Constraints & Location

A Blogpost by Adam Ming on substack

I’m a member of the international group of picture book illustrators called Illoguild. Each month, we each answer a question here on Substack. For August, that question was: “How do you get inspired by your particular surroundings?”

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1. I’m inspired by the energy and curiosity of my 1 year old, she helps me see the world with wonder. She helps me see the with new eyes how wonderful it is to put on shoes. Or go for a walk. I try to retain that wonder. I try to put that in my work. The energy too, pure 0-100 happy chaos.

2. There are now two big bookshops in Kuala Lumpur where I live, and the trips to the bookshops always inspire me. I walk an isle as one would walk down the street in a new town or city. I discover new authors and illustrators in the bookshops, sometimes I connect with them immediately on twitter.

   

   Sketch of the studio.

3. My small studio inspires me. The constraint of it forces creative solutions. What I make is a result of the constraints of space and time. My studio is in the apartment I live in, but is some what disconnected. Isolated. I view the studio like business class on an airplane. Studio time is an expensive and valuable resource. I have everything I could need to work at hand. And a limited time to do the work.

I remember reading an article by Derek Sivers about living Locally or Globally. The idea being that you can do things in person locally, or you can make things for the world.

With family, I live locally.

But when it comes to the work I do and the things that inspire me I take a more global approach.