Tuesday, 27 January 2009
It’s Tuesday. And I missed a day, finally. So here’s what’s up:
Reyyyyyyy said recently that you’ve got to “draw what you want when you feel it”, which might seem vague, but I get the sentiment. And I’m not drawing what I want right now, and I’m not feeling it. What I’m currently doing with FC! stopped being fun, I’ve got a lot of other responsibilities now that I’m back in school (some of these, thankfully, are still comics!), and my schedule has gone crazy.
So: FC! is going into sketchblog mode for a little bit while I decide what happens next.
Which is kind of bad timing because Evan Dahm just linked me up on rice-boy.com, and I just got a nice little traffic spike. Sorry, new readers! Also I should mention that everyone should be reading his comics because they are excellent surreal fantasy! Thanks Evan!
Tomorrow: a better drawing!
January 27th, 2009 at 08:05
Even if you’re not thrilled with what you’re doing, if you’re building an audience I’d suggest you keep going somehow. I used to read Drew Weing’s diary strip years ago, but then he abruptly stopped… And I haven’t followed anything he’s done since. Readers are fickle. If you’ve got them on the hook, don’t let ‘em off!
January 27th, 2009 at 12:44
Thanks for the tip, Ursula! Perhaps I should be clearer: I’m not about to disappear or stop posting or shut down the site, but I do feel I need to change what I’ve been doing. I’ve got some sketches and drawings to put up in the meantime (along with a solution to the Sangaku puzzle from a while back) while I figure out just what I want that change to be.
January 27th, 2009 at 01:08
I’m glad you’ll still be posting, even if it’s not comics. I understand creative exhaustion, and a change always helps. I’m looking forward to whatever you will be doing next. And I certainly admire your stamina for going this long.
Oh, and now that I looked at the note, that’s seriously cool. I want to draw in that cafeteria now!
January 27th, 2009 at 02:04
That line isn’t as vague as one that I read in a NYTimes article on moustache care:
“Groom what you have, not what you think you have.”
January 27th, 2009 at 08:46
Renee: thx for the support
N8: that’s similar to a classic art class line, which is “draw what you see, not what you think you see”, which I’ve actually found to be massively helpful. When you’re trying to represent what you see on paper, you can’t rely on your own idea of what (say) a nose looks like; you have to draw the nose in front of you. The 2nd chapter of Understanding Comics covers this topic pretty well. (Or is that the book that you don’t have any more?) I’d say that the concept is pretty similar: know how much ’stache you have, because how much you really have limits what you can do with it. Don’t shoot for grandiose if you straight up can’t.