I doodle. I mull. I write.
I’ve had a lifelong love of paper. Just ask my mom. Apparently, I left a lot of paper trails when I was a kid. I loved making paper snowflakes and hanging them from the ceiling! Thanks Mom! Give me paper and a pen, and I’m oh-so-happy. Unlike many artists who have a very specific creative process, I don’t. Of course,there must be some order to the chaos when I work on the final drawings, but getting the inspiration inside out is another story! My work is very spontaneous. I try to journal daily. It might be a few words or ten pages. Some ideas become Lisa Lightheart inspirations. Others keep the creativity flowing. Creating for me is more lifestyle than process. I’m always searching for ideas,and spend a lot of time thinking, and sometimes, over-thinking.
Most of my studio time is devoted to finishing touches. The playful sketch work happens anywhere and everywhere usually unannounced and unexpected. I just start laying down lines and doodles and see where it takes me. I call it creative meandering. My best ideas come when I wing it! As you can imagine, I’m not the best at planning or keeping schedules. Strangely, many ideas come in the middle of the night or the wee hours of the morning. Often, it’s like someone is throwing a ball to me from heaven, and thankfully, I have enough sense to catch it! Somehow, this “process” works. I usually don’t do a lot of editing. I just clean things up. First, I use a light table to redraw the images in pencil. Then I ink them. That’s the tedious part. Finally, I color them with artist markers. That’s the super fun part! And Lisa Lightheart comes to life!