Late Night Sketching

My sleep schedule has been messed up for years. It doesn't help when I start to sketch late at night as that just energizes me to want to stay up longer and be creative. But many artists work late at night. It isn't always a procrastination thing that turns us into nocturnal creatures but that the world is quiet. During the day, the world is noisy, people are interrupting your work flow, and there are errands and other life stuff to contend with. But during the night....that's our time! The cares of the day are put aside as we create. While the world dreams, we dream of worlds and put them on paper. Or Canvas. Or computer.

In truth, I might be one of those types who would be up late even if I wasn't an artist. An old boss once said that my perfect day would be 30 hours long as I was burning my candle on both ends back in those days when I would work and go to school. I was young then and could get away with only 6 hours of sleep. But in my later years, I can't push like that.

I've heard that people without a regular schedule or those that work nights don't live as long. Maybe it is the lack of sunshine or whatever. It is a painfully adjustment when, after working nights, you suddenly have to shift to a day schedule on your days off to get your errands done or meet up with friends that are not on the nocturnal shift. But I've run into a couple of benefits too like having no problem to the time difference when I first travelled to England and Australia (my theory is I've always been living on Australian time).

Sometimes I'm not on a night schedule. Real life forces me to adjust my round peg to the world's square hole from time to time but, with what seems like a 30 hour day for me, left to my own devices, I'll stay up a little longer each day to, eventually, I've shifted to more of a day schedule.

But late night is prime sketching time for me. I'll let the ideas flow or, if the television is on, maybe I'll be inspired by a person I saw on a commercial or and old show I never saw as a kid as the above sketches were influenced by.