I’m running out of excuses here, aren’t I?
So I’m almost two weeks overdue for new comic pages, and it’s looking like the hiatus will be lasting longer still. I could go on about how the day job is sapping my energy, how our continued hurry-up-and-wait situation when it comes to house hunting is frustrating me, and all the usual reasons I give; I mean, they’re all true, but that’s not the point. Instead, I’m resorting to “dissatisfaction with my art” for a semi-fresh option.
I’ve been agonising over the opening page for this next story; the establishing shots are relatively more ambitious than what I’ve done in the past. I’m shooting for a certain atmosphere and feel, and I’m just not quite getting there. I’ve found some nice downloadable materials and I’ve been looking up relevant references to figure it all out, but it’s still missing the mark. I know that I may not be up to the level I want to be when it comes to art, and I’m never going to get there unless I push myself a little; the trade off is that the artwork itself is delayed.
So, in light of this, the Showcase will return in June, rather than any time this month. That doesn’t mean I won’t still be working on stuff until then; I’m going to use the rest of May to work out the kinks in my art, and maybe even build up a buffer for a change. I hate to delay things so long, but if I try to rush out all the pages before the end of May, not only is the artwork going to suffer for it, but I’m going to just burn out a lot quicker again.
Though I’m never going to be perfectly satisfied with my art, I still want to make sure it’s as good as I can get it; a wise man once said: “You develop taste faster than you develop skill.” I know why I dislike my art, I just don’t necessarily have what it takes to make it better yet; the sooner I can get on that the better, but I’m not going to subject you all to the entire gruelling process. At least, not unless I start streaming again; wouldn’t that be a novelty?
If I can shift the blame anywhere else, it would be the inconsistency of the day job; normally I’d relish any chance to use any spare moment to draw when there’s a slow work day, but that’s not conducive to doing comic work. If I’m working on a sketch or a doodle, that’s no problem, as I can put it away in between work assignments and come back to it later on. Comic pages are a different story; not only does breaking the flow of work disrupt the creative process, I also use Clip Studio Paint for my comic work, and because I can’t install it on multiple machines, I have to use my laptop for that; it doesn’t look good when I pull out my laptop to do my own stuff at my work desk. Starting to miss those two hour load shedding breaks…
I occasionally keep myself sane by doodling on Photoshop on the work PC; keep an eye on my Instagram and Twitter (for as long as that still exists) and you might see my random flashes of inspiration that I manage to squeeze into the spare minutes.
Okay, enough excuses for this week, I’m going to go try and wrestle some results out of myself, and I’ll hopefully have something better to complain talk about next time.
Ciao for now.