The slow wrap up

So with every week I am getting closer to the end of the semester at Dowling. Unlike other colleges Dowling is a pretty steady and calm studio, not a lot craziness. When the semester ends, hopefully I will be working through June during a summer session. Overall though, things should be a little quieter for me in the near future. I am looking forward to this.

Lately, as I am sure that the 3 people who read this blog know, I have been feeling very stagnant. I've been finding it difficult to get my goals done and to find the energy to work on the projects I want to do. Right now I can't even find the motivation to clean up my work space or get a Times Round Up done.

I am wondering if this is what the slow burn out looks like, or rather feels like to live through. I do know a change of pace is definitely needed on my part. I am looking forward to the summer with an excitement I haven't had since I was in grade school.

On other positive fronts though, the war anthology is coming along slowly, very slowly, but there is still progress being made. I have come to the conclusion that the deadline is blown and we will not be ready for the Philly conference. Such is life though, there is not much more that I can do other then to keep pushing people and try to create the best possible book that Pronto has put out yet.

In other comic news, I have finally been approached by CAG to work on their second Iconic project. I have been talking to the editor and he should have some pages for me to work on soon. Having seen the artists work, I am excited to ink these pages. It would be a style of pencils that I haven't worked on yet and would be far different then any one's style that we have in Pronto.

Finally, I am still having success in drawing on a regular basis. I've been making consistent efforts to do little sketches from life, caricatures and working from pictures in my sketch book. So at least on this front I feel pleased with myself.

Back to a normal rythm

So this week is a return to what could be considered my "normal" work schedule. Whatever normal means for me that is. Anyway I am hoping that with going back to normal hours, I'll have a little more energy and a little more free time to get my own things done. Not too long ago I took a long look at my schedule and goals that I want to accomplish and adjusted it for the actual reality of my life as opposed to what I think would be ideal. Now that life swhould be a bit calmer, I hope to put this into effect.

On the upside though, I have been finding a little more time to draw/sketch. I haven't been working on any illustrations like I want to, but I have found the time to do some sketching either in my sketch book from photos or quick gesture drawings from life on index cards. The index cards are a trick I picked up from an SVA professor, and seems to work well.

Also, though the war anthology isn't running as smoothly as I would like, there is some slow consistent progress being had. The amount of personal juggling, organizing and just general people skills that are required is fascinating, but good practice.

In terms of other personal projects, working on the dinner set is coming along well. I finished the cups and most of the goblets. The bowls have been thrown and trimmed and now need to be fired. Next I need to move onto plates. Once this is done then I can actually move onto some sculpture, hopefully over the summer.

Lastly, I just got an email from the NY CAG coordinator. It looks like I will still be inking pages for their anthology ICONIC 2. So I am looking forward to that as well.

Hustlin, hustlin

Its been an interesting week. To make up for being off on Good Friday and Holy Saturday I worked extra hours last week and will work extra hours this week. Also I covered some extra hours at NCC as well.

The big occurrence though was this weekend, when I went to the Mocca Festival. I went with the Pronto Crew and supported our previous and current anthology. I feel it was a good start, in terms of our first convention. But there can always be room for improvement, and in our case much room. This will come with experience though.

The war anthology is constantly on my mind. It is a never ending juggle of who is in, who is out, who can make their deadlines and who is flaking out. After this posting, I will probably spend some more time emailing people for status updates and trying to put together an idea of how this anthology will work.

On the up shot, I've found myself drawing a bit more. So that is something I am happy about.

War obsessed and catching up

So there are several things going on in the next couple of weeks. First, because Dowling was closed on Saturday and Sunday for Easter, I have decided to make up those 12 hours over this week and next. This way i will still get the same size check.

The next big thing that seems to be consuming a lot of my time is the War Anthology. I anticipated that it would take up much of my time, but anticipating and living are two different things all together.

One thing that I was able to do is take stock of my current schedule and revising the things I want to get done to realistically accomodate it.

However, as I said above the War Anthology is all consuming. So we will see what happens.