Self portrait of me holding a bike helmet, mask on my wrist.
Wow it’s only been 20 months since the last update
Lately, Francesca and I have been making a lot more time for art. And by “making”, I mean “scheduling in a Calendar app”. Someone once said “Show me your budget schedule and I’ll show you your priorities.”
I think it is very easy to imagine that if you really care about something, you will spend your free time doing it. As it turns out, that isn’t necessarily true! Shocker. After quite a long period of failing to build momentum organically it occurred to us that much like exercise, you may get some here and there but making it a routine is the best way to make it stick.
We earmark a 6 hour block every weekend which we spend heads down in whatever creative endeavor tickles our fancy. This has been… I wouldn’t call it life-changing, but it has been a revelation.
Much of the time I have spent fiddling around in Godot or RPGMaker, continuing to sputter out as I try to catch a foothold on to C# and game programming. But the routine has made it much easier to build momentum.
As has been the case for the past 10 years though, I oscillate constantly between priorities; I don’t want to spend my life behind a screen, so with the precious few hours to invest I quickly revert to drawing.
Lately I have been trying harder to find a stronger voice when it comes to characters. I’ve been watching a lot of Naoki Urusawa’s show where he watches mangaka and interviews them about their process. Having also borrowed Francesca’s G-Nib dip pens and played with them, I was struck by how a tool like that demands to be used a certain way. Even though the style that falls out of the end of the pen is infinite, it is a machine and so it creates unmistakable artifacts that create a set of qualities. Digital tools obviously present shades of this, but I think nothing compares to physical media in this way.
Either way; this had a large impact on my awareness of line quality, and re-awoke my sense of the power of Mark Making. How vital every stroke can be, and the meaning of “line economy”.
Simultaneously, I have been trying to reach deep down and tap a core of joyful energy to try and surface with characters. Trying to ask, “what would I find interesting? what would I find memorable?” You would think this happens automatically- maybe for some- but it has been a significant gardening effort on my part to grow this aspect of me, and it still isn’t quite there, but I feel like I have at least peeked my head out of the soil and can start to feel the Sun.
At the end of the day, I think it always comes back to patience.
Things I recommend
One Piece: I started reading One Piece for real, and while I bounced off of it hard for most of my life, it is really sticking this time- and truly, there is nothing like it.
Pinkshift: A band from Baltimore that is reminiscent of the band Bayside. Sometimes I worry that I’m falling into a trap of only liking old nostalgic things, so I’m grateful when young people prove me wrong and make some amazing new things.
Tunic: I’m very very late to the party, but there is so much that Tunic does just right. An extremely confident identity, and shows that a thoughtful execution of straightforward ideas can still shine.
Tako No Himitsu: A new “Game Boy Advance” style game that hits just so many endorphin receptors in my poor Millennial Brain.