"Instead of just doing a straight architectural portrait, I wanted to come up with a clever idea for a fantastical sketch. But my mind went blank, as if some monster robbed all the good ideas out of my head. Then I thought: What if there actually was an Idea Monster that stole good ideas? It would sit blocking the road, and kidnap all the fresh, original ideas that came rolling along. It would let through only the stale, tired old clichés."
James Gurney is an artist whom I have admired since I read the book Dinotopia in elementary school- his illustrations are incredibly beautiful. I just learned this fall that he keeps a blog where he posts sketches and watercolors, and have been following it through my RSS reader ever since. In early November, he posted the image and the quote above, which I thought was a charming way to think about that moment when a great idea is on the very tip of your tongue, and then is snatched away at the crucial moment, or those days when, try as you might, only boring ideas seem to come.
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