Importance of the Spotless Mind

I have a sick habit of completely wasting my 'downtime'; I'd rather cram any creative output in between doing other things, particularly the income generating kind. I am awesome at multitasking, a trait that has only grown exponentially as I add more and more potentially time wasting online pastimes, such as IRC, forums, tweeting, Google Reader,and a whiny blog about how much I fail as a human being (perhaps you heard of it). Earlier in 2009 I fell off the MMORPG wagon and revived my WoW subscription, which I managed to let lapse a month ago. I can't begin to tell you how much of a good move that was.

Mind you, this is online. Offline I am involved in two other organizations (of one I was elected commander), am trying to get more involved in yet a third. I slowly increased my physical activity this year and as a result have lost nearly 30 pounds. Hobby wise I have taken up interest in beers and wine (and the home production thereof), in hiking and photography (tried to start a blog about that, too), and of course, cartooning.

I'm not rattling off this list to complain how little time I ever have in a day - if you wonder how I manage to do any of this effectively the blunt truth is that I don't. Yet, much of my sudden burst in productivity through self-management, I realize, stems from finally getting treatment for depression and the ilk. And it also has to do in part of slowly regaining my focus in life.

The other week I finally got around to cleaning out my roll top desk and it struck me how much crap I own. As a life long pack rat, I picked up a lot of physical baggage over the years, the emotional meaning behind each object has faded, if not disappeared entirely. But, as I will post a little later, I am also finding a treasure trove of tools I squirreled away.

Loomis meets Lyster's cheekbones...

Now applying some of what I learned here to Lyster (LIE-stir), the erstwile hero of my main comic. Upstate has undergone scores of changes since a lot of people last saw it, especially with some of the character designs. Lyse's hair, for example, acts a lot more like real hair, and his jawline has slowly gotten squarer.

At heart, of course, he's the same. In fact, he's getting closer and closer to the bipolar kung-fu hippie I picture in my mind everyday. I'm trying for a good balance of 'goofy' and 'serious' Lyster - boils down to 'ridiculous' and 'not-so-ridiculous' looking, really. It's not perfect, but like his hair, Lyster has more realistic cheekbones than before. It's significant, to me at least, that I'm learning how cheekbones actually work to shape a face, as opposed to imitating them.

... so comes the Autumn of Loomis

I ended up taking some advice from some other artists and downloaded the works of an artist named Andrew Loomis, who was an illustrator from the early 20th century, or the 'pre-photoshop-filter' era if you will.

His books are long out of print, and his family won't publish them in the foreseeable future. Despite this, the books remain an excellent source for beginning artists, or in my case, horrible ones trying to start over.

I'm taking it slow, starting with 'Fun with a Pencil' and work my way forward. Already, it's helped make some more expressive, if a little creepier, faces.

Three years ago today I debuted the previous version of "Upstate" which only lasted a year before I gave up on it. Writing was half the problem I had with it, so much so I ran myself into a literary corner; so many sins I've improved upon since then. But the real monkey on my back has been the art.

Hopefully this is the way to pry that damn simian off once and for all.

So Ends the Summer...

Almost three months since my last post, and there's too much to tell what went on during them. Let's leave it at there being some major changes in my life and in the lives around me, but not to the point anyone died or got a criminal record.

Oh, and I bought a motorcycle. More on this later.

At any rate, life is settling back into something that resembles stability for me, and things are starting to get accomplish again. I have a clean desk, a distraction free-work area (sometimes the previous two are even the same thing at once) and as of yesterday, an expanded set of shelves for my books. I'm dangerously out of excuses why I never draw things.

Speaking of, while not an entirely dry period of arts, I have come to a bit of an epiphany about my skills as an artist - I have more to 'unlearn' than I suspected, to purge myself of all the damn shortcuts I've built up over the years. It's time to start taking this seriously, or stop trying at all.