Making Things Better
Observations on getting better at being a creative person
Hey, I’m glad you’re here. I have a few things on my mind as I work through the final art work for JUST JELLY1 — so I’m glad I’m here too.
I’ve talked a lot about my own kind of personal “growth mindset” catch phrase “JUST GET BETTER” and for good reason. I think it’s been a mental and emotional ladder to getting the most out of my time in the studio, writing and illustrating picture books.
Here’s brief synopsis of it in action:
Me on a deadline and with a weird crink in my neck and an hour and a half late putting food in my body: “You are not very good at writing and your illustrations are crap-tastic with a capital C.”
Also Me: “Just get better.”
Positive Someone: “This book is really beautiful. My kid thinks it’s so funny. Good job.”
Me: “Just get better.”
★ Become a Paid Subscriber ★
I’ll leave you with this comment from recent paid subscriber, Stacey Ramirez: “Hi Jacob. I just upgraded to your paid subscription. I’ve been getting your weekly newsletter and I look forward to it every week. I get so much out of it. Just a note to say thank you and keep up the good work!”
It’s a nice way of smoothing out the turbulence and finding a nice cruising altitude so I can do the work while framing it all as a process rather than just a product. My emotional well-being, my creative life, and the quality and consistency of my work has all, well… gotten better.
But it occurs to me that better can have a few meanings in the context of making things. There’s prob more but here’s the stuff that I notice the most:
