New roommates in my not so new office

· by · in Life as an artist. ·

I moved into another office room some months ago. It is a smaller office now, and the rent is more expensive, but in the place I am now I can put in my own furniture, which is very important, when you want to accomodate your working place according to your needs.

Writer artist John E. Brito´s workspace

Writer artist children´s book author John E. Brito´s workspace

My good old drawing table.

The Visual Library

So I put in the wooden tables (which had been waiting patiently in a freezing cold store room for years) and bought some new cupboards. One of the reasons I wanted to choose my own furniture was that I needed a place to store my figures.

Schleich Figur Hase

I love rabbits…

Schleich Figur Eisbär Bär Panda

…and bears

dinosaur figure in children´s book author John Brito`s workspace

…and monsters…ehm… dinosaurs.

Schleich Dinosaurier Tyrannosaurus Rex

When I see an interesting character, I usually buy it sometime later, turn it around in my hand and observe how it looks from different angles. From the left, from the right, at 45 degrees, 30 degrees, uptilt, looking down… you name it. It helps building some kind of “visual library” in your head.

Writer artist John E. Brito´s workspace with infinity figure Ashoka Tano

Ashoka Tano watching over my notebooks.

Writer artist John E. Brito´s workspace with infinity figures Ashoka Tano and Alice

And if someday you are in need to draw something really fast (for example when you are sitting together with a client and you are drawing while you are speaking), you do not have the time to invent a totally new character. So you can take one of the characters you have “stored” in your mind and start from there (building another character). Years ago, I tended to draw figures from different angles. But unfortunately, I do not have the time to do so any more. So just looking at figures or things from different angles has to do the trick.

There must be a nest somewhere

But I noticed that these critters tend to multiply themselves. I think that there must be a nest somewhere near my office.

Sketchbooks of children´s book author John E Brito with infinity figure Alice in wonderland

Some even started populating my book shelf.

Writer artist John E. Brito´s workspace with TMNT figure

Donatello guarding the prototype prints of my children’s book “Below the Floor”.

Writer artist John E. Brito´s workspace with infinity figure Hulk

Writer artist John E. Brito´s workspace with infinity figure

But the good thing is that they remind me of where I want to be one day – everytime I enter my little office. 🙂

Writer artist John E. Brito´s workspace with dinosaur figure on sketchbook

And sometimes, I even have to ask for permission to draw in one of my sketchbooks.

What are the critters who inhabit your working place? Feel free to leave a comment below. 😉

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