movements are orchestrated by the deep Self and that we need to trust them. Sometimes a field needs to lie fallow for a spell. I find this very boring myself and its difficult to trust and wait for those new little green shoots. I recommend Robert Johnson's fabulous book, BALANCING HEAVEN AND EARTH for a wonderful discussion of how these threads--which have their own wisdom--operate in our lives. Its my favorite book for myself as an artist (although it has almost nothing to do with making art) because its so soulful. Art, for me, is about soul-making and development at the inner level. Anyway, I find it inspiring that even Danny Gregory has moments when he doesn't exactly know what to do next! And shame on those folks at Disney who wouldn't offer another book contract--The Creative License is the single greatest creativity book I've ever read, bar none. Its brought so much fun and joy into my life. When I am an old,old lady (in contrast to being a sort of old lady of 60) I am going to have 2 books on my bedtable--yours and Robert Johnson's! Thank you for all the time and effort and thoughtfulness you have devoted to the Everyday Matters online group, etc. Its a fabulous community of artists and it brings me enormous pleasure everyday! Happy New Year, Danny!

Posted by: Ellen Specht | January 1, 2007 05:19 PM

Danny, I also want to Thank-you for all that this blog means to me. You have given me the wanting to tey Art and I have and journaling. Your work I love so and the stories are always wonderful. I learn from you I have no classes near by and the ones there are are way out of pocket for me. Your book is just wonderful. So my dear friend have a wonderful Art filled New Year to you and your family.
Linda

Posted by: Linda | January 1, 2007 05:30 PM

Danny, It's January 1, 2007. I have a blank book in my hand, multiple (about 30 or so) issues of the Chronicle; and Amazon just e-mailed me. Both of your books are in the mail. My good friend D.Price has turned me on to your site. I think I'm ready to go!!!
Thank you so much. You give more of yourself than you will ever know. As Iris Murdoch said,"Great art is connected with courage and truthfulness..." I'm just beginning this process, but In your case, I would have to add "gracefulness" and "humility".
It's there, man, and I'm lovin' it.
If you would be so kind, what kind of paper did you put in #45. Specifically, I'm still learning. I love that journal.
"We do not remember days, we remember moments". Cesare Pavese
2007 will be filled with great "moments".
Thanks, Danny

Posted by: Kelly Stinnett, La Grande, OR | January 1, 2007 06:12 PM

Danny -- Posting periodically actually makes your posts more meaningful, because, knowing that they *do* have more meaning, I look at them all, as opposed to if I were to get one every day or every other day. That might feel more like "marketing" to me, as opposed to sharing, which is what your current emails feel like...like something of note has happened and it'll be a good view or good read.

Also, I appreciate your sharing of the ups and downs of the artist's life. For any artist, I think the highs are higher and the lows are lower. We strive harder in certain respects, so the accomplishments can be thrilling, but the failures can be heartbreaking, and we can simply wither sometimes from our expenditure of energy, either positive or negative.

Also, thanks to some spiritual texts I've been reading lately, so much of our unhappiness can occur when our reality doesn't meet our expectations. The Buddhist notion of "having no attachment to the outcome" of our endeavors is wonderful, if we can actually live it. I try to do it--to put myself and my work out there, and just leave it at that--but it's a challenge.

Well, here's to a happy and healthy, and creative, 2007 to us all. Thanks to everyone here and at EDM for the fun.

Posted by: Mary Ann | January 1, 2007 07:20 PM

Danny, I am so glad you share so much of your art and life with us! You will never know just how many lives you touch in some way!

New Year's blessings to you and your family!

Malinda

Posted by: SideShowMom | January 2, 2007 05:58 AM

Just read your article on the design for How magazine. Reminds me of how I DO NOT MISS doing that anymore since I am now retired. I was in aerospace and everyone was an art director and wanted some of their input in everything. I admire your patience with your customers but since they pay the bill you have learned to give them what they want. All of your designs were good.

Posted by: Terry Banderas | January 2, 2007 09:44 AM

Thanks for the memories! I've enjoyed your blogs so much and look forward to learning more from your future ones.

Posted by: Mary | January 2, 2007 10:15 AM

Our paths are never as linear as we would like them to be, are they? A new book would be a real treat, but I hope that whatever you end up doing is what resonates most for you. Happy New Year to you, and thank you so much for all the inspiration and courage you've given me.

Posted by: martha | January 2, 2007 09:04 PM

I always enjoy your blog Danny but this wrap up is the best. I would rather read blogs where people are real, and if that means there isn't a post some days, so be it. I have The Creative License and love it. Take care Danny. Cath

Posted by: Cath | January 5, 2007 03:17 PM

Ack, you have inspired me to do more and learn more with my drawing than any other teacher I've had! I love that you move from this to that, learning as you go. And sometimes you stop...and then start over.

I have both of your drawing/creativity books and have give away copies of both also. That publisher must be nuts. Thanks for inspiring us!

Posted by: joyce | January 6, 2007 07:26 PM

Loved the Amsterdam sketches.

I wish you had had a better time there. Next time I go I'm going to visit Boekie Woekie, which is an artist-run bookstore of books by artists:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~boewoe/

Posted by: Andrew Eason | January 8, 2007 02:13 PM