Trickling progress

Not sure of what to write today. Chipping away at things little by little. I was sitting downstairs last night in my work space and looking over a list of daily tasks. I put it up to remind me to do certain things every day. In the beginning of the year I was pretty good at getting these "exercises" done every day or almost every day.

As of late not so much.

I suppose to some degree, due to my human failings, I will always strive for an ideal that is unattainable. I will probably never quite get things to the level or a well oiled humming mahcine that I want it to be. It will always be a Sisyphean effort in some regard.

That being said, I believe I should strive for it. One of the best ways to start is to go back to working on my daily, weekly and long term tasks. Particularly while the times are as close to quiet as they can be.

Quiet again/

So hopefully now my life will begin to resemble some small form of calm and normalcy. Who knows if it will though. All I know is this week I am working normal hours and have no special projects pending. So hopefully it will be an easier week.

Last week I got a lot done, whether I wanted to or not. I did my usual work, plus extra hours, put out some blogs and a Times Round Up which became featured content on Redgage, met with the Pronto Comics crew, worked on some bowls and cups for a friend, put out a much overdue food blog and got to meet a visiting artist at Dowling which was quite inspirational.

I feel a little proud that I made it through the week and got so much done. Hopefully I didn't screw anything up too much in the craziness.

Now that there is some kind of calm for the foreseeable future I want to try and take advantage of it. A pronto collaborator has a project he wants me to work on, so I hope to start on that this week. I want to get back to writing articles for helium, I need to start looking through my mailing list and getting ready for a mailing and maybe, just maybe, start cracking on my long back burnered personal illustration projects.

We'll see what I can get done.

A lot going on, on all fronts

I have often told people that I need 4 more hours a day. I need a 28 hour day. There just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day. But things seem to be going well professionally, for now.

This week I am catching up on my hours at Dowling, since I lost out last Friday due to the snow day. I am also catching extra hours at the gym since the boos will be away for a long weekend.

On the comics front, the inking and coloring is finished and the pages are being lettered. The overall anthology project is going well and we will have a big meeting this Thursday to discuss future projects and to implement some of the advice we received last Friday from the DC Comics editor Mike Siglain.

Personally the meeting was a good kick in the ass in terms of motivation as well, giving me some realizations. For over a year I haven't been collecting comics due to monetary restraints. He gave me some advice and told me to collect again. Explaining to me that how could he or any editor believe I was really passionate in comics if I wasn't collecting and that I need to be able to hold a conversation about what is current in comics as well as in inking.

It was much needed and welcomed advice. I think the group as whole has done well to listen and reflect on the advice he gave last Friday.

Also once this week is done, I plan on throwing myself back into pursuing my illustration career and promotion. I will begin working on my mailing list again and get cracking on some new illustrations. As well as implementing the advice I received from Mike Siglain. The big thing though is to not, strange as it may sound, let life get in the way of the goals I have for my life.

So anyway, hi ho hi ho back to work I go...

Finished projects

So I have finished my work on the new anthology, as far as I know anyway. These last set of pages are now inked and colored. I put a lot of love and effort into them and tried to make them look as good as I possibly could.

With this project put to bed, I now have to think of what is next. To some degree I want to get back to more writing. I haven't published an article with helium in some time. Also there is a long list of illustration ideas that need to be looked into. There is also the matter for doing a promotional mailing which has been put off for too long.

Today specifically, I want to get to my NY Times round up, as well as maybe a food blog post. I have a bunch of content that I could put up, and I want to get to it before I forget anything.

Anyway there is always more to do.

Inking Progress

So despite the snow, I was able to get several things done as well as shoveling the driveway. I was able to finish inking this set of pages. Now I can make some copies and do some color studies. Color studies are almost, if not more, important then ink studies. I feel the color has some many more options, and thus opportunities, to screw up. Much more then ink could provide.

Tonight, I have work at Dowling. I have a good list of things that need doing in the studio, which i will get cracking on as soon as I walk in the door.

Busy, busy busy...need a couple of more hours in the day.

Another snow day?

Despite the snow today, I still got up and got to work before the sun. Though if you look outside, you really can't tell that the sun came out. AS Louis Black has said, 'It just gets greyer and greyer and then one day you wake up and its the greyest day you've ever seen, and then the next day its even greyer!"

Aside from the though the snow isn't as heavy as last week, so I actually hope to get somethings done today. Most of the inking is done on these next pages, and while I've been inking I've been thinking of how to color it. My plan, as with the inking, is to keep and even enhance the abstract style of the penciler. To push the loose simple style, so everything seems to work fluidly. Hopefully this will work well with the story and overall.

Once these pages are done I can focus on the list of illustrations ideas, that I made some times ago. Also I need to focus on setting up another mailing/promotion round.

Also on the horizon is some non-pronto inking. I am going to be working on an anthology book for CAG, The Comic Book Artists Group. They are a good group of writers and artists trying to promote and help up and coming creators.

So luckily things are getting checked off the list, albeit slowly.

Working on the weekend

As the title suggests I worked this weekend, though this is not news, I work every weekend. I worked all day on Sunday, and while doing so I got some inking done and then proceeded to continue inking later at home.

Things are moving along well with the pages and I hope to have them done by the middle of the week. Then I can send them to the penciler and he will add the text.

Aside from that though the weekend was pretty standard. Things are going well, not great, not terrible, but well.