Due to some monetary restrictions my drinking as of late pretty much stopped cold. Before that though, I regularly enjoyed a little wine while writing my posts, or while working on personal writings. One or two glasses put me in an enjoyable position where the basic restrictions of a world blurred with what I felt at the time mirrored some chaotic truth. I was willing to put my characters into more danger, to throw them into situations I could not see the solutions for, and to let the world live as freely as the characters. Normally I strive for these areas, but a little wine helped. For me, the line between useful and obstructive is a bit thin though. Sometimes the second glass put my head in a place where I'd miss a word here and there more often than I'd like. On the other hand, scotch did not give me any issues. While my body clearly feels the effects, my mind stays surprisingly clear when drinking scotch. If I had the money, I'd stick to the latter when writing.
I'll admit that a little alcohol really does help my creative process. It shouldn't be any surprise, but I'm a dreamer. My mind is constantly producing narratives, images, and all sorts of background stories no matter what I happen to be doing. This helps me to catch the nuances behind how a person is acting in-person and has helped me see issues between departments of work before they had a chance reach me too. With all these ideas, when I sit down to write or to draw I need exercises to put each one in check. I'll do several short free-writes to just put some ideas down and store them for later. I do the equivalent with thumbnails for my drawings, which usually turn into paintings of some level of completion. Now, linking back to this thread, I find a little wine or scotch really helps to boldly cut certain ideas into their own. I find myself liberated to create without mercy, doubt, or remorse. This is very true when I'm drawing or painting.
Other recreational drugs too, huh? Well, let's say that for about a year I shared a decent studio with about half a dozen other artists. We often slept there and spent our days covered in oil paint and charcoal. I avoid hard psychedelics like LSD or shrooms, because my way of thinking described above seems a little too close to something else. I always feared a drug like that could blur the line between constantly creating other realities and losing myself to other realities. So, no, I avoid those types of harder drugs. Pot and artwork actually works very well for me, usually opening me up to bigger, bolder decisions. It also helped me burn through some of my larger woodcuts and the fine details, which if you're familiar, requires the artist to personally cut every line into a block of wood in order to later create the image. Close friends of mine tried dropping acid and created some amazing photography as a result. Shrooms though, that pretty much put our studio on its ass for a night. Those who took them accomplished little more than sprawling out naked on the studio floor apologizing to the scrapped sculptures. Maybe one day I'll try LSD and if I do, I'll undoubtedly try painting and sketching before writing. I can't imagine trying to write with something so mind-bending, honestly.
