MAKING SOME HEADWAY
Gawd. I'm always such a late adopter, it's pretty embarrassing.
Have finally gotten my ass around to setting up a wordpress blog for my comics, and I hate to say it, but I'm still rather mystified about things like RSS Feeds and Tag Clouds. I'm sure they willl quickly become quite apparent once I actually start using them, but right now I'm consigned to watching endless droning Wordpress video tutorials carried out by the most bloody boring Canadians and Australians ever.
But it's been quite a revelation that there are so many nifty free tutorials online - this might even save me from having to plough through my tomes on SEO and CSS that have been sitting in a dusty pile by my bed, untouched. Think I'll just dedicate days to sitting through all these tutorials, and hopefully by the end of it all, I'll be stuffed full of useful practical information!
Well anyway, back to my comics blog. The only thing I've really gotten around to doing is customising my header and theme... bleah... Before I even can get started, I have to get around to the utterly tedious task of scanning all my comics and cleaning them up. And of course get around to drawing MORE STUFF. Am quite pleased with the header though, and the name I've chosen for it - Poison Pen Comics: Schanfreude in Black and White. I think it's a pretty good starting point.
Interesting thing is that I've been meeting lots of interesting people who have been coming to my shop, Cinephilia - filmmakers and film students and generally people who are doing creative things. When I tell them I do comics, they all react really positively - they want to see my stuff, and suggest collaborations and possible poster art projects and stuff. This is really helping me get over my horrible procrastination to actually get something up - that way, I can give them a link and take it from there. Am feeling very optimistic about this...
So... fingers crossed xx
Have also just bought a new drawing pad that I intend to use as a personal journal. The ability to write honestly and enthusiastically has somehow eluded me - disturbingly, for the past few years, and I've felt pretty stuck and stagnant and stoppered, and have constantly tried to get to the root of this problem, but I still can't figure it out. Perhaps it's because I used to employ the vehicle of words to carefully construct my persona, and recently, I've felt that I've lost faith in the idea of a constructed persona. Maybe this is why the problem filters down into music and people as well - I've just lost interest. I can't seem to muster up my old energy for finding music I can identify with, people I can associate with, to act as personal branding tools. It seems pointless now. So I've decided to just sod it - no point flogging a dead horse. Maybe I've just got to try out some other channel. So I think starting a journal comic in a looser, more immediate kind of free-style which I don't have to show anyone or make any kind of statement will help me ease this congestion of ideas, and also help me hone my craft. Who knows. It's an experiment, and I have to make sure I have to discipline to keep this up regularly. Have done 1 page, and am quite pleased with it so far. I just have to accept it's a slower, but more involved, sort of expression.
Anyway! Blabbing away. I also think this blog will help me focus more on drawing and style, instead of forcing out a feeble storyline or structure. I think I should just start drawing whatever I feel like at the moment -- and hopefully the satisfaction of simply producing something will come through in the result. How to explain... it's like this AMAZING Anish Kapoor exhibition I went to recently at the Royal Academy. I was prepared to hate it, but instead spent the entire time there completely astonished at the pure joy and playfulness of all his exhibitions - and also kicking myself relentlessly for NOT HAVING THOUGHT OF IT FIRST. These are such amazingly SIMPLE IDEAS!! Simple ideas, but such excellent execution, and heroic scale, and the.... pure satisfaction he must've felt just comes through so much, that you cannot help but enjoy them too. My favourites: SVAYAMBH - like a gigantic Play Dough mould using hot red wax through the arching doorways of various esteemed art museums, visually stunning and just so much damned fun! Also HIVE - I know it looks really pretentious in pictures, but you have to be there to really appreciate the amazing flawlessness of lines and the mischief in the surprising change of perspective in the middle of this crazy, towering, nautical-looking, rusted, bolted, perfectly elegant structure. And SHOOTING INTO THE CORNER - I mean, bloody hell... why anyone else hasn't thought of hurling sloodgy red wax at the pristine uppity white walls of a stuffy museum is a real shocker, but MAN, you just stand there thinking... why the hell didn't I think of this???
OK anyway enough -- the coffee and whiskey I just had must really be working.
Well, so that's all folks... wish me luck!