bearded rukus

Hourly Comic Day, 2012

2012-02-02T05:55:00.000-04:00

Hourly comic day, 2012:

Bus blags

2011-12-13T13:33:00.001-04:00

Today I'm going to restart my post-it doodle a day! it's been to long and I'm itching to draw some dudes.

News! My good friends Ryan and Doug started a podcast! it's pretty entertaining. TAKE A LISTEN!!! They have two episodes up so far. Two solid eps!! SEPS.

I read my own comic today; the one from Geekgirlcon ... and man do I want to make more. I'm probably going to do some more one shots. maybe we'll see returning characters. a mystery for sure!
The wife and I are playing Dungeons and Dragons tomorrow at the best place in the world, and I'm hoping to do something with that too. so many ideas! I wish I was awake.

Doodles and photos below. I'm out for now. Peace brothers!!!

Some kooky dudes!

The bus I was on! Ho boy!

at a bar drawing doods

2011-11-23T18:25:00.001-04:00

doodles
at bar.
celebrate!

Geek Girl Con was Fun and Neat.

2011-10-24T02:49:00.000-04:00

So I went to the first Geek Girl Con. It was really lovely. Everyone I met was super nice! The whole atmosphere was really chill and just a grand old time. I doodled a lot for people, and sold out of my comic. I will be putting up my comic here shortly for other people to see if they so wish.

Onto pictures!

I got a request to draw Kelly from Misfits. Putting her with her Gorilla friend (more than friends???) was my idea. This doodle and the other misfits picture turned out to be the best ones I did, I think.

Brian or "Monsieur Grand Fromage" is the best. The episode (Misfits again!) managed to be sorta creepy but mostly hilarious without ever being lame. I kept this one for myself.

Eowyn! Daughter of the House of Eorl! Niece of the King Theoden! Sister of Eomer! Daughter to Theodwyn and Eomund!!! SLAYER OF THE WITCH KING! I did this painting on a whim and ended up selling it. I'm going to do another one for myself.

More Middle-Earth love, this time a tender scene from The Hobbit. This one was by request (swell guy! Wanted either hobbit theme or Fafrd and the Gray Mouser), but will also be doing one for myself.

Double Garrus! A lot harder to capture his Garrus-ness than I thought. The girl was super rad though. She had a sweet jacket covered in Mass Effect patches. And she was friends with a girl we met at PAX dressed as Aveline. The best Aveline! Always a good idea to draw Bioware peeps.

Some random doods. I gave the female beserker to one of the nice girls from Minor Acts of Heroism. We chatted with them at Sakuracon, and they make a good comic! Also Zack from Final Fantasy VII. The Crisis Core version I think. One of many I did for a nice girl.

Our boothmate Ray was super busy all weekend. She made so much rad stuff. And shit man look at that Hench outfit she made!

So good. Also her friend (her other friend isn't in the picture. There were two friends total. Also I'm sure she has more friends than two. Actually I know she does.)

Her and her friends were Venture Bros. super-fans. It was inspiring. I did these for them!

Actually the Brock was for someone else, but thematically fits, and I liked it and wanted to show it. Here it is! Shore-Leave is lookin' goooood.

I can't wait for next year. Going to conventions always feels me with inspiration and energy to create. It quickly fizzles to reveal crippling depression though. I'm working on that. I got a lot of ideas out of the convention, and hope to exhibit at some more cons next year.

More to come, friends.

2011-10-08T10:38:00.001-04:00

Today i'll be at Geek Girl Con hawkin' some wares! http://www.geekgirlcon.com/

This blog will be going through some modifications. MODIFICATIONS I SAY!

I'm super pumped!

Spinning 'round My Head

2010-04-03T21:00:00.000-04:00

Another contest. I hate these things. But they are my driving force. Can't blame my condition enough. But what else am I supposed to do? The collective of these months tend to be the best. Collective energy from the internet. A silent collective most times for me. Why? E-shy.

New developments; studying more comic artists. Ralph Steadmen; Robert Crumb; Scott McCloud. Mcloud man... theory is how my mind works best. Definitely more of a dreamer. McCloud helps me dream a little more clearly. The man knows his comics. Far reaching comparisons, but work.

Pondering: without the internet I would be lost. Having search engines at my finger tips. I fear that I depend to much on this convenience. How did the writer and artist manage? How did they shit ever? Did they need to know it? Do we need to be vessels of knowledge? Probably not.

Business models work well for organizing my life. Everything I do is a list or plan with a desired profit margin in creative production. Still, feel like I'm heading towards a crash; have for almost 15 years. Scared constantly, like and addict scraping the barrel for a fix. Not one for hope. Not one for pre-destination. Just hard-work. Getting myself to tear down distress and bad practice, falling every second.

Plans and plans. To many plans. Unfortunately (fortunately?) I have one quote (this week at least) that has somewhat kept my mind in focus.

"We need to come up with one realistic thing that we can do today."

- Jenna Fisher (Pam) to Steve Carrel (Micheal) during "Dream Team".

It's a start. Onward to one realistic thing (I guess)!

My daydream dream

2009-11-02T11:35:00.001-04:00

I have some various creative motivation and other banal nonsense that I intend to get to today. But this week I’m back in college. In fact, let me recount a college story that, in retelling, was quite revealing...
Back in college, there was a paper due. While far from abnormal for an Art History major, this particular paper was for extra credit. Some believe that my various accomplishments merit me the title over-achiever, but in this instance I was completing this assignment to help nudge my sad, sad grade up to a solid “C”. Feeling confident from the recent feedback on my previous paper on the post-colonialist works of a local artist, I set out to do great things.

One of the qualifications that a work of art must meet before beginning was that it had to be a work of art I could actually visit. This particular class focused on American contemporary art from 1900 to the present (though we barely scratched those oh-so-charming “neo-movements” of the '80s), so my choices were limited. I headed downtown to the CCAC, and to my great pleasure and fortune happened upon the works of Charlie Harper. Charlie Harper was a local star in the Cincinnati graphic arts scene, and the exhibit included various of his prints and book illustrations. I jotted down some rough notes, made a quick sketch of one of his works and quickly typed up a proposal for the paper.

When I presented it to my professor the next day it was met with a ruffled brow and a flat "no". While I believe that I am fairly comfortable with rejection, it was the reason behind the rejection that struck me as odd. I was told that Charlie Harper was to “low-art”. In regards to the specific class agenda, I can certainly see his rational. At the time, however, I a bit taken aback. I certainly believed - and still do today - that Harpers works are quite charming, and given green-light I could have written a fairly solid paper concerning the rise of “advertising as art” and subsequent importance of graphic art in a post-Warhol scene. Nevertheless, I failed to articulate this point, and merely flopped out the words “alright, uh... whatever”. With the semester coming to a close, I was hard-pressed to find another work.

Through a chance series of wikis and search engines, I came upon Henry Moore's "Large Arch", situated in the Library Plaza. The exact chain of research and scouring that led me to Columbus, Indiana was luck, as one usually ends up on pages about cruise-ships and ends up an hour later reading about the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. I only had two days left to complete this assignment, so in a decision of moderate daring and even less adventure, I packed up my sketchbook and some compact discs, and the very next morning at 7:00 AM hit the road to Columbus Indiana.

At this point in my life, getting into my car and driving by myself to only be surrounded by unfamiliar settings and people was way out of character. Though the intentions of the trip were strictly academic, the memories of that trip are nothing but positive. Sketching the sculptures various facets under a solid overcast morning. Sitting in an unfamiliar library at an aging desktop computer, plugging away at the first five pages of formal analysis. The local art display in the basement, and the gentlemen who told me how they “do it every year” with a warm smile. Recognizing and seeing up close a collection of buildings from architects and styles I actually recognized.

To most I suppose this would probably been a dull, miserable trip. But it turned out to be an early indication of what I would enjoy later in my life. I now gain great pleasure from going out and doodling in public, sitting in strange libraries and throughly enjoying the research process. The trip, in retrospect, was surprisingly important in my personal development.

In the end, I got a B. It certainly saved my GPA, but more importantly nudged me closer to where I am today.

That you can change, that you're not stuck in vain

2009-10-02T10:59:00.000-04:00

Shift.

I completely forgot about 24hour comic day. Last I missed last years due to work or school or laziness or some other honest and real life excuse; but not this year, friends.

In recent conversations I have come to the conclusion that I am addicted to arbitrary, time-sensitive, the-reward-is-your-art contests. I absolutely adore the drive behind the projects and people that participate. It is a wonderful community that collectively agrees "I may never make it, but shit at least I got out of bed."

This is a good. Personally I could never settle in that state of mind and stay sane, what with being neurotic, deficient in my attention, wanting everything in the world to fall into place with a distinct lack of belief in fate...

... but definitely better than doing nothing.

I'm, officially, prohibited from pre-planning story or characters for said 24-hour comic. Taking it up a notch, haven't even thought about a plot or characters, honest injin. This evening will be spent gathering the necessary materials and sustenance to fuel my 24 hour creative binge. Scott Kurtz will be broadcasting live from noon to noon starting Saturday, so I will have a digital, unknowning partner in my comicing.

I'm excited, to say the least, and cannot wait to share the fruits. Even if they're rotting and vile, so much that the pie-maker would scoff them for his pies.

And I'm changing, changing

2009-09-23T03:18:00.001-04:00

Inconsistent!

Life has not panned out as swimmingly as I would like it to pan. Job-hunt continues; dozens of leads, no call-backs. I tell you it’s enough to drive a would be artist/writer/director/story-teller/designer/exhibitionist mad!

There are eight days left in the month of September, and I abandoned whatever horrible script I started at the start of this horrible month. I will, instead, bang out an awesome in the next eight days (code-named the "eight-day script") to be edited and put into production sometime next year. This may actually work out for the better, since the script will invariably be less ambitious than the little number I did in April.

But lo! I have some art to post! I have been hard at work at my portfolio, and the latest addition is a tattoo for a very good friend. Below is the breakdown.

First, I gathered some reference. Took about five minutes of super intense googling to get these gems. I opened up Adobe Bridge, followed up by photoshop and then went to town.

I am working on some new-to-me methods in Photoshop. I now draw on a shit-ton of layers, working the values from light to dark with each value getting it's own layer. Previously I worked on one layer, or a few colors per layer. This new method gives me much more piece of mind and allowing me more freedom to mess around, since a screw up is just a ctrl-z or deleted layer away from correction.

I continued to work each layer, adding more detail and value as I saw fit. The final will have tighter line work and more value contrast.

Here I have tightened up the design. It's a little crooked, I know, but when I do the final I will use a ruler. Maybe.

Oh boy! I've started to plot out vines and other details. During my research I came upon a lot of grape vines, which I thought looked pretty killer. I had a feeling that my friend may feel less keen on them, but put them in anyway.

This was the final rough that I sent off for review. Sure enough, he loved everything but the grapes. He also decided he wanted a more Tim Burton feel to the greenery. How could I not oblige such an awesome request?

This was the next rough I came up with. I gave the cross some grounding, added a fence, and made the it floaty to look better as a tattoo.

Last rough I sent off for approval, with text inserted. Needs just a few more vines, and it’s done!

I am really quite happy with the way this turned out. The text could be integrated in better, but I'll work that out with the final. This text is just placeholder.

I also learned some really great lessons while working. One, I should definitely work in a shit-bunch of layers. It allows me to loosen up and make a better picture. Two, work with reference. A lot of the works I have been doing of late has been sans reference. While many professionals out there work some pretty awesome magic with nothing but brain.

I am not yet near that level of brain.

I'm unaware

2009-09-11T02:03:00.000-04:00

The posts go up in such a disarray these days, I have decided take a bit more time to polish and edit them (effective after tonight, as I am still weary from my stay in bronchitisville).

Tonight is a little reflection on an exercise that showed me I cannot force my hand. While artists and artists arguably rely on a so dubbed natural talent, there is white-knuckle skill that must be mastered, and not every master is a renaissance.

I failed to paint anything sufficient in Photoshop all day. There is an industry standard I created for myself that I realistically cannot meet. My worry is - stupidly - if I can't do what everyone else does I won't get work. This flies in the face of all logical thought, obviously, but what kind of neurotic, anxiety wrought mess would I be with that kind of linear thinking?

The day was not wasted of course. The eight complete restarts over a 12 (12!) hour period hammered home that I should probably seek other options. One day, when I'm in a beautiful circle of colleagues with vast sums of knowledge and caring hearts, they will guide my green hand towards achieving what I see.

Until then, I suppose it's back to the drawing board hurhurhurhur.

We are frightened and we're scared

2009-09-10T02:36:00.000-04:00

Been sick with bronchitis since the end of PAX. This has been, by far, the most miserable three days I've had in a long time.

PAX, however, was an absolute blast. I got to play lots of swell new games, some D&D, and a super rad board game called Arkham Horror. I’ll have a PAX write up soon, friends.

Right now I’d like to follow up on my last post. As I stated earlier, I lack a great personal story to tell, or a set of beloved characters screaming for adventure. My cure for this was to just go with the first thing that came to mind and run with it, adopted from Grammar Girl’s awesome podcast about writing your first novel. Recently, however, I listened to the first episode of Scott Kurtz and Brad Guiger's new podcast Surviving Creativity, and they may not agree. In short, Mr. Kurtz and Mr. Guiger both agreed that you should not go with any old idea that comes out of your head, and that some ideas are just bad and should not be put to paper.

I believe that for the up and coming artist, writer, or cartoonist, go with your first idea. While the chances are unfortunately slim that you’ll become a superstar in this business, it’s even less likely that the first idea you ever had is the one that makes bank. In school, not every project you completed was worth your portfolio, but if you did the work, some of it was probably okay. More likely you learned a little something about how you work and what you want to do with your art with each completed piece. You cannot make a judgment based on an incomplete piece.

So, take that first idea, and, flesh it out, do the outline, do the plot-tree, idea-web, whatever. Then decide what you want to do with it. If you can't force yourself to get through two or three really shit completed projects, you're not going to get anywhere and your definitely not going to find your voice.

There is a lot I didn't cover here, which I will update about tomorrow. Until then, get to work. And if you don't know what that means, write about why that's confusing to you. At least you did something.

... as wrestless as we are.

2009-09-04T04:40:00.001-04:00

Can't sleep. PAX is tomorrow, and I'm pretty fucking excited about it. So there you go.

I bat around the idea of self-publishing a lot in my head. I think the reason that I can't get moving on this front is due to the variety of work that has to be done.

Take in consideration the upstart traditional comic artist, and the upstart web-comic artist. Let's assume this person has the same knowledge and skill-set that I have, since this is my blog and I'm talking about me.

The traditional comic artist would put together the elevator pitch, an outline, and a five to ten page sample of his or her comic, and send it off hope of getting it published. The web-comic artist, however, produces said work and post it online in a timely fashion, and self-promotes the work however they see fit.

I read a lot of the literature published over at webcomics.com, and their philosophy would have you believe that the latter has the potential to make a better living and, more importantly, allow the creator to retain control of their creative properties.

Here's the problem; I don't have a creative property. I don't have a grand story I want to tell. There's nothing inside me that is clawing to get out. Frankly a lot of my best work I did was in collaborations, but I'm no longer in such a situation.

I wrote a decent script back in April during Script Frenzy, but I'm still not super excited gotta work-work-work to get that shit done. This makes me sad. I consider myself a pretty creative person, but I don't have a story to tell.

There are some other reasons why I don't go the entrepreneurial route, but I will cover those in another post - Lo! A series on why I'm a scatter-brained fuck-up!

I can't just wait for lighting to strike, but how am I supposed to work on a personally driven creative work if I don't feel anything for it?

You always find a way.

2009-09-01T11:22:00.009-04:00

Currently, I am unemployed.

That was always the dream (?!). Live a bohemian life-style, surviving on linseed oil fumes and stolen booze from the bar I live above. Well our place is well ventilated. And the bar is across the street.

But here I am, in Seattle. And in Seattle I finding it very difficult make creative. Here, in the city of cold mists, I can't find the inspiration. The dust is gathering quickly.

I have a few fixes, one of them involving this text-space. I want to get back to documenting my process. I still feel that if I tackle tasks with the intent of them filling multiple roles, I will complete them.

I am going to write another script. Earlier this year I completed (without documentation to prove it) the script frenzy challenge. It was a huge personal success, so September is my personal Script-frenzy month. These challenges of doing still seem so arbitrary. Yet, they are most effective for my own personal needs.

October will bring my second attempt to fill an entire sketchbook in a month. Being the month of ghouls and ghosts (not Ghosts and Goblins), I will theme it as such. Drawing such things are fun to me.

November, I believe, kicks off the official Nanowrimo. I am super excited for this one.

In general, it feels really good to write. I'm still unsure what feels better; writing or drawing. Writing, with the click-click-clack of the keys seems more satisfying, but I'm sure I'll change my mind when I scrape a micron across some paper into a funny shape. Self-identity, I think, is my main concern right now.

And with self-identity, I don't have a fucking clue where to start.

If we turn back now...

2009-06-09T17:04:00.008-04:00

Currently I am hammering out the particulars of my design portfolio. However, my aspirations for media and design are stunted. I ache to be a comic artist and writer. I once felt I would be content employed a graphics firm, using it is as my "day job" to support my true passions. Yet currently much of my creative effort has been spent on asinine tasks like domain registration, coding, and defining my designer persona. Unfortunately, I am a comic artist and writer. This makes my attempts to sell myself in the graphics and illustration field problematic. The inspiration to sell myself on principles I have zero stock in constipates my entire creative process.

The fields do have a lot of obvious cross-over, and what I could learn within those hallowed halls would be invaluable field experience. Knowledge in printing and other technical know-how would be at my finger tips. Many of the employees may very well be in my same shoes.

Argh. Orienting myself within such crooked paths is exhausting.

I have been working on some stuff. I finally procured Drawing Words and Writing Pictures by Jessica Abel and her husband Matt Madden. It's frightening how much I love this book. Essentially it is a textbook on how to do comics, complete with links to a course guide and student examples. The books lessons are tailored for both group and solo education, and the amount I've learned in chapter one alone was worth the price.

Below are some of my comics that came out of chapter one. The red writing is my own self critiques.

Too Late to Discover Peace of Mind

2009-05-27T18:53:00.006-04:00

As a creature with Attention Deficit Disorder and Chronic Anxiety, I typically require more unorthodox methods of stimulation to stay focused. These methods have been fine tuned, and my troubles as of late have been reduced significantly. On a whole, however, it remains a struggle.

I love interacting with other artists. I love exchanging ideas, and collaborative efforts on works beyond one individual’s conception. This symbiotic relationship typically carries a price-tag of bruises and tears. It’s difficult to work with people, especially when those people are just as passionate as you are in their necessity to express a certain idea.

My struggle, I feel, would be curtailed with admission into a sort of artistic Justice League, where all the greatest super-minds in the creative world would tell me, ”keep going, you’re doing fine.” Most of time time I feel like I complete something, and while I enjoy the feedback I get from my close friends, my insatiable hunger leaves me a stomping infant in an empty room, crying out for attention.

The whole process is a huge contradiction in a mess of undefined goals. I want to become an self sufficient artist, but progress has been stalled by my inability to work without consistent feedback. I cannot have someone hounding me. What I want is someone to work with me, being both my springboard for new ideas, white-board for rants and raves, and punching board for creative frustrations.

::::

Current projects update: I have finished the Warcraft portraits. I was less and less enthused about this as it went on, mostly due to my waning interest in the game itself, but also because as I neared the end of the project, I thought to myself “Self, what will you do next?”

During these exercises I give myself to actually produce good work, self-sabotage sets in. Near the actual completion, I convince myself that since it was worthy enough to actually be completed, it must be worth more than I originally intended. Even though I am on the cusp of completion, I will sabotage myself by creating new, unattainable goals. In turn I typically then give up entirely.

This project, as far as I'm concerned, is finished. Coming to this conclusion has been one of the hardest decisions I have ever made.

I believe I’m making progress.

The Tools Artists Lose

2009-05-11T21:10:00.002-04:00

I refuse to believe that the majority of aspiring writers and artists practice. They see practice as the vehicle for successful dancers, musicians, and actors. Practice involves performing a lot of mediocre, frustrating tasks within a routine. After all, the products of practice are often boring and uninspired. Many writers and artists fail miserably to see value in the boring and uninspired.

I believe this inability to recognize the value of practice is rooted in the artist’s inability to identify, and work with, limitations of the self. I believe that self improvement can only be achieved through the accurate identification of one’s limitations and weaknesses. Often these limitations can hide under layers of neurosis and self-deception. Identifying and coping with ones limitations can seem nearly impossible. It’s easy, and somewhat fashionable, to be grossly pessimistic.

I also believe it is just as easy to be under the illusion that everything you shit is gold.

In light of this, I learned this week that in the absence of my computer, I become land-locked. With the exception of my daily free writing/journal and doodles here and there, I could not bring myself to make any real progress. I rely on my computer, and subsequent access to the internet, for reference, research, and ideas. I can’t subscribe to the the notion that without one tool I am a worthless machine.

We’ll file this one under neurotic limitation.

Against my best efforts I am an extremely impatient individual. The organizational simplicity, instant gratification, and access to the world’s knowledge at my command is, as I see it, a weakness in my creative process. I dislike spending time attempting to set up new systems, when that time could be spent working. This distaste for new systems is a side effect of my past efforts to squelch my past-self’s hunger for a quick-fix system. While I have learned quite a bit from these efforts in organization, the fallout from the end result tends to leave me to far behind on real work to be considered a complete success.

As for now, I have my computer. In the aftermath of this new-panic, I will put serious consideration into some sort non-digital workflow for my creative projects. I was never much of a craftsmen, feeling quite a home in the glow of a monitor. I also have a tendency to bumble. If my tattered history with technology - with a mere touch I can bring down entire cyber-spaces! - I would only benefit by utilizing the more quaint tools of the artistic world.

Of Contests and Contestants

2009-04-27T02:35:00.052-04:00

I had until 11:59 pm on April 30th to validate my still script's page count. My nerves were completely wracked. Palms sweaty, sitting in the dim lights of the library, I hit ctrl-s. I had done it. I had won against all odds. I had completed a 100 page script for a graphic novel in the 30 days that make up the now glorious month of April.

I immediately I saved it, then converted it to a PDF for final validation. For completions sake I ctrl-c'd and ctrl-v'd it into my back-up at docs.google.com. Everything finally seemed right with the world. As I went to submit my file for final verification - earning myself the covetted "Winner" tag under my forum moniker - I froze in terror.

The submit button was un-selectable and the text below it read "Script Frenzy begins April 1st."

I was furious. This was the only tangible reward I was going to receive for completing my script, and it was robbed from me. The forums had no answer and the frequently asked questions ran me in circles. I was left alone, crying in my chair, desperately - frantically! - reloading the submission page over and over again, craving cyberspace validation for my accomplishments.

I arrived home at midnight, destroyed. I tore off my clothes in a fury, hastily dressed for success in some running shorts and my modified bear shirt, and curled up with with Good Omens. Had some laughs, but around 1 am I decided to pack it in.

At 12:30 PM, Friday, May 1st, 2008, I awoke. I was feeling a euphoric sensation I hadn't felt in months. I had finished something. Of course, ten minutes later I was munching setraline, scrawling frantically into my journal that I would never have time to finish any of my other projects.

So what's next? Well, as my regulars know, there are a proverbial loadsworth of ideas I want to see realized within this material plane; Putting together a personal website and online portfolio of writing and art, finishing any art-book and comic collection for my chums in Azeroth, and figuring out if I really want to make a completely cut-paper version of Warhammer Quest. Shit man that's just the tip:

Novel written completely in long-hand... Comic I intended to do for 24 hour day last year, but didn't finish, and can't do for this years 24-hour comic day because it's against the rules... Art contests from various sources... Getting established on various forums that I book marked to build myself a community of friends or foes...

...I could literally go on for hours.

What, then, is the fate of this 100 page monster I now wield? Well, since I'm riding freaking cloud-9 on the act of actually completing it, I'm going to shelve it for awhile before attempting any edits, re-writes, or layouts. How long? I'm thinking six months. I got the idea from Grammar Girl's podcast on writing your first novel. I think this is fabulous advice. One aspects she mentions, and that I personally cannot stress enough, is that the first thing you finish will most likely be absolute shit. Process is fundamental. I could go on, but that's a topic for another day.

For now, I'm going to enjoy some pleasant leisure time with old friends.

*note I have since discovered that the reason I failed at submitting was because my profile on scriptfrenzy.org was set to Australian time. Shit.
**Duck Hunt Copywrite 1984 Nintendo. And can I just point out how hilarious the duck's expression is when he's being held up by the dog?

Mero-frenzy-free

2009-04-25T13:39:00.002-04:00

The other day I was discussing with a good friend my modus operandi.

I was explaining to him the mystical expiration date imprinted on any project I am currently working on. It does not matter how elated I am about an endeavor; two weeks after beginning, a chain of mysterious occurances take place. Seas boil, birds fly backwards, and Ball Park Franks grill people. I also lose complete interest in whatever I'm doing. This loss of interest derails me from finishing, and leaves me with a need - a hunger - to move on to fresher, more extravagant pipe-dreams.

Obviously this puts a bit of a snag in my work-flow.

The only cure that I've seen work cosistently is active interaction with other artists and writers during the process. Typically I work better in a group. I tend to stay more motivated and, in general, being around other working creative minds drives me to, well, work. Unfortunately, the local population does not really cater to my specific interests (buncha lame-wads and tool-boxes). Also I tend to hold everyone to my own unrealistic "work on it till you die" ethic, which I never hold myself accountable for unless other people around me are, in fact, dying...

...I mean working.

Through my life I've skimmed dozens of books on becoming a more productive automotan. One piece of advice consistent within these tomes was the practice of rewarding yourself for good work. Reward myself, of course! I could write two pages, then indulge myself in a tasty roasted red pepper panini...

...except it doesn't work. Not to say, that, I'll eat that grilled, sour-dough delight early. Instead I will convince myself that I should eat heart-healthy quinoa, not grilled sandwich perfection. I don't particularly care for quinoa...

... and so at the end of the whole debacle I've saved myself the gut, I don't have to eat quinoa, and I didn't have to complete my work! Everyone wins!

As with most skills in life, learning how to reward yourself takes practice. So, in a strained attempt to harness the power of self-gifts, I have been "giving" myself time on other projects, on the only if I make significant progress on the current task at hand.

You have to understand that starting new stuff - so shiny and full of potential! - is one of the few satisfying pleasures in my life. Through this learning process, however, I have discovered that when one sets out to identify a tangible reward, it can be difficult to identify what exactly brings the person true joy.

Shit, that's a little dramatic.

I suppose I am pretty keen on Cadbury Cream Eggs.

*Pitfall! and all related images copywrite and property of Activision. Used without permission. Sorry.

An actual process description

2009-04-20T00:01:00.000-04:00

I was some sort of sick yesterday. The the bean burrito from El Mariachi was a bit, shall we say, rich. I mean, normally I eat pretty healt...

... yah I can't say that and keep a clear conscious. The burrito was pretty heavy, but compounded with all those honey-glazed-ham-sandwiches and Suzy-Q's I had earlier, well, feeling a bit under the weather is a fair price to pay for sugary, ham filled bliss.

Sidebar; those life changing books I talked about last post? I'm selling most of them. I skimmed them over, and a lot of the information just isn't relevant. I have either replaced it with a superior book, or the information within is more easily accessible via interwebs.

Currently, this is what my desktop looks like. Mind you my desktop is a creature of chaos. Usually when I am working on a super serious project, such as a script about a hopeless wizard and his adventures in a fantasy land of peril and treasure (SUPER SERIOUS), I put up a solid color background. It's completely neurotic and probably affects nothing.

The silver folder in the middle is an alias to my script frenzy folder, which holds all the documents pertaining to the projects, such as the script, a back up in TextEdit, and various pictures reference documents.

This, dear reader, is where the bulk of my work is done. If you are a struggling writer, and have never used 'write or die', you are missing out. This program is simply marvelous.

I set the timer for 15 minutes, the word count to 500, and difficulty settings to the strictest setting. I figured, via highly complex math equations, that 500 words roughly equals two pages in a script format.

However, before I start, I refer to my outline document. The big text is stuff I haven't written about yet. I keep it pretty big because I work on two monitors, and this document displays on the monitor furthest away from me. The tiny text is what I've written about. After I am finished I just shrink the font size down. It keeps my place in the document, and acts as sort of a progress report... I guess. The little numbers next to the lines estimations of what pages those sections will be in the graphic novel, which are currently horribly inaccurate.

Each line of description turns into about 500 to 600 words. So the process is basically thus:

1. Take a line out of the outline.

2. Turn it into 500 words using write or die.

3. "Check off" that section in the outline by shrinking the text.

4. Repeat till bored.

When I'm done typing in WoD, I drop it into Pages. The current format I'm following is the one found on scriptfrenzy.org in there "how to write a comic script" section. I'm not sure if there is an 'industry standard' for comic scripts. I've perused a few from various eras and companies, and they all look completely different. So I'm gonna go with no.

Finally, after a hard days work (hur hur) I save it. I then pop in my trusty Memorex 512 MB usb drive, and save a duplicate of the whole SF folder. Note that I have given sweet red and blue highlights to my script and outline, so that no matter how much shit builds up in the folder I can always find them.

That's pretty much it. It's not the most perfect workflow in the world, but it workflows for now (haha... ugh). I'm sure I will develop better practices in time, perhaps.

A good start

2009-04-09T21:16:00.001-04:00

My work computer - the hip and sassy Dell Inspiron 1000 - ate it. I discovered at work last night that the battery was shot, but got by on just the power adapter. Today it won't even turn on. Sleuthing for clues, I noticed a fray in the cord and deduced that it's not giving enough voltage to power the laptop...

Any how.

I love "how to" guides. Typically I find two architypes; the 'kids' books have one or two really good pieces of advice, but then spend 99% of the volume telling you how to draw a really kawaii school-girl. The other more 'mature' guides can sometimes come off really pretentious. Very few of these are great tomes of wisdom. With the pluralism that comes naturally within the medium of comics, it is only in your benefit to expose yourself to guides and examples in fine art, film, literature, and myth. And life I guess. All that horse-shit.

But since the interwebs fucking loves lists, here's a number of resources that I find useful time and time again.

How to Draw Comics: The Marvel Way - God I don't know. I need to ask around and see what people really think of this tome of amazing. For me this was the first book I picked up on the subject, and its advice and methods I still use to this day; and John Buscema for Christ's sake!

Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting - I haven't gotten all the way through this book, but what I have is choice. The chapters are focused, with examples of Field's exercises (haha... 'Field Exercises...) in plot development and character creation. It is very focused on film, but still valid for would-be-comic... guys.

Screenwriting for Dummies - Awesome guide and easily adaptable for comics work. Defines a lot of the terminology, and gives formatting guidelines. Good information, etc.

How to Make Webcomics - I love these guys. This book is awesome and they answer a lot of questions that many-many-many other books do not. Focused primarily on, obviously, the web-comic, but still an all around fantastic resource.

Also my quote which is now the sign off signature for my posts comes from an artist that I highly revere not just for his amazing paintings but his attitude and work ethic. Hats off to you, Mr. Close.

"Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up for work." - Chuck Close

Not revealing thievery yet...

2009-04-07T21:38:00.000-04:00

In the preliminary work on any creative project, my first step is the characters. Below you is a character-sheet I worked out today. Not revealing, I know; but here it is anyway.

Point: if the characters are flat, I don't care how riveting the rest of the setting or other shit is, I will most likely lose interest. I find that when I work out the characters first, the story, dialogue, and other malarky comes pretty easy.

There is a lot out there that will tell you that the more you know your characters the easier it is to write; at least I'm assuming there is a lot. I must have read it somewhere, because I sure as shit am not clever enough to come up with it on my own. Any way, characters...

One thing that many may overlook is how many characters do you want to have in the story? I am primarily looking at raw structure here; real base shit that holds up the fluffy bits.

Personally, I have always, always, always gone with an odd number of characters, with the male female ratio being tipped one way or the other. Why? Purely taste. I seem have trouble with even amounts of characters. Someone always gets under developed.

It's just a formula, and honestly a pretty stupid one at that. So do whatever you're comfortable with. Whedons' pretty comfortable always killing his characters or having them turn out homo-gaysexual. I'm comfortable with always having groups of protagonists in gaggles of three, five, or seven.

Up to ten pages now for the script frenzy. Tomorrow I'll post of few of my choice writing references. Also, how to explain thieving my ideas? Another day. Till then...

"Inspiration is for amateurs; The rest of us just show up for work." - Chuck Close

The Terrible Burden of Motley Platforms

2009-04-05T18:48:00.000-04:00

I predominantly work on my script on my aging Mac-book Pro at home. I am an out and about college student, however, working part-time at the Art and Architecture library on campus, whose primary work machines are Windows. Shit ones at that. Also since my waning Mac is without a lithium batt right now, I'm using my muffin's Dell Inspiron 1000 - also shit - when I'm slumming in Starbucks or the public library. What to do?

Start the terribly tedious practice of saving my work across multiple platforms. Here's the skinny:

Most of my work is done in Pages09. Pages has a script template that is, frankly, a huge pain in the ass if I want to type directly into it; even more so if I attempt copy n' paste from another file. I hate formatting and always will. It just drives me up the wall.

My script outline is saved in TextEdit, OS X's Wordpad equivalent. This tiny file can easily be emailed and tooted on a USB key.

As a fail-safe, I keep a copy is GoogleDocs as well. The backup on GoogleDocs is in off chance my hard-drive takes to the bottle again and ends up dry heaving in skid-row. G'Docs is pretty kickin' for the most part, since I can access it anywhere, no matter what the OS, as long as I have interwebs. It exports to PDF too, and has a mess of other sweet features that I've never, ever used.

Bottom line?

Save your shit. OFTEN. And across as many possible platforms as possible.

Meanwhile...

2009-04-05T15:36:00.000-04:00

I am currently up to page four of my still untitled script. Going for something like "So-n-So and the Adjective Noun"...

... or "The Archaic Adjective Actions of So-n-So".

Here is a photo of my workspace at home. The Dell PC is an old one that I am currently cleaning and fixing to use somewhere else; coffee houses, libraries and places of that sort.

As I am doing a graphic novel script, it was necessary that I draw all the characters. That was actually my first step before writing anything.

Before I doodle the characters, there were a few decisions I had to make.

1.) How many characters did I want (I always go with an odd number, in this case five)

2.) Ratio of dudes to ladies (3:2 in this case)

3.) What are their relations?

After I got all this jotted down, the story really started to come together. My secret formula for those particular decisions? Simple; thievery. I'll go into details tomorrow.

Till then, here is a photoshop doodle of the main character, Sebastian Woolf.

Introductions!!!

2009-04-03T15:26:00.000-04:00

Having been informed about the fantastic April project / gathering 'Script Frenzy' (link below), I decided to document my daily process for the month of April via the 'blogosphere'.

I'll have photos and all sorts of crap later. For now here is an orc I drew in MSpaint.

script frenzy website