Month: November 2022

Think I might need a different brand of coffee, the half-price knockoff version I’ve been drinking doesn’t seem to be kicking so hard anymore…

Well, it was bound to happen: my buffer slipped and the most recent Showcase page was a day late. There were outside factors that contributed (lack of wifi, load shedding etc.) but the fact remains that I didn’t get the artwork done in time. This is hardly the first time such a thing has happened on this site, and I doubt it’ll be the last; sometimes life just gets in the way, but I’ll keep on truckin’ and keep the pages coming.

It’s been a busy month, and with the end of the year just around the corner, things are no doubt going to get even busier. As work starts to wind down for the holidays, the amount of personal and social obligations grow in response; I have no idea how much free time I’ll have over the Christmas break, but I intend to make the most of it. Comic updates should continue unabated over December and New Year’s, barring any holiday feast food comas, and come 2023 there may be even more content to launch. That will of course depend on what my schedule looks like; taking advantage of all the extra hours when not at the day job makes me feel so productive, right until the day job returns and I can no longer keep up with all the stuff I want to do.

This may or may not be affected by a potential shift in locale; fingers crossed, by the New Year, my partner and I will have finalized a new living space. We’ve been in the same spot for two-and-a-half years now, and while we’ve made it work for us, it is a small space that is only getting smaller as our lives become fuller. We’re hoping that by the end of Q1 2023, we’ll be in a bigger home, with ample room to breathe and practice our crafts. A change of scenery also brings up a bunch of other questions, like whether or not my current day job is still within a feasible travel distance, or if there should be a new breakdown of financial responsibilities. Long story short, it is no small decision to make, and we’re not jumping straight onto the first place we find.

Fortunately, life-affecting obligations aside, I can confidently say that I’m moving a lot faster with my art; I put it down to my new drawing tablet that was acquired at Comic Con back in September. The larger drawing area is much more accommodating for my massive hands, and the decreased strain on my wrist means I feel inclined to draw digitally more often, and for longer periods. While I will always appreciate the look and feel of a comic page drawn and inked by hand, the fact remains that digital art is so convenient in so many ways, which means that any dips in the schedule should not be too extreme (fingers crossed).

Anywho, back to the grindstone; with only two pages left on this month’s story, I’d better make sure the script for December’s one is properly outlined soon.

Ciao for now.

“But each of us is so much more than we once were. Do you not feel with all your soul how we have become like gods? And as such, are we not indivisible? As long as a single one of us stands, we are legion…”

Anyone familiar with the Legacy of Kain series might recognise that quote, referencing the quasi-divine nature of immortal vampires and the simultaneous gift and burden of knowing a wide range of possible futures. But it recently came back into my thoughts as something of a commentary on creativity and the purveyors thereof. A somewhat more philosophical blog post this week, then.

As a creator, there is the paradoxical requirement of needing to be both incredibly humble and massively egotistical. One has to accept that not everything they create is something that everyone will enjoy, there will be criticism, and there are many, many others out there that might be doing something that is perceived as “better” than one’s own stuff; the sooner you accept that you’re not the best, the less pressure there is and the less likely your sensitivities are going to be hurt. At the same time, the mere act of creating something and showing it to the world is an expression of self-importance; you’re out there saying: “I made this, I’m super proud of it, and I’m putting it in front of your face so that you can appreciate it!” To even consider sending out something for others to witness on a large scale and hoping for something in return (whether that be praise, money, love or anything else), is a display of confidence that most people wouldn’t dream of displaying outside their own social circle. It’s why you’ll find a lot of creators don’t show their work to the world immediately, sourcing their close friends or relatives as a litmus test before going bigger.

I think this is why the online art community is so large, and why there are so many different ways to put art out there. A smaller creator finds their niche, and shows off their stuff to like-minded people, and gets back some appreciation from people they know will like it. Some might say that doing so might be the equivalent of living in an echo chamber, and that if the creator showed off their stuff on a larger scale, they would receive far less praise, and the fact that their sticking to their niche means they’re too scared to face “real” criticism. But the mere fact that all these niches exist is because creators have found the one that appeals to them, they’re enjoying themselves with like-minded people, and there is nothing wrong with that; some creators thrive in niches, because trying to appeal to the mass market means they lose the spark that makes what they create special to them.

And it is because of niches that art continues to thrive; people find what they like, they join communities, and they share in what they enjoy. They perpetuate the things that make them happy, and in turn those things become eternal; this is how categories form on art sites. A few people create something new, other people enjoy it, and suddenly it becomes a niche that attracts more like-minded artists, who might create off-shoots and spin-offs that become new niches, and so the cycle continues. As such, those who create are immortalized, not by name, but by content, and become as gods, becoming legion as long as there is one person who partakes in that content.

Maybe this is all just on my mind because I’m gaming tonight; I’m taking part in a new tabletop campaign, and we’re using a prologue session to collaboratively create a homebrew world, taking the roles of the gods and shaping said world to our own design, and then we’ll create mortal characters to play in whatever we come up with. I’ve been thinking about it for weeks, but it was only really today that I made the connection between creativity and divinity as concepts. While I’d never equate myself to a deity in real life, I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say that in the mind of every creator is a tiny bit of ego that makes them a god of their own little world; it’s why we need everyone else to keep us humble.

Ciao for now.

I keep wishing it was Friday, but then that would mean I would have missed posting this, and that would be wrong. My wish will come true tomorrow…

Another week has gone by, and we’re still in motion! The Showcase has resumed uploads, and we’re just getting to the action bits; a fitting way to return, I’d say. I’m going to be using my rare injection of free time over the weekend to keep the buffer up so that we don’t slip behind schedule for the rest of the month; I’ve got a lot of stuff happening towards the end of November that might put a crimp in it, so best to preemptively avoid that.

Those who follow me on socials know that I post the preview thumbnails to Instagram, plus the links, when each comic page goes live. I also used Instagram to post my pics from my attempt at Swordtember earlier this year; it was the most active I’d been on the platform in years. I’ve been considering using it more and more, especially with all the drama unfolding around Twitter, my currently most-used social media. I don’t really have enough followers to be concerned about the whole verification thing (I’m #RatVerified, and that’s enough for me), and even if I did I wouldn’t be coughing up any amount of money to keep it. I’ll likely stick around on Twitter for as long as possible, but when it inevitably goes south, I want to have a decent presence elsewhere too. I’ve been giving Mastodon a look, but it’s a bit technical for me, and Artfol is more for tablet-based stuff; Instagram is shaping up to be my new primary, despite all the spam bots…

I’m also looking into expanding my digital art portfolio by exploring some different techniques. I recently acquired a bunch of new brushes and some instructional stuff for digital painting, which is something I’ve always wanted to give a proper try. I found the resources through Jazza via Drawfee, two content channels on YouTube that I am a big fan of, so anything that they recommend I know I will find useful. I’m also a big fan of Frank Frazetta’s style of painting, so in lieu of using up a lot of space and money on oil paints, I would love to recreate his effects in a digital medium. It’s one more thing on top of everything else, but that’s kind of the point; I need to keep my momentum going, and anything that keeps me busy is good. With any luck, once I start churning out non-comic art on a regular basis again, it’ll end up on the site in a separate gallery before too long.

In terms of things other than art, it’s currently NaNoWriMo season, and I have elected not to partake; all my previous attempts failed dismally, and I just do not have the time or energy to try again this year. It’s a shame, because I did come up with an idea that might have benefitted from some concentrated writing, but I’ve got enough going on right now. At minimum, I have to focus on the scripts for the next Showcase issue, since I’m going to be leaping directly into that in December, so a novel isn’t exactly on the cards. Add it to the list for next year.

Think that covers everything for this week; keep reading the Fifth Ace Showcase, and I’ll see you next time.

Ciao for now.

I’ve been yawning wide enough to swallow the world whole all day, what the actual hell…

It’s another Thursday, my fellow cards, which means it’s time for another update. It’s been a quiet week overall, things are trucking along; progress is being made on some stuff, less so on others, but I’ll get to that in a moment.

The Fifth Ace Showcase is still on track to resume next week, no worries about that. We’ll be back to the regular Mon-Wed-Fri update schedule, all the pages for this first week back will be ready before the weekend; I am determined to stay well ahead on the updates this time around, with a minimum of a three page buffer once the updates begin. I’ve been sitting on this story for a while, and it needs to get done so that I can carry on with all the other ones that have been gathering dust.

One of the big differences with this current story is that the art is 100% digital; all the previous Showcase stories were penciled and inked by hand before being digitally coloured. I made the shift to full digital for Agents of A.R.M.O.R. because there were a number of things I wanted to include that are easier to do digitally. I don’t know if this will be a new standard for future Showcase stories; I do enjoy working on paper a lot, but with my new graphics tablet, digital is looking a lot more feasible. We’ll see what happens; I do know there are certain stories that will work better without digital techniques, if I get the practice in.

I mentioned in passing last week about some additional things I want to do to elevate my site and my work a little more; that’s the kind of stuff that won’t be seeing some progress for a little while, most likely not until 2023. For a start, I want to get back to streaming again; I had a lot of fun streaming my art, and it kept me focused on the work, which is always a benefit. I’m still debating over which platforms to stream on; I’ve heard Twitch hasn’t been too nice to their affiliates lately, and TikTok doesn’t play nice with ReStream, so I might go YouTube exclusive, but nothing definite yet. I’ll figure it out once I find time in my schedule, probably Saturdays, will keep you posted.

The plan is audience building, spreading the brand far and wide to bring in as many people as possible. The kind of job and life that I want depends greatly on other people, and I have to do my best to make a good impression on a large scale. But again, that’s still a ways off; come next year, we can flesh that out a little more.

That said, if you want to support me in the meantime, I have a Ko-Fi account for tips (button is over on the right), and I take art commissions too, so PM me for that. Which reminds me, I’d better update my price list on Twitter, that thing is so out of date…

See you back here on Monday for the return of the Fifth Ace Showcase!

Ciao for now.