scoab

When I really started drawing, I decided that using a ruler was cheating. If you didn’t draw the line, then it wasn’t your line. So I learned how to make straight lines and while they weren’t perfectly straight, they were mine.

A year or so after I made that decision, I met a guy who only drew in ink. Now that was art. You were responsible for every line. No erasing. No undo. If it was a small mistake, you could work around it, or through it, or make something else and suddenly you were going that way anyway. If the mistake was bad enough, you could always start over. So I learned how to draw in ink and leave childish things like pencils and pink rubber erasers behind.

Flash forward 20 years, and suddenly I’m a huge cheater. Nothing in this drawing really exists. They’re just pixels of varying intensity, pushed into existence by a fake pen on fake paper. The tip of the drawing pen is even felt-like enough to give the right amount of resistance on the tablet.  Fake.

The thing is, working this way is more like what I used to do than what I’ve been pushing out lately. I feel more involved in the act of drawing. I forgot that when I really get into the art, I’m in it. I don’t hear music. I don’t know the air conditioner gave up 20 minutes ago and my feet are sticking to my sandals. I’m building the picture in my head, with tools that my younger self wouldn’t have thought of.

He would still think I’m cheating.

But I’ll be ready for him when he comes back.

Argh. Sometimes I get stuck. The sketch has looked better than anything I have done to improve it, so here it is. I’ll add more to this comment later, when the frustration wears off.

The jacket he’s wearing is a product of the Mmokwq Clothing Company, and works like the auto-darkening sunglasses. It only materializes when your surface temperature falls below a certain point. Or, I failed to erase the jacket here when I changed my mind in panel 3 and thought the jacket made him look too professional.

This post is really a link by way of a link.

My friend Terry recently started a blog/link list called “i am jealous“. It’s essentially a list of things he likes, with links and a nice layout. A daily “what’s cool in the world”.

His latest Jealousy is “of your motivation“, which links to a great article by Kevin Cornell about staying motivated and getting your creativity back.

Anyway, it’s almost 10PM here in Georgetownia; which means it’s time to put my dreams of comic book rock stardom aside in favor of the dreamless sleep of a man who is totally wiped out.

Yet another site update, this time I decided to get smart and try to find some comic-friendly blogging software instead of poking around in the WordPress code.¹

Some digging turned up ComicPress, which seems pretty cool so far (and it’s a WordPress theme, so I didn’t have to reinstall anything). I found the link in a handy Guide to Publishing a Political Web Comic, which is really quite awesome (and for me, very timely, for a couple of reasons).

I start moving into my new apartment in a couple of days. Now for the fun stuff, like finding a cheap washer/dryer, buying towels, forks, trying to decide whether to put the drawing table in the bedroom or the dining area. And figuring out which TV to get.

1. People know I write code, and they ask a great question ‘why don’t you just make your own site’. The answer is, I have! What I discovered is that it’s a great way to keep myself from working on the things I really want to do, like play video games. Oh, and draw stuff.