The pen is mightier than the paintbrush

When I was at school I lived in the art department. The thought of trying to write stuff for a living had never crossed my mind; I didn't even know what a copywriter was, let alone creative advertising. Nope. I wanted to be some sort of artist or something. 

Creativity was all about the freedom of expression for me when I was still at school. Advertising isn't really freedom of expression - it's a set of parameters that have been set, within which you can be creative. Creating art was never about answering a brief. 

I suppose it's one argument separating the two practices. Can you even call advertising a kind of art? Maybe you can. It's a long and complex topic that I can maybe attempt to cover another time without going too philosophical on everyone's ass (I think it's pretty interesting, so probably worth a look at some point even if my pathetic attempt at evaluating the subject is about as helpful as a punch in the teeth from a smelly guy on the bus who's just sneezed without covering his face and then wiped the resulting snot river onto his swinging hand). 

Anyway, the reason I am waffling on about this is because I found some old bits and pieces I did around ten years ago, hiding on my external hard drive that I had completely forgotten about. They deserve a bit of airing so here are a couple of studies:

I realise I was never oh-my-God-we-have-a-child-prodigy-on-our-hands-AMAZING!!! at this stuff, but I wasn't totally balls at it either. Still, I haven't drawn or painted properly for at least eight years. I keep wondering if I'd be any good now if I'd focused on that creative side of me, nurtured my sketch pads and paint brushes and worked hard at improving. I wanted to go to art college but never finished my portfolio due to lack of discipline and now everything's rusted over like old iron railings.


Maybe if I had really grafted I'd be an art director now? But then, I suppose I can tell my left from my right so the vocation as an AD was never meant to be (insert smiley face sticking its tongue out here).