I'm up at 6.45, out the door by 7.20 and at work by 8.00. Finish at 5.15 and it takes me an hour (if I'm lucky) to get home, a trip of two miles (as the crow flies). I'd sooner walk but every which way I look, there's a NASTY hill to walk up (I work in a valley but live on a peak so while I'll never be flooded, getting home's a git). By the time I get home, make dinner and grab my e-mails, have a quick whiz on the net, it's at least 7.00.
Not including distractions like TV, DVDs, stuff to read, going out and whatnot, this doesn't leave much time for drawing and I REALLY want to get back into it this year.
I love drawing, always have done, it's a great way to relax and for a while I wanted to be a comic artist. I'm not sure if that's an option now but dammit, I'll at least get these four Jock issues done! I've done more since November than for years before but I find it hard building a head of steam when my time is eaten up so much. I have ideas: I want to get the Jock done, get some samples done and do some of my own stuff, printed nicely, but again, the slightest delay and my drawing time's gone.
My eternally conflicted mind says both "Leave it, you'll never be an artist, let it go" but also "Go for it, you can still do it, you're better than Liefeld!" (though as Tone says, better than shit is not an endorsement).
My current artistic goals:
1. Complete The Jock #2
2. Do a quick strip of my own testing a pared back style (probably falling back on to Silver)
3. Using my lightbox (which arrived today, YAY!) revise The Jock #1 (ever unhappy with my work, I was going to completely redraw most of #1 but found that with a few redrawn panels or panel elements, much of the issue can be saved)
4. Do some samples
5. Do a sample page for Rough Stuff
6. Complete The Jock #1-4 and print it as a nice single volume, with a bunch of bonus material (Rol's genesis and history of the comic, the MTV thing, script pages, pencils, deleted panels, etc...this'll be news to Rol as I was planning on doing it on the quiet and just having his jaw drop when a copy drops through his postbox...but at my current rate, that might be a way off yet...)
The reason I'm posting now instead of drawing is because the buses are so crap, they changed drivers AND BUS ROUTES without telling any of the three passengers still on the bus! I could have ended up in Slough! Needless to say, after much fuming in the bus station, my trip home was delayed further. And Spike's in Torchwood tonight, so that's another night's work gone.
I TRY to pencil at the weekend and ink during the week.
I try.
5 comments:
Nige, you ARE an artist. You're one of the most natural artists I've seen, and I should know, I've seen a few. Part of an artist's duties is to come up with ever more inventive excuses for not drawing, to disguise the fact we're inherently lazy. The only difference between us amateurs and professionals is that the pro needs to draw to eat and will just plough on with it regardless. Well, unless he's John Cassaday.
Mate, I've taken the best part of three and a half years to knock out 22 pages. There's nothing bad with being slow, it's when perfectionism takes over from "fit for purpose" that you may need to see the doc about OCD.
Dave, every time you bring stuff to the pub, it's all new and that stack of A3 pages you're doing at the mo is your strongest stuff ever, you can really see the work you've put in.
I'd like to be a perfectionist but I've never produced a perfect page :-), so at least that leaves room for improvement!
What they said.
Plus, I'm chipping in on that Jock compilation, even if I have to sell my autographed Joe Quesada doll to do it, so don't go doing it on the sly.
Rol, don't sell it, use it in voodoo for One More Day....
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