Sorry, Ma. Still in a bad mood. Actually, it’s a whole new bad mood.
It must be the beginning of Fourth Quarter- the weather has turned cold and everybody and their grand-pappy wants a new commercial RIGHT NOW OMG in time for the Christmas rush. I’m busy, and cold, and grumpy. Happens every year.
I have been daydreaming and doodling a lot because it frees me up in a way that “sitting down to Draw” does not. I can sit and stare at a blank page for hours and get nowhere, or I can make my pen move and come up with a page full of stuff like this. The choice is obvious.
I can always extract stuff from these pages full of doodles and make them into something finished later. But right now the key to staying in the habit of drawing seems to be to keep the pressure off. So I haven’t been making comics, and I haven’t been adding designs to my Zazzle shop, but I have been filling up my sketchbook with pages and pages of stuff!
I made the drawing of myself, and then turned the book 90 degrees and did the rest. At first I wanted to present the page oriented the way most of the drawings were oriented, but it started to seem kind of self-portrait-like the more I looked at it with me oriented properly. Plus it fits my blog design (which I have decided I hate and will be changing again soon) better.
On Thursday (9 July), the first day of a six-day vacation from work, I woke up at 5:30am, had some breakfast, and by about ten after six I was on my way to writing this comic. I didn’t have a story planned, I just set pen to paper and started, and 21-ish hours later I had written a comic book. Here it is:
Download My 24-Hour Comic (12.5mb PDF)
The experience of this marathon comic project was everything I hoped it’d be. It was exhausting and exhilarating at the same time, and I came out of it different. These graphic essays are more meditation than tight thesis, but whatever they are, and in spite of any flaws I’m intensely proud to have done them.
After I finished I hobbled to bed and stayed there until afternoon, then hopped in a car to drive to Berkeley for a wedding. I haven’t really drawn anything since this, which I think is in part to regain some equilibrium. But I’m feeling very enegized about doing more. Not just more comics, but more art in general.
But this is all the stuff I talk about in the comic itself. So give it a read- it’s a big pdf, so make sure you’ve got some time to let it load.
I originally planned on starting my 24 hour comic tonight, but I’m going to sleep and start closer to dawn. I like the idea of seeing two sunrises during this process- something kind of symbolically appropriate for the project, since I’m doing this to initiate myself into a life of making art constantly.
I really am getting in my own way of getting anything done. And the key do doing this comic stuff well is to do it a lot, so I have to commit to doing it all the time, and getting it out there, even when it’s not perfect. I didn’t do any touching-up on this to emphasize the point. No more using “it might suck” as an excuse not to do work!
Also, I’ve realized (and it seems pretty clear from this one) that making comics is a physical act, like running, that requires training and practice. I don’t have the stamina to finish a one-page comic without getting pretty sloppy towards the end! That’s going to make doing the 24-hour comic a ton of fun, I’m sure. But I need to do it- it’s time to stop putting it off!
I’m taking some time off starting Thursday, so sometime after Brad’s Wednesday radio show (I might take a power nap beforehand), I’ll be starting in on my 24-page comic, with no pre-planning, and I won’t stop until it’s finished or 24 hours have passed, whichever comes first. I’m really excited, and kind of nervous. I can’t wait to try.
This is default description text on Padangan Themes, of course you can change this text via you profile administration.