Now that we've established some ideas and guidelines to go by we should talk a little more about sticking with your schedule. Things happen in our lives that we must always put first but we still need to find a little time each day if even 30 minutes. Taking baby steps is better than taking no steps after all.
Finding ways to challenge yourself is a good idea to keep yourself motivated. Take for instance, indie comic book creator Kevin Cross. He has challenged himself to make his personal comics at least 30 minutes every day for a 100 days on his youtube channel. He uploads a new vlog each day telling his subscribers what he did that day on his personal comic and shows his progress.You can watch them all here... Kevin Cross. Not only has this forced him to work on his comics every day, it has helped to inspire many others to take the challenge and push themselves as an artist.
Watching the creation process has also helped myself and others to see how someone else creates their comics. This gives you options on ways to tackle your projects by watching other creators methods of creating. Some other great vlogs to watch is Peter Palmiotti's channel Peter Palmiotti. Peter is a well established inker but has branched out to take on all of the artistic chores of making his personal comic "Bright Eyes." He has also became a spokesperson for indie comics and has a podcast called Independent Road where he chats with different indie comic creators about comics, their creative process, and whatever else comes to mind. This is a great podcast to listen to and get some insight on other ways that creators tackle their creation process. Check it out here... Independent Road.
If you are more of a digital artist and use Photoshop or Manga Studio then you need to check out Jonathan Rector's youtube channel at... Jonathan Rector. He shows a lot of his creation process as you watch him draw. Jonathan also has some tutorials on Manga Studio 5 if you are needing some insight on getting more familiar with the software.
Some other ways to challenge yourself is to set a reasonable deadline for your lifestyle. A pro artist does this for a living and can pencil a 22 page comic in less than a month. If this is a personal comic for you, then you are probably taking on the writing, pencils, inks, letters, and editing. Being realistic with yourself will go a long ways here. You are working a full time job and have a family so you will need to be take these things into consideration. Give yourself plenty of time to do all of this but still push yourself to get done before your deadline. I would say 6 months to do everything from start to finish is a reasonable deadline but you may be able to do it quicker or you may need more time. If you take this deadline serious then you will get a lot of work done. You may not finish in time but that isn't the point. The important thing is you pushed yourself and made time for it even if you finished a month late.
Actor Will Smith said that his father made him and his brother rebuild a brick wall in front of his business when Will was 12 years old. It took them a year and a half, but they built that wall. How did they do it? Will said," You don't try to build a wall. You don't set out to build a wall. You don't say,"I'm going to build the biggest, baddest wall that's ever been built." You don't start there. You say: "I'm going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid." And you do that every single day, and soon you'll have a wall."
So, take this idea and use it to creating comics. Start by doing the best art you can on every comic book panel on a page. Do that 21 more times and you have a finished comic book issue. Apply this idea again with inks and lettering and it's essentially done other than some editing. The key point is to keep moving forward doing the best work that you can do.
That's it for now, I'll be back next week. See you then.
-Kenny
Monday, June 30, 2014
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Finding time for your art: Part 2
Okay, I rambled on a little bit last time about finding ways to make time for your art. I guess I should back up and say that before you tell others how important it is that you take time for your artwork, you first must tell yourself that.
Everything must start with you!
You have to want it bad enough to make the time!
You have to believe in yourself enough to actually make great art!
You have to stay motivated!
You have to make mistakes to actually learn from them!
You have to practice... A LOT!
All of this will take time away from your family and friends... you have to sacrafice some of that time and hopefully they will understand. I'm not saying that you should lock yourself in your drawing room and become completely unsociable. You have to always put family first, but you also need to find the right times to work on your art. Everyone has hobbies or T.V. shows they watch every week. Say you actually hate the show your girlfriend or wife watches religiously. Let's call it, "The Housewives of Idontgiveafuck" shall we.Well, this is a great time to go draw some amazing art! Ladies, I haven't forgotten about you. Say your man wants to watch the game or that "Ancient Bigfoot Pimps his Ride" show. Well, this is your chance to go do more important things like work on artwork!
Yes, most of us have children and have to be responsible adults. Take turns with your better half and watch the kids for them to do stuff and when they are done then get them to watch the kids while you work on your art. If the noise of kids playing or babies crying distracts you then invest in some headphones and listen to something that will help you get in to the zone. Start with your kids early and let them know in a nice way that Daddy or Mommy is working and teach them the importance of what you are doing and it will be much easier to find time as they get older. Also, let them get involved, give them a coloring book and some crayons and tell them that they can make some artwork too. Most children want to be like their parents and would love to draw their mom or dad a pretty picture. If you have teenagers then they probably would rather be playing the X-box or PS4 than hovering over you at the art table anyway.
Now that you have that under control, you have to stay motivated. Nothing sucks more than finally getting time to draw and not having any motivation. What has been helping me is to read motivational quotes or look at other great works of art (Comic book art is great art to me.) These things tend to help me stay motivated, so I made a motivational sheet and hung it above my drawing desk along with other posters from artists that inspire me. The motivational sheet has some inspiring quotes along with a Plan Of Action for following my dreams. Below is a low res file of what I made and put on my wall. Feel free to use it if you want and if you need a high res file just email me at midnighthorizon@hotmail.com and I'll send it to you. Maybe you have things that you want to put on your motivational sheet instead. It's easy to make using photoshop or illustrator. Tweak the idea and make it work for you. It's a great way to help you keep focused on your goals and dreams.
Yesterday was my birthday and I had a lot going on but I'll be working hard at updating this blog every Monday from here on out. Talk to you later.
-Kenny
Everything must start with you!
You have to want it bad enough to make the time!
You have to believe in yourself enough to actually make great art!
You have to stay motivated!
You have to make mistakes to actually learn from them!
You have to practice... A LOT!
All of this will take time away from your family and friends... you have to sacrafice some of that time and hopefully they will understand. I'm not saying that you should lock yourself in your drawing room and become completely unsociable. You have to always put family first, but you also need to find the right times to work on your art. Everyone has hobbies or T.V. shows they watch every week. Say you actually hate the show your girlfriend or wife watches religiously. Let's call it, "The Housewives of Idontgiveafuck" shall we.Well, this is a great time to go draw some amazing art! Ladies, I haven't forgotten about you. Say your man wants to watch the game or that "Ancient Bigfoot Pimps his Ride" show. Well, this is your chance to go do more important things like work on artwork!
Yes, most of us have children and have to be responsible adults. Take turns with your better half and watch the kids for them to do stuff and when they are done then get them to watch the kids while you work on your art. If the noise of kids playing or babies crying distracts you then invest in some headphones and listen to something that will help you get in to the zone. Start with your kids early and let them know in a nice way that Daddy or Mommy is working and teach them the importance of what you are doing and it will be much easier to find time as they get older. Also, let them get involved, give them a coloring book and some crayons and tell them that they can make some artwork too. Most children want to be like their parents and would love to draw their mom or dad a pretty picture. If you have teenagers then they probably would rather be playing the X-box or PS4 than hovering over you at the art table anyway.
Now that you have that under control, you have to stay motivated. Nothing sucks more than finally getting time to draw and not having any motivation. What has been helping me is to read motivational quotes or look at other great works of art (Comic book art is great art to me.) These things tend to help me stay motivated, so I made a motivational sheet and hung it above my drawing desk along with other posters from artists that inspire me. The motivational sheet has some inspiring quotes along with a Plan Of Action for following my dreams. Below is a low res file of what I made and put on my wall. Feel free to use it if you want and if you need a high res file just email me at midnighthorizon@hotmail.com and I'll send it to you. Maybe you have things that you want to put on your motivational sheet instead. It's easy to make using photoshop or illustrator. Tweak the idea and make it work for you. It's a great way to help you keep focused on your goals and dreams.
Yesterday was my birthday and I had a lot going on but I'll be working hard at updating this blog every Monday from here on out. Talk to you later.
-Kenny
Monday, June 16, 2014
Finding time for your art
As many of you artists know. It sucks balls to work a full time job while trying to write or draw comics in your spare time. It's damn near impossible at times when you add in a family life. Yes, it's an everyday struggle but for those who keep on chipping away at their art, it's well worth it. I'm one of those guys. I might go nearly a week and bairly get to pick up a pencil but when i do get time, I pour everything I have into it.
There has to be a better way though, right. A lot of people tend to stick to somekind of schedule or allow an hour some time after work to draw. Sometimes this works for me but it's not easy when you have to juggle so much at once. The grass needs to be mowed, the car needs an oil change, gotta run get a whatcha-ma-do- thingy for my son's school project. Ooops, I fogot that we are having a family cook out at uncle Billy Bob's place today. Hey, we just stopped by to visit, didn't figure you were doing anything important.
There are tons of distractions when you are at home or off work that you have to get a grasp on. The only way to get the time you need is to set rules or to let people know that today I'll be drawing so do not disturb. It's not easy but if you keep putting your foot down then you will eventually get your point across.
Make some agreements with family members. Say, Look, If you give me some time to work on my art then I'll devote my next day off to doing what you wanna do. They call it compromise for a reason, it's time to start doing just that. People need to know how important your art and your drawing time is to you and only then will they understand and give you the respect you need and deserve.
It's not being selfish by any means. Every single person on Earth has something they enjoy or has a passion or dream they want to achieve. We all deserve a chance at making it a reality. We just need to compromise with others in our lives and give one another time to focus on these dreams.
Well, that's my two cents about that. I'll be trying to enforce these guidelines into my everyday life and hopefully it will work. We shall see. Talk to you later.
-Kenny
There has to be a better way though, right. A lot of people tend to stick to somekind of schedule or allow an hour some time after work to draw. Sometimes this works for me but it's not easy when you have to juggle so much at once. The grass needs to be mowed, the car needs an oil change, gotta run get a whatcha-ma-do- thingy for my son's school project. Ooops, I fogot that we are having a family cook out at uncle Billy Bob's place today. Hey, we just stopped by to visit, didn't figure you were doing anything important.
There are tons of distractions when you are at home or off work that you have to get a grasp on. The only way to get the time you need is to set rules or to let people know that today I'll be drawing so do not disturb. It's not easy but if you keep putting your foot down then you will eventually get your point across.
Make some agreements with family members. Say, Look, If you give me some time to work on my art then I'll devote my next day off to doing what you wanna do. They call it compromise for a reason, it's time to start doing just that. People need to know how important your art and your drawing time is to you and only then will they understand and give you the respect you need and deserve.
It's not being selfish by any means. Every single person on Earth has something they enjoy or has a passion or dream they want to achieve. We all deserve a chance at making it a reality. We just need to compromise with others in our lives and give one another time to focus on these dreams.
Well, that's my two cents about that. I'll be trying to enforce these guidelines into my everyday life and hopefully it will work. We shall see. Talk to you later.
-Kenny
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