Grateful Furlough Friday—Obliques Anatomical Studies

Due to the pandemic, this was my first week furloughed from my job of 16 years.

I didn't panic. I didn't worry. I have leave time, some savings, a home, food and most importantly, my health.

So I made a conscious decision to make the most of this time.

I'm doubling down on my anatomy instruction! 

I talked before about how I've been trying to learn artistic anatomy for…oh…TWENTY-SIX YEARS!

ARGH!!!!

Over the last 10-15 years, I've accumulated lots of anatomy instruction with the most comprehensive being Stan Prokopenko's course. If you want to learn artistic anatomy, Proko's course might be your best choice (and he's extended his trial period for his courses.)

But what I've always lacked was the time to dedicate to the course. For me it required extended periods to focus on the doing the lessons and those periods never seemed to materialize. As a result, I've rushed through some of the course and didn't see results.

That changed this week when I found myself with LOTS of time. I'm dedicating the time that I've always wanted to dedicate to drawing and seeing great results! Now, when I say great results, I mean me drawing better than I have in the past. I don't mean I draw great. I still have a lot of mistakes and a lot to learn. But these drawings show the difference between now and 2 years ago:

These drawings are of the same pose and were done almost exactly 2 years to the day apart. On the left I was guessing where bones and muscles are placed and on the right I have a better idea of where things go.

It's amazing what you can accomplish with some focus!

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Austin Kleon's "Keep Going"

I can't BELIEVE I just now learned of this book!

And discovering it at this time, while the world is overwhelmed with battling COVID-19, is truly a gift.

Kleon's book was published in 2019. As he says at his website: "The world is crazy. Creative work is hard. How do you keep going?"

I've never before needed to hear these words as much as I do now. After just 4 days of working from home due to the virus, I got a call from my employer's HR guy on Saturday telling me that the company was putting me on furlough. The news was initially surprising…then it wasn't. My work is half marketing and half design and there was little need for either of these at this time despite my supervisor saying otherwise.

Suddenly, I saw an opportunity. I could finally do what I've been dreaming of doing for the last 10 years: focus ALL of my time on creating art!

Admittedly, I'm in a non-scary financial situation, at least for a few months, so I don't have to worry about rent and food. That frees up ALL of my psychic energy on creating.

But it's still a struggle to stay focused in these crazy times that just got crazier. And Kleon's book does an amazing job of helping to reset your brain and get you focused on creating.

I consider the discovery of this book now, at this particular time in history and in my life, as a HUGE example of synchronicity. The Universe wanted me to read this book now. I listened to what The Universe said and read, annotated and took notes from the book in one multi-hour reading. Going forward this book will be the last thing I read before going to bed and the first thing I read in the morning.

Yes, it's that important.

If you're a creative person and you're struggling to stay focused or are questioning your creative choices, this book is a must-read.

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Designing a Logo–Step 10: Choosing Colors

The first step of designing a logo was research.

The second step was word associations to brainstorm ideas.

The third step was thumbnail sketches.

The fourth step was designs in black and white.

The fifth step was designs in black and white feedback and revisions.

The sixth step was designs in black and white feedback and revisions part 2.

The seventh step was a disagreement in direction.

The eighth step was a breakthrough.

The ninth step was getting back on track.

Now it's time for color!

The client and I agreed that earth tones would be best. To avoid wasting time, I sent swatch ideas and requested feedback of their opinions of these colors:

They got back to me with their preferences and I applied theirs and mine to the next proof:

In the next installment, we'll see how the client responded to these first color choices.

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Ann Nocenti–Her Work in Comics

In November, 2019, I attended a Comic Artist Workshop meetup featuring Ann Nocenti.

Her bio per Comicvine: Ann Nocenti is a comic book writer who was nominated for the Will Eisner Award of "Best Writer" in 1989 thanks to her work on Daredevil. Also known as an editor for Marvel comics on the Uncanny X-Men and New Mutants. Nocenti helped to create characters with artists (John Romita Jr. or Art Adams respectfully) help, like: Blackheart, Longshot, Mojo, Typhoid Mary and Spiral.

Here a few takeaways from her talk:

• Have people read your comics dialogue out loud
• Every panel should be interesting individually; they should stand alone
• If collaborating, best to do it in-person
• Less is more. Don't overwhelm with content.
• If can't fit the text and art elegantly into a panel, need to cut
• Since speaking in pictures, she sends lots of reference to the artist
• All artistic choices need to have a purpose and make sense

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Moebius's "Arzach" Animated—Page 2, Panel 4

Original panel four, page two of "Arzach."

I started this project by animating the Arzach splash page.

Then I animated the first panel on the second page.

Then the second panel on the second page.

Then the third panel on the second page.

Here's the fourth panel. I liked the idea of Arzach flying into frame and hovering as the woman maneuvered her clothing:

Next, the fifth and final panel for this page.

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Don't Break the (Creative) Chain–February 2020

Consistency was 100% but…I still have to work on quality of creative time. That's the goal for March, 2020.