Much social media is designed to lack detail. Places like twitter are inherently trite and quippy, Instagram is mostly for pictures, and although I do use tumblr a lot, it’s mostly for fun and memes for me. I picked this handle for the alliteration but also because its true– I ramble. And as much as I like using other sites for other purposes, I cant get the solid ranting-to-the-void vibe like a good old fashion blog.

Since I’ve finished undergrad I feel like I’ve barely made any art. I’ve had ideas for a few things but mostly I’m just burned out and keep getting stuck. Even though I did it for school for so long, and even with inspiration bursts, It’s like I’m starting over from scratch every time and I just feel lost and unmotivated– I haven’t hit the creative drive I used to have. And although I needed a well deserved break from art, I feel like it’s about time I pick back up.

I originally thought of just writing down my process for making comics on its own to reference, but that branched into the idea of a blog where I archive my progress and process for the foreseeable future, at least. That way I can feel more accomplished by what I’ve done, motivate myself to do more work, let myself muse about art, the process, and anything else I feel is important to my development as an artist. I figured I already have this WordPress website, why not use it for the intended purpose? So I’m gonna give that a shot.

A tentative goal I have for 2023 is to make a monthly update post about my work and how I’m doing in that regard. Do I expect anyone to really read it? Not particularly, but you’re welcome to. This is for accountability for myself and documenting my progress for myself. I kinda like shouting into the void, not being sure if anyone can see me back. I can rant and be as annoying as I want without an algorithm either passing over it completely or putting it directly in people’s faces.

In this vein, I’ve always been an artist, but I’m also a writer–yet I never treat myself as one. And comics require a lot of writing– not just visual planning, but all the intricacies of plot, motivations, themes, all intertwined to make something awesome– there’s a lot of work behind the scenes that doesn’t get covered. A lot more goes into comics beyond the page and I always feel like I made no progress when there’s no visual art to really show for it– which is stupid of me. This blog can serve as a “visual” of that thought process part of comics that often fade to the background for me.

So here I am. Once I graduated, I went back home to my parents place, and in October I moved into an apartment in my hometown. I started working full time at my old summer job and replaced my rickety old drawing desk, got another desk specifically for my drawing tablet and computer, and even recently invested in a 11 x 17 printer where I can print and scan to my hearts content. I used to always use smaller 8.5 x 11 free standing scanner, and I would have to scan a 11 x 17 page 3 times and stitch it together. Although I was good at the process, it was time consuming and tedious. It feels so gratifying to just… set it in there and it’s scanned! I feel like this will help my work flow a lot, and I’m even toying with the idea of starting to pencil digitally and printing it out to ink. I’m not sure how well that’ll go in my flow, but it’s worth experimenting with I think.

A lot of my work is in black and white, and in college I loved the progress of printing and making my own zines, so with the printer I thought it would be fun to get the supplies and keep doing that. Hopefully this means I can make a lot of little books to bring to cons and other comic or art festivals. I even managed to get a $90 paper trimmer for about $5 (thank you OfficeMax rewards!). Now I basically have all the components… But nothing new to print and make into a booklet.

I’ve also opened commissions but honestly haven’t really advertised them– I keep putting off making actual posts for it. I also keep procrastinating on updating my social media that does have my art, like Instagram, for so long that I feel like it’s somehow too late for me to update it ever again. Hopefully that’s another thing I can do in the new year.

I know it’s not the same as school. I know I’ve been working full time and it’s hard enough to find time to clean my apartment much less make art. But part of me feels guilty not making as much as possible, feeding the content algorithms, making sure people remember me and pushing hard for my dream. All the stories I’ve toyed around with since haven’t made it to page yet. I’ve thumbnailed a few pages and drafted some plot ideas for a new story, but keep being so wish washy that I haven’t gotten very far. I got far enough to submit a loose pitch to an anthology but that deadline was the best push I could give myself.

The original spark for this blog was me thinking about that: why I was barely able to make thumbnails, and wondering why it was so hard. I suddenly remembered for my last few projects, I had started making small rough pencils as a stage between thumbnails and pencils. I decided I’d write down a comprehensive guide to my own process, as a record and reference for the next time I’m ready to start something new. That’ll be the second post on here as I finish it up. I’m cautiously optimistic for next year, but we’ll have to see what the future has in store.