Moving the Pieces into Place (x-posted from dalewoodruff.net)
It's kind of fun when you start seeing the pieces come together, when you start feeling as if things are moving in the right direction.
A few weeks back I participated in the 24 hr zine challenge, which was a nerve wracking exercise that ultimately taught me a lot of needed life lessons about my creative process. Since then I can say that I not only met some really cool people, but I've really been dedicated to finishing work. I still want to write a post-mortem blog devoted to the challenge, but for now let's just say it was a good experience.
The day after the 24 hr zine challenge I was surprised by a visit from my parents. We had breakfast together and during that time they confided in me that they really want to support this pursuit of mine. They wanted to know if they can help financially (in a reasonable way). It's not so much that I can get something from my folks that really made this conversation feel awesome, it's that they made a step in sharing with me their confidence in my journey. As if the offer of financial help was a way of them saying they wanted to invest in me. The result of this discussion was that they are going to help me toward getting the 17x11 scanner I mentioned in an earlier post as a birthday present. This is awesome, but again I think just the fact that they believe in me is the greatest gift.
Since then I've been drawing almost daily. I feel as if my art is really coming along.... I'm no Jim Lee yet for sure, but in terms of being able to tell a story with my artwork I feel like I'm really getting there. I've been meeting once a week with Justin Zimmerman (The Killing Jar) and others at Coffee Lovers in Portland to get together and draw. I find the experience very energizing. Also I've started drawing on paper (or bristol) again instead of relying so heavily on the computer and wacom tablet. What's funny is that I've been drawing on my tablet so long that drawing to paper just suddenly seemed "easy" and the results I've gotten from my drawings lately has been far better than I've been able to produce before.
Today, I decided to start plopping down the 10 bucks a month to join the Art and Story team. Essentially I get access to forums, extra podcasts, and some videos - but the big thing I think I'll get out of it is feedback from people in the industry and connections with others from the Art and Story forum group. I've known some of them already, but I think this will help create tighter bonds. Part of my membership is three hours a month to meet with one of the Art and Story members (over skype) to go over my work and get some insight.
Lastly, I've began to develop some habits that are really helping to make sure I'm more productive. I'm getting up at 5am so that I have plenty of time before work to get some drawing in or work out. It's part of a discipline that I think I'm really going to need if I want to progress.
Bottom line: I'm producing content on a regular basis. The work I'm producing far exceeds what I've done in the past and I am producing enough content that when I start publishing to the web again I won't feel as if I'm always behind. It's not that I don't have a lot of room for improvement, but I'm finally happy with the work I'm producing and I can't wait to start telling my stories.
A few weeks back I participated in the 24 hr zine challenge, which was a nerve wracking exercise that ultimately taught me a lot of needed life lessons about my creative process. Since then I can say that I not only met some really cool people, but I've really been dedicated to finishing work. I still want to write a post-mortem blog devoted to the challenge, but for now let's just say it was a good experience.
The day after the 24 hr zine challenge I was surprised by a visit from my parents. We had breakfast together and during that time they confided in me that they really want to support this pursuit of mine. They wanted to know if they can help financially (in a reasonable way). It's not so much that I can get something from my folks that really made this conversation feel awesome, it's that they made a step in sharing with me their confidence in my journey. As if the offer of financial help was a way of them saying they wanted to invest in me. The result of this discussion was that they are going to help me toward getting the 17x11 scanner I mentioned in an earlier post as a birthday present. This is awesome, but again I think just the fact that they believe in me is the greatest gift.
Since then I've been drawing almost daily. I feel as if my art is really coming along.... I'm no Jim Lee yet for sure, but in terms of being able to tell a story with my artwork I feel like I'm really getting there. I've been meeting once a week with Justin Zimmerman (The Killing Jar) and others at Coffee Lovers in Portland to get together and draw. I find the experience very energizing. Also I've started drawing on paper (or bristol) again instead of relying so heavily on the computer and wacom tablet. What's funny is that I've been drawing on my tablet so long that drawing to paper just suddenly seemed "easy" and the results I've gotten from my drawings lately has been far better than I've been able to produce before.
Today, I decided to start plopping down the 10 bucks a month to join the Art and Story team. Essentially I get access to forums, extra podcasts, and some videos - but the big thing I think I'll get out of it is feedback from people in the industry and connections with others from the Art and Story forum group. I've known some of them already, but I think this will help create tighter bonds. Part of my membership is three hours a month to meet with one of the Art and Story members (over skype) to go over my work and get some insight.
Lastly, I've began to develop some habits that are really helping to make sure I'm more productive. I'm getting up at 5am so that I have plenty of time before work to get some drawing in or work out. It's part of a discipline that I think I'm really going to need if I want to progress.
Bottom line: I'm producing content on a regular basis. The work I'm producing far exceeds what I've done in the past and I am producing enough content that when I start publishing to the web again I won't feel as if I'm always behind. It's not that I don't have a lot of room for improvement, but I'm finally happy with the work I'm producing and I can't wait to start telling my stories.