My Illustrations are Actors
On why you will see some of my illustrations in more than one context
Oftentimes I reuse and repurpose my illustrations. Sometimes I will draw something that is initially used for a Medium post, and then use it again for a different topic within my magazine. Sometimes I use two older illustrations together for a larger piece of art.
When I started out, I tried to avoid this, because I felt like I was being lazy or that I was somehow cheating the small following who pay attention to the stuff I create. It seemed unfair to me to double up on an illustration, especially if it was being used for two very separate ideas.
But a revelation occurred to me some months ago that helped me understand why I even feel the urge to double up on illustrations. And to explain it, I need to go into a little detail about how I come to create my designs in the first place.
Typically, my drawings are paired with writing. I view the two as tandem and intertwined. However, despite this connectivity, I tend to create my drawings and my writing separately from each other. I have a notebook with a collection of probably a few hundred illustrations in it, and I often make them without a written piece in mind (although there are some really significant, albeit niche, exceptions to this).
