Escaping The Terrifying Blank Page

…With Play-doh and Crayons.

Can you remember any of the first tools you wrote or created with? Play-doh? Scented markers on craft paper? A yellow lined notebook and ball point pens? A typewriter? Legos?(!)

Probably the most memorable for me would be that classic box of Crayola Crayons. And when I’m beginning to illustrate for a brand new book project, rather than jumping right into page layouts for the book, I start out with a tub of crayons and big pieces of cheap craft paper.

Sketches for WHAT ROSA BROUGHT, by Jacob Sager Weinstein (Nov 2023)

I spend time free sketching at random; loose character sketches, prop or set design items, images that come to mind while reading through the manuscript. Using early-making materials works so well for this because:

• They feel low pressure. These aren’t my final tools or the final format, so nothing has to be or look like anything yet. And more importantly,

• They put me immediately in the mode of PLAY. The smell of the crayons and feel of cheap paper takes me back to my origin days of drawing for fun. Anything I can do to channel that feeling serves me well starting out.

Sketches for WHAT ROSA BROUGHT by Jacob Sager Weinstein (Nov 2023)

I can snap photos of parts of these crayon drawings and collage them into early digital composition layouts. No matter how rough or seemingly useless these pieces are, they help me start with ANYTHING other than that dreadful and terrifying blank page. And that is extremely useful. Because, in the words of author Jodi Picoult, “You can’t edit a blank page.”

What were your beloved early creating materials? Could it serve you in any way to play with them as part of your current creative process?

‘Til next time,