So, uh, hi.

Been forever since I made a post here. Or anywhere really. How's everyone been? Good? Good. Things have been pretty hectic as of late. Lot's of moving, planning moving, working, more working, and a bunch of other things. I've barely had any time for creative pursuits, I apologize. 

I can't promise I'll be posting Sky in a timely manner all things considered, I'm a wee bit violently ill right now and I work 9 of the next 10 days, I believe.  But I'll attempt to record it as soon as I can. Dead is...in limbo right now. I'm still incredibly unsure of myself as an artist, but far more comfortable as a writer so Dead may turn into something else until such a time that I feel I can draw it and not hate every line in the page.

Enough about all that though, here's some art from yesterday. I'm not sure who she is or what she's from. I think I have a place for her in Sky, but I'm not quite positive yet. 

Redraw

So I decided that redrawing some old stuff would help me get back into the groove of drawing the Dead cast. It's...interesting to look at art that's about a year old (the picture on the right is from October, 2012). I've never been able to keep the more cartoonish look I wanted to have back then and I'm honestly a bit disappointed with myself for it. But, oh well. Some things have improved, others have gotten worse, and even more have stayed the same. (Good gods don't look at the feet...) 

I guess we'll see what happens. It was still fun to do, so that's at least good. 

For The Fun Of It

So I forgot how to draw Jack's face.

Normally that sentence wouldn't mean much of anything, but it's pretty important for me. I forgot how to draw the face of the main character of a comic I've been trying to create for over three years now. Something that, for a while, was my entire life. Everything I did revolved around character design, world building, working on my art, reading comics, trying to learn how to lay out a page, more character design, changing my drawing style a few dozen times, more character design...and somewhere in there I lost the fun of it.

About six months ago I lost all passion for it. Not just Dead, but drawing in general. I used to love sitting at my laptop drawing whatever for hours and hours on end. I pushed aside games (which are a great love of mine) I pushed aside friends, family, everything, just so I could draw. I had fun with it. But after a while, after deciding that it's what I want to do for a living, I lost all passion for it. I'd go days, then weeks, and then months without drawing anything. I let myself blame it on work or life or art block or any other excuse I could. And from time to time I'd admit to myself that no, it wasn't those things, I just didn't care anymore.

I look at the Dead cast and now I just see work. Something I have to slog through so I can take a break later and have that fake feeling of accomplishment. I look at the file for the scripts and just stare at the empty space that needs filing after the first chapter. I can't think of anything new for it. I can't bring myself to care about it, I can't find the fun that used to be there.

So I'm getting rid of it. Not Dead, but the script. The designs, everything. I'm not starting completely from scratch, I've already got a few pages posted and I'm not restarting again, but I'm not going to follow any set rules of how I'm going to do it anymore. If, one day I wake up and feel like the particular page I'm working on should be just a slightly refined sketch, then it will be. Black and white? Sure. In a completely different style? Absolutely. I'm not going to have the script all laid out and meticulously planned to the very last detail, because that's not how I work. I'm going to do the same I'm doing for Sky; write it when I plan to start drawing it, or even as I draw it. Let each panel inform the next instead of trying to fit it into an ideal I'm never going to achieve.

I know I've got something with these idiots. Something that could be compelling and fun and engaging that I'm burying under details and the need to follow some weird set of rules that don't actually exist. So I'm going to see where it goes. I'll hit the main points I've always had in my head, the key elements to the story that really matter like, uh, the title. But I'm not going to do what I have been because it's obviously not working.

We'll see where I am in a year and I guess I'll reevaluate then. See what else I need to change, if anything. Who knows, maybe Dead will be posting regularly and Sky will be half completed. Or maybe I'll have given up entirely, or still be in the same half-posting rut I've always been in. We'll see.

Anyway, here's a really rough sketch of a couple panels from the next page. To the one person who's read the original 8 pages of Dead I did two years ago, this may look a little familiar. At least a couple panels.

She's Lightning In A Bottle

This took longer than I wanted it to (thanks work) and yeah, it's done. And it was...fun. Something that I'd forgotten to have while drawing over the past 6 or so months.