I sure want to add more little quotes to my list, and I will. But now I'd rather post this thing, which I take from ~Niphredill's journal, and she took it from someone else's... and it's quite an interesting questionnaire.

Do your ideas seem 'external'? Are you most often inspired by what you see?
Yes, they do. I do always need something internal in my ideas to make them work for me, but for me, it’s usually not my emotions, it’s more like something inexplicable that appeared in my mind out of nowhere. So, in my own view, almost all of my ideas are external: if I make something up completely and consciously only in my mind, it doesn’t work. I am not inspired by my emotions, unless they’re my reactions to something external... I can work my emotions and experiences into my work, but the original impulse is usually something external. Or my dreams, I admit, but even then I’m always inspired by the more external dreams, those that have interesting landscape in them or a lot of characters...
Which is funny, because I suspect I must seem like a very introverted, daydreaming person from the outside.
But, then, if you look at my gallery here, you can clearly see that the majority of my work here is photographs of what I saw and liked. Take it as a proof I’m not making the above things up.

Do you tend to think of concepts in your mind first, and then incorporate them into a work?
No, I don’t think so. It’s usually the other way round: first I think of a story, or an image appears in my mind, or I take a photo of something I like, and then I think, what the concept and meaning of it actually is?

Are you inspired by what you feel, your emotional state?
Already mentioned. No. I tend to skip over my emotional states. I mean, sure, I’m angry or sad and I feel it strongly, and surely I annoy people close to me with it at the moment I’m angry or sad, but that’s it. I like stories and images, and there are no stories or images in emotions.

Do you find it difficult, or very easy, to absorb ideas from others?
Above all, this is something I do not bother thinking about... whether I *find* it difficult or easy. It’s not something I do consciously. From this point of view, I guess I should say I find it difficult. When someone gives me a theme to write about, or draw a picture on, it’s not something I do easily, I have to force myself into it, unless I already have a similar idea lurking in my head. (Thus I always wrote short stories about my already existing characters at school, whenever the theme we were appointed to write about allowed it.) But, at the same time, I suspect a lot of my ideas actually come from somewhere else than just my mind. I’m inspired by books I read, and pictures I saw, and maybe also by concepts I encountered.

When you get an idea, can you let it 'simmer', or do you feel you must drop everything and work on it NOW?
It depends. Some ideas demand to be worked on NOW, and some call for a long time of simmering, sometimes years and years.

Are your ideas stand-alone concepts with nothing to do with your other work?
They’re usually connected, but not always. I think that depends on the media we’re talking about. Most of my stories – most of them yet unwritten – are connected, and such is, of course, also the case with my illustrations to them. But then there are ideas for other pictures that have absolutely nothing to do with my “worlds”... think of Green Joy [link] , that image just appeared in my mind and the concept has nothing to do with my stories.

Do your ideas tend to 'branch out', with one central concept powering several related works?
Tell me what a central concept could be, and I might tell you whether the answer is yes or no... But I guess it’s yes.

Do you tend to explore a concept serially, with several works, one after the other, in a certain order?
No, not really. Certainly not in a certain order.

Do you actively seek ideas? If so, do you do this only as long as it's enjoyable, or do you drive yourself on until you have found something?
No. Not ideas. I actively seek things to support them with (maybe techniques I haven’t tried yet, maybe a bit of a research on a place or time I want to locate my story in, something like that), but ideas have to come on their own.

Do you sit back and let ideas come to you?
I usually do this when travelling by train through the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands. When I’m alone in the compartment, or at least can sit at the window. I sit at the window, look at the running landscape outdoors and let my mind run, too. Sometimes I only end up with a bit dizzy feeling, but sometimes I do get ideas. I like doing this.

Do you perceive ideas as they form, or do they tend to go unnoticed until they are 'complete'?
I think usually I perceive them as they form, but not always. There are ideas that come all of a sudden and complete. Again, think Green Joy.


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I originally wanted to post something about my writing and characters, but after having spent half a day by taking silly random tests/quizzes online (which really isn't my usual pastime), I thought it would be too serious and boring. So here comes my pack of random favourite quotes instead. And I mean random. No meaningful deep thoughts about life and universe and love and such things. Although, if you like, you can draw those from them.

I mean, sometimes I'm just delighted by a sentence or two in a book for no particular reason. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's nicely worded and sometimes it's simply... no reason at all.

Like this:

`Yrch!' said Legolas, falling into his own tongue.
- although, admittedly, I like this one a bit more in Czech. Because the word in Czech is "skuruti", not "yrch", and somehow it sounds better to me. Probably because I'm Czech and the word for orcs is "skřeti". Which makes me wonder how amazing the Czech translation of The Lord of the Rings is.

And, hey, don't you just love Little My?
Because her reactions on learning that they're going to live on an island (which they know only from a map) were:
"I've always thought it was a flyspeck."
and
"Don't be silly! Everything's fantastic! More or less. The most fantastic thing would be if we arrived there all gung-ho and with all our odds and ends and realised it was really a flyspeck."
(Translation mine, from Czech...)

And one of the cutest comforting sentences, from a Czech book about two rabbits who live in a hat (because they used to be magician's rabbits):
"Bob, I'm afraid!"
"Don't be afraid, Bobek, I'm too!"

I think I'll update this journal with more quotes, once I remember them...

Do you have such favourite quotes like I do?

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That is, I have my father's old camera - which is the usual route for cameras in our family.

There's sugar in the old one. That's not so usual. I carried a package of sugar to my school flat in my backpack, together with many other things, including the camera.
I hadn't realised the package was paper and could get torn. Which it did.

The new-old camera is almost the same as the old-old one. It's only better. So I don't have to be getting used to anything new.

And I'm still alive.

I should be drawing the requests.
I should be drawing more in general.
I should be drawing more of my characters to begin with.
I always end up drawing more of Yaron.

I'm not happy anymore. I'm angry. Someone is phishing out passwords from dA users and it obviously spreads. If someone - even your friend - gives you a link that turns out to look like dA login, don't fill it in, NEVER!!! It wasn't your friend who gave you that link. And it won't be you who will post a link on someone else's dA account if you fill in that "login"...
dA is already aware of this: [link] , so all that's left to do is... do nothing. Don't fill in that form. And don't blame your friends if they gave you that link, because it wasn't them. (Try to contact them outside dA and let them know...)