Monthly Archives: May 2017

Dispatch 2: Hoarding Woes

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Man I’m a colossal hoarder!

Taking this blogging seriously has been the most productive thing I’ve done since moving my stash of chocolate by my bedside. My weekends has been used for organizing online references, weeding out anything no longer worth reviewing. It’s been about two years since I’ve read The Life-Changing Habit of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo (@MarieKondo) that helped simplify my physical space. And now I wish I had the same aide for digital items. I’m going through my YouTube playlists and saved posts from Facebook and Google Toolbar to condense the amount of digital items I have, yet every hour I see a funny animal video is six additional hours lost to internet idleness. I’m loosing the battle of my attention span.

Stashed neatly in the corner of my closet (I’m getting good at this lying thing) is over sixty books I’m unsure are permanent keepsakes in my library. My New Year’s Resolution is to reading through each at least once before donating them. I made a deadline of a book a week – two if it’s longer than 350 pages – to specify the undertaking. So far I’ve finished four and June is coming in very soon (Yet another poorly fought internal conflict). This is of high importance since this is the year I’m adding Kim Jung Gi books to my collection. My hoarding habits extends far beyond my “professional” life, but discussing it further would prolong the ‘heavy crying in feeble position’ I plan to do once I complete this article.

My drive to finish anything becomes paralyze once I overwhelm myself with too many items at once. To compound this, I tend to start new ideas and projects without the incentive to completing any prior ones. And if it’s not me who brings such random projects to life, it’s sure to be a good friend who co-create projects too stupendous to be left out of.

So yeah! Hoarding: bad. Attempts to prevent it: pathetic. Me: dumb. And throughout this week I intend to get a closer grip on things. I don’t expect to have a flawless, organize stash of digital notes and web links, nor a workstation resembling someone who’s a minimalist; I only need to rid myself of the unimportant and have general locations of items that are. Being a perfectionist started this downward spiral, and its reward of blogging twice within a three-year period and rarely making time to draw has me wondering if I could return it for a discount. Never buy into something you know little about kids!

Draw more! Write more! And if a spirit tries to sell you on the idea of doing things later, ask for credentials and surveys on its claim. Doubts are good remedies for superstitious thinking.

Failure & Inktober 2016

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Once again I have fail another Inktober run. On a good note, this has been the best fail of all three previous because I actually had work posted on Facebook and Instagram. Besides that…

I write this entry not to just beat myself down with the same literary whip my Grammar teachers used on me in grade school and community college, but to archive the beating for all the world to know. There has been dozens of projects I’ve started ever since I first learn how to hold a crayon. Most of these long-winded projects have been sparked by a concept from other artists or from my favorite cartoon shows. Others were meant to be short runs of daily challenges done with friends.

Before I go any further, it’s best to let anyone who may come across this post before ever hearing about Inktober know what it is. (Wishful thinking is strong within me!) Starting as Inktober Initiative created by artist Jake Parker to improve his drawing skills, Inktober is a challenge to posting daily ink drawings for all 31 days for the month of October – hence the name. The creator usually has a list to based your concepts on, but you have to total freedom to base your daily drawings on whatever you wish. The only ‘rules’ are having daily entries and having them inked.

I thought I planned for 2016 event as thoroughly as needed. I compiled a list of all I’d draw and kept copies near my sketchbook and calendar. I even ordered the Inktober Collection Set from ArtSnacks.co. I’ve even went so far as to add 9 days for extra illustrated ideas.

Alas, I failed. I did twelve days worth of illustrations, and with the addition nine preliminaries, you could say I stopped on Day 3.

Failure is a hard thing to accept when you feel as though you’ve positioned yourself to succeed within reason. I had forty days worth of concepts to cover. I knew how I would explain my reasons picking them. And I gave myself leeway in case I miss at least a week worth of submitting. But days got behind me. I gave into my urge to binge-watch YouTube videos. And too many times I had unexpected guests to derail the days I really wanted to get some art in.

There’s a motto I hear far too many times; If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. What does that say about the failure to this one? Did I not plan hard enough? Did I not put into account the worse scenario possible? Is YouTube’s new algorithm being more effective of robbing me of the one valuable thing I have? Is my bed too comfortable? Wherever I fail, I know well enough to look at the actions I’ve done that has created this result. And what I come to find out is that my inaction is the culprit.

I can’t change how often people feel entitled to waste my time. I can’t change how YouTube or any online video company wants to ensure they retain their viewers. I can’t too much change how irregular some of my utensils fail to work as expected. All I could change is me. My mistake was in not doing.

I’m a great artist because of the many compliments received from people online and in public. I know my storytelling is still good despite plenty of areas to improve. What has hold me back these long twenty plus years I’ve been able to hold a crayon in my hand and draw my imagination is the simple act of taking that crayon and continue drawing. If I’m to complete any other task for now on, I must do them. They may still get delayed or cancelled. There would always be other outside forces to prevent an idea from being shared. But if I just draw, I know I’ve done my part to see my ideas realized.

I don’t know what 2017 Inktober concept would be as of now. Even with the failure of 2016 I feel like this would be one of many I would complete with joy. I may try the same concept if I expose myself to enough media to be inspired by, and create a lot more than I have been. I know in the last post I refuse to share my Instagram page, but to prove I’m not overestimating my talents (I do the opposite, thank you!) here’s my two favorite out of the twelve:

Tork, inspired by the design and origin of Broly from Dragon Ball Z, the Marine Fleet Admiral, Akainu from One Piece, Prince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Shinnok from Mortal Kombat.

Synome (whose name I will one day change when I figure out a better one) who was a child imagination after finishing Metroid II: Return of Samus as a kid, and Venom from Spiderman because he was so freaking awesome on the Maximum Carnage videogame. (As of this writing, Venom is my most liked drawing in Instagram, totalling 156.)

You be the judge of my skills. I would say don’t be too harsh, but I find it improbable to be as harsh as I am to myself.

Here’s to trying this out again for 2017 and beyond! Here’s to keep on keeping on.

Dispatch 1

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Two things for myself to note:

  1. Any post is better than no post.
  2. It’s best to start off bad than not start off at all. By starting off bad, you at least have a starting point to work from.

Going the essay route feels like the niche that would gather the type of audience I’m after, in addition to creating a need to improve my researching skills. Listening to analysis and critiques of video games, movies, and television shows for as long as I have has propelled that decision. But I’m terrible at essays! My nine stale drafts confirms it. This post marks that third year I’ve started this WordPress blog, and where most people would have at least gave a serious shot before flaming out, I fail to bring a lighter

Still, I’m determined. And if I’m totally inconsistent in bring a thorough critical essay on things I do have a passion for, at least I could publish updates the same way I do my Facebook and Instagram posts (please don’t ask for links just yet; those accounts are totally unprofessional as of the time of this posted).

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I am in-between three books (if you take away the two hundred plus books I’ve ordered, check out from the library, and received as gifts). The first one I’m reading is David Airey’s Work for Money Design for Love. I came across him when I unwittingly volunteered for a local graphic store, figuring out how to create a logo for a business who provide recreational opportunities for K-6 students. After getting an inter-library loan of his book, Logo Design Love, I was hooked on buying everything he’s authored. To me, Logo Design Love tackled how to approach creating brand identities for companies. And so far, Work for Money Design for Love shares lessons and trials of maintaining a design business. I’ve already completed Logo Design Love and managed to create a few designs for my graphic novel project. You’d think anybody who wants to be a working artist would’ve finished the other book the moment they order it, and you’d be right. I’m only a nobody who wants to be a working artist.

The author’s main website is davidairey.com. He regularly posts articles on design. Logodesignlove.com is his other website that focus on…logo designing.

My next book would be Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, one of THE most praised book in the realm of personal development. It’s been recommend by too many podcast hosts I follow to pass on. It may be just what I need to get that mental boost to not fail at life. However, I have read around eighteen books on the subject sub-ranging from leadership to personal accountability. So this may add to that list of beneficial books I never apply to my life.

More than likely I won’t do a review of these books. If anything I would link you to another reviewer’s opinion.

 

Links

Another great disadvantage I have is not following enough creative, professional minds. Yet the few I do follow are incredible.

Orbital Operations is a newsletter authored by Warren Ellis. I discovered his work while listen to Comics Experience Podcast with Andy Smidth, I don’t remember the episode he was reference in, but they mentioned Ellis’ book, Planetary, as well crafted series, despite many delays in its 27 issue run. Here’s IGN.com review of the book. But yeah, he’s awesome and I swear I’m not saying that just because I’m a fan who worships him!

I can’t do any better justice in explaining Ganzeer’s Restricted Frequency newsletter. Both links have examples of what you’d expect their newsletters to contain. If my opinion is worth the two cents I found on the ground before writing this, they are what make my weekends worth browsing my email for.

(I promise you I would revisit a discussion on these two creators and why I enjoy their materials in the near future. For now, a simple recommendation is all my tiny brain can fart out.)

 

So… 

I did it! It was extremely difficult and it looks cumbersome, but it’s a start. Here’s hoping for improvement and consistency. The only real sign of failure is if I get the next article published on my fourth anniversary.