This is an old thread, I know, but I read something interesting from a hometown novelist named Ken Kuhlken who was featured in an article in our weekly free paper....it seems oddly appropriate to the writers here who also enjoy creating graphics:

About Kuhlken's grandmother, he said, "Without her, I don't know if I would have ever become a writer. She had stories, stories, and stories. She was a painter. She studied with Charles Fries, who was famous. They got to be friends. She would go off up in the mountains on painting day trips with Mr. Fries. Watching her paint, I learned a lot about writing. She'd start off with one color all over the canvas. Then she'd come back and layer on other colors, and scenes would start to develop. I always had this idea, even from the first time I started writing, that you didn't just sit down and write something, but that you built scenes in stages."