Art and comics and the world in one
So: thanksgiving tomorrow. I think my last post said I wouldn't do anything before then, but obviously I lied.
I've been working on some stuff recently that I'm really excited about, although barely any of it is school related. So here's a little summary of all the projects I'm doing right now:
First off, I bought myself a cheap 50 page sketchbook last week and every day I've filled a page with drawings in blue ballpoint pen. I'm calling it my Blue Ink project. I set up a bunch of arbitrary rules (must do one page per day, must be less than 20% swirls, shading, and other filler, must include less than 5 drawings of Nixon and/or giant squid, etc.). I'm trying to challenge myself to become a better artist through constant practice, and since I can't erase that keeps me from obsessing and ruining a good picture, or even being afraid to start. If something turns out really bad, I can just blame it on the pen and move on, which is good for my self-esteem. I am planning on scanning the whole thing and making a zine out of it when I'm done. At the very least I'll put it on the internet. It's mostly done in coffee shops, because I'm pretentious and you have to admit that they're very stimulating environments.
Another project: I might start doing daily comics as well, although that would mean I'd have to buy ANOTHER sketchbook and spend even more time drawing. However I've been reading a lot of daily journal comics, and that one I did back in October was super fun. I think I'm going to draw them in real life and then trace them into the computer or scan them or something, since my tablet skills seem to have seriously atrophied. I want to develop a style that's distinctly mine and isn' t this weird manga/comic/unrealism hodgepodge I use now.
I'm also going to collect a lot of my bad poetry from my youth when I go home this weekend, and type it up all nice and maybe even perform a medley of it at a poetry slam, if I can do it without laughing too hard. I love the idea of getting a bunch of people to publish a little chapbook of shitty poetry from high school, just as a joke. Anyone who wants to give me their angsty and funny high school stuff, let me know. If no one else gets in on it I'll do it myself, but I'd love to have it as a group effort.
Oh yes, and one more thing. Yeah, seriously. The last thing is this: I am still working on a couple of short stories, most notably the one on getting high off of bad literature, which I need to mess with rather sincerely. The logistics are really problematic, but I'm kind of enjoying hunting down examples, in a perverse way. It makes me feel really, really good about myself.