The Night

Again, I've been bad at updating. I have plenty of stuff though, but it's tiring to keep posting everything three times or more. For quicker updates, if you don't mind a flood of random other things, you might want to consider visiting my tumblr.

One thing I might have neglected to mention before is that my external harddrive, where I kept a lot of my art and photos (including the ones from this summer's exhibition) is failing. I don't dare to use it anymore until I can afford getting it looked at and possibly repaired or transferring the stuff on it to a new one.

But here's some of the stuff I've been working on:

• I'm re-working the script of chapter one for OOPS, now re-named "It's Complicated", which you might remember from this post . Now, it's rather important that I get on with the comic making instead of perfecting the same chapter over and over again, but I've realised from looking at the first chapter after months of being too stressed to draw that I have a lot to learn. And I want to make a good first impression at the very least, because that part is critical when people decide if they want to stick with it or not. And, I've also decided that I am going to put this comic online. After all, what's the point of comicking if people can't read what you make? I was never a fan of hoarding stuff in the first place, even if I seem to do it exceedingly often these days. It might take some time before it gets online, but it will happen. I've learned my lessons from online comicking in the past, and having a buffer is vital, or you will face deadline after deadline, each pressuring you more than before. The horrible thing about that is that it saps away both the quality and the joy of comicking. Instead of feeling satisfaction for having made something good, you feel relieved that you've gotten it over with. And believe me, that's not a good thing if you have to keep drawing weekly updates. So again, a buffer is vital.
• As a nice break from drawing constant quality, I'm drawing another comic project on the side. It's called An Apple A Day, and will probably contain some of the lamest humour you've ever seen, penis jokes and more generally bad stuff... in the form of comic strips. I feel like I should probably be shy about it, because it's not exactly the type of thing you'd show your parents. But I can't be bothered! 8D ...The art style is completely different from what I've been doing before, and it's a huge relief. I do it all completely freestyle, no sketch lineart, no pressure. It feels great! There'll be a sneak-a-peak next time I post, for sure. But it's the same thing there. I'm building a buffer. And my ambition is to be able to produce these things daily, but until I'm sure I can do that, I don't want to get in over my head. This is a very new way of comicking for me, and it requires a lot of brainstorming.
• I've taken up writing again. (When did I ever write? ...you might wonder. A long time ago, but it was mostly bad fanfiction.) I've found that after moving to London, I feel a lot more confident with written English. And writing just stories instead of slightly robotic scripts is a very nice exercise in thinking about the feel of a story, as well as a good release for when my head is too crammed with ideas to draw. If things go well, I just might post these stories somewhere as well, but I'm not making any promises as they're not my highest priority. There will likely be plenty of concept art though, if I can manage not to hoard stuff.

And that's all for today. I'm going to work ar finding someone to kick my ass for when I'm incapable of doing it myself, because some asskickings are in order for me to actually do stuff.

(The right kind, mind you. The art of motivating someone else is a hard one. I feel I might save this topic for later.)

Okay, that's really all for today. Cheers!

Life as an Artist; A bit about discipline and confidence

This has nothing to do with the actual contents of this post. But since I feel like it will just become a huge wall of text otherwise, here! Have a picture of some strawberry cupcakes I baked last summer! C=


...Soo.

As I'm not going to be able to update with pictures a lot these coming weeks, I'd like to write a little bit about life as an artist. At the moment, I don't have a lot to offer because I can't actually consider myself a professional yet.

But there are a few things...

This is long, and mostly written for myself so I can remind myself. A lot of it is pretty obvious, but if it can help anyone else, I'll be glad.

Haha, I sure hope people won't think I'm strange for some of the things I'm writing here.

So, I'd like to start with:

Discipline.

As someone aiming to go pro, you're likely to have a few problems with this, because you can't just dedicate all your time to art. You probably have a lot of other things to think about; school, work, chores, socializing, you name it. You simply have a life and you can't just stop doing those things because you want to be an artist.

And the thing is, art is not always fun. A lot of the time, it might be hard to bring yourself to even touch a pencil because you're just too tired and you don't even know where it will lead. Basically, there's a risk that you're doing tons of work for absolutely nothing.

Or that's what it feels like anyway. The truth is of course that every time you draw, you gain necessary experience. But what it comes down to is: Will you get to use that experience or not?

It's a huge gamble.

Few things in learning discipline here have anything to do with art. But they're important nonetheless, and they can be applied to almost any situation.

So, the first thing you need to do is:

Just start somewhere.

What comes afterwards differs from person to person, but I find it makes things a lot easier if you have a concrete long term plan. What do you want to be? A comic artist? An illustrator?

What do you need for that? A portfolio? A comic chapter? Names? Materials? Contacts?

Start planning from there. You're not likely to get everything in at once, and it's good to leave a bit of space for spontaneity and improvisation. But it's good to have a long term goal.

Then think about it: How will it feel to reach that goal? What is it you want with it.

Now keep those things in mind.

Try not to focus on too many different things at the same time. That means: Don't try to do everything at once! You may be full of ideas that you need to get out. That's good. But settle for writing most of them down for later use instead and focus on one single idea at a time.

Keep your life running – what good would reaching that goal do anyway if you didn't have friends or good experiences outside of work anymore?

But remember that you've still got to do your work if you want to get anywhere. That said, don't work all the time. That will not do you any good, no matter how focused you are. Take a break and breathe , and schedule free time where you don't have to do anything at all, no matter how much or little you've accomplished before that.

Then get yourself together and start again.

Meet people! Why? You don't have time for this, right?

You do though. And if you want to go anywhere, it's important to practise your social skills.

And you may think you have all the inspiration you need from comics, music, films and artwork. Inspiration from there is a good thing! But inspiration from real life is always worth more, at least in my humble opinion. Why? Because you can relate to it much better, and as a consequence relate it to the people who look at your work much better.

And also. Simply because people are awesome! C=

Then there's another thing that I'd like to point out.

Take care of yourself!

“… What? What does she mean?” ...You may think.

I mean, exercise, eat, take a bath and look good! In simple terms: Be confident in yourself.

But what does that have to do with being an artist?

More than you'd think. If you want to be professional at any rate, and not leave everything to chance.

I suppose I should explain?

Why exercise, aside from it being good for you in general? It takes up time you could use to draw or paint.

Well, it doesn't necessarily take that much time. I don't mean you should become a body-builder.

But think about it: Being fit helps you out a lot. It's simply healthier, but the biggest point here is that you'll have more energy and confidence to do what you need to. If you didn't exercise, it's likely you'd spend that time rolling around feeling sorry for yourself anyway, or just doing... nothing.

So instead you get an energy boost and a better confidence. Sounds good, eh? On top of that, it releases endorphins, which is a happiness hormone.

“Eat? It's obvious. We all need to eat.“ But I mean it. Eat properly, and get all the nutrition you need. If possible, avoid the pre-cooked things you can buy, and go for meals prepared from scratch.

...What. Another thing that takes time?

Pre-cooked meals are all good when you're on a deadline or don't have the energy to cook your own meals. But quality meals DO give you more energy and nutrition. And they taste better – but that's just my opinion, I guess...

“Take a bath? Uhhh...?”

Yes. Clean yourself up, and take some time to relax. Refresh yourself, simply.

I don't know about you, but I'm the type that starts to feel self-loathing after a while if I don't clean up. That makes me a lot less likely to do any work at all.

And even if you don't feel the same way, you still should clean up. Partially because it feels good, and partially because your smell won't scare other people away.

“Look good?! Why?!”

Again, it's the confidence bit. Confidence and discipline are rather closely bound together.

If you feel good about your looks, you'll feel happier, and thus more inclined to work. You may not want to work anyway, but you're at least a lot less likely to bum around watching TV that way. And if you force yourself to work while you're down about something, it's likely you'll come to associate that with feeling bad. See what I mean?

And lastly: Find something that helps you focus on thinking drawing is fun even when it's just technical work and boring stuff. Maybe you can find like-minded people and create a studio?

Or you could listen to music. Or audiobooks for the matter. (I'm particularly fond of a Swedish translation of H.P. Lovecraft's works at the moment.)

Some people even like to watch movies while they draw. Personally, I can't do it because it steals too much attention. But whatever works!

Aaand... That's all. Wow, that felt silly.