Year 2: Quarter 2

Hi!  A number of things happened this past quarter.  New realizations have been made and small goals have been achieved.  Let us have a look!

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Goals of the Previous Quarter

[✓] Experiment … With black & white!

Success (mostly)! After pushing out a number of provocative works, I started feeling extremely limited. On a technical level, it would seem my ability with working with value and lighting has certainly improved, but that wasn’t the primary concern. This was also an experiment with different themes and ideas, as well as how I could portray them (with the aid of some amount of prose; this was also practice for that). I kept running into walls because I felt that color would further enhance the message, but I couldn’t use it! … Until I did. It was very therapeutic. 

I had also forgotten about Inktober and the timing couldn’t have been better. However, I realized last year that producing artwork that quickly is something I’m not comfortable with. I like spending time to reflect upon my work. I changed my approach slightly and decided to write up a small story based on the prompts that were provided on the Inktober website. I typed it up a couple of days before October started. It took about an hour or so and it was actually rather fun trying to draw connections between the words to weave a story out of them - a fun little challenge. You can read it here. Despite this, I couldn’t keep pace with the drawing. My mind was focused on other things a little bit more pressing, and to be frank, more interesting than some story I spent a minimal amount of time on.

With that said, I don’t think Inktober is for me. At least, not right now. I am kicking around the idea of expanding even further upon the story… perhaps even adding more once Inktober 2020 rolls around. Who says Inktober can be all about drawing? (Aside from the website’s rules explicitly stating ‘drawing.’)

[✓✓✓] Work on the Script of the Astral Triptych

Work on? Pfft. It’s done. Start to finish, the script is complete! Writing dialogue is damned tricky, especially when I’m trying to juggle both the varying speaking mannerisms of the astra, as well as keeping it coherent and easy to follow. So far, the reception has been good! The most notable comment was that it was, “interesting, but [forcefully] bizarre.” This is precisely what I’m going for. It is difficult to express how everything unfolds using just text, which is why they stated it seemed ‘forced.’ All of it is completely intentional, but they’re also not entirely wrong.

It’s a story of abstract, cosmic entities that are that fragments of human desire. Getting this story to hold together took quite a bit of work! Everything needed to be crafted in a very specific way in order for it to not only make sense narratively, but to also convey the messages and themes inherent to the story and the nature of the characters. Is it bizarre? Yes. It is forced? I would use the word ‘optimized,’ but probably, yes. Will it succeed? I truly believe it will, yes. And the visuals are certainly going to help. 

I am currently in the process of storyboarding the graphic novel. As of typing this, I am on page 40 and from my predictions, there will be likely a total of 300-400 pages. Getting through just this part is likely going to take several months, but we’re going to take it one step at a time. Afterwards, it’s setting the base colors, and finally, details and subsequent refinements. How long will this take? From my predictions, a little over a year, so long as I keep pace and remain focused.

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Realizations

I had this grand vision of where I want to be in less than ten years. I’m resolute in this decision and I will do everything in my power to bring it into reality, so long as I’m not forced to sacrifice my integrity in the process. My overarching goals for this project may change significantly because of this realization, but it will roughly remain the same in regards to the core message I’m trying to put out into the world.

Having been working an office job for 40 hours a week, every week, for the past few months it’s made me realize how little I actually want to do that for the rest of my life. Sure, I could leave this job and hop to the next, but the same thing is going to happen. It’s a cycle that I want nothing to do with. So! I’m going to be working harder to get out of it. I’ve recently got a lot more organized and I’m taking a more measured approach in how to achieve the things I want to achieve. 

So, what does all of this mean? Am I going to be starting a Patreon or some other means of crowd-funding to escape this office job? No. God, no. There are a number of things I simply don’t want to invest time and effort into and Patreon is one of them. That, along with Instagram. As ridiculous and counter-intuitive as it may be, I’ll only use them if there is no other choice and I’m confident I can find my way without them. For the sake of keeping this post at least moderately digestible, I’ll likely cover it in some other post in the future - right now, the reason why is mostly irrelevant.

What does matter is that I need to extend my reach a little bit further, so I’ve reopened a Twitter account (didn’t have a purpose for it the first time, so I closed it). There may be some amount of hypocrisy in using Twitter and forgoing the use of Instagram (and hell, even using DeviantArt), but… I don’t care. Unlike Instagram, there is one thing both platforms do properly - encourage concise and directed discussion. I’ll be posting artwork there, as well as idle thoughts and plans I come up with. Maybe even the odd joke here and there, with my nonexistent sense of humor. Other than that, there will be no vitriolic filth coming from my account. Not intentionally, anyway. Here’s the link! Follow it if you feel the need; I’ll be posting there, as well as here, regardless!

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All of that out of the way, let us define some goals for the new quarter!

Goals of the New Quarter!

• Experiment and create!

• The Astral Triptych: Desire - Work on Storyboard.

• Finalize plans for personal website.

A website?! Yes, indeed! I have most of what I want written down, it’s just a matter of getting all of it to work out. I would like to run a blog (hopefully a moderately interactive one), as well as a storefront to sell prints and other merchandise of upcoming works, because I’d like to imagine some people would like that sort of thing, especially if it’s well-designed. We’ll see how it all pans out.

Anyways, I think that covers everything!

(Oh and check out my Discord server - artists, writers and general fans of what I do are all welcome!)

Until the next one,

January 15th!