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Jan 2020

Copic maker....I sold off my collection last summer since I wasn’t using them for a while. It kinda felt like letting go of an old friend since I started using copics since the early 2000’s. But, yeah, I’m not using them anymore. Too much time doing illustration and too much wasted space...

Well I gradually getting rid of my 3 sketch process when drawing. I'm mostly now just drawing 2 sketches and then inking and who knows it might one day come down to one.

Im also giving up any resolve on focusing one project. I have been trying that all it does is hurt me, I can't do. So I have a web comic being drawn, a second comic being scripted and having concept art drawn and a third project which would eventually be a comic but its just me world building a entire fantasy universe in google docs at the moment. So when I get bored I will just switch to working on something else and thus the my creative process is on constant rotation.

I've stopped playing all games pretty much, but I haven't stopped going to steam or gog and buying them, even if I know I'm not going to play them. haha.

I've given up on putting effort in the backgrounds for my comic x) People tend to skim over the panels as they read, so really just a few suggestive lines (doesn't have to be clean) will be enough detail for the reader to make out what is behind the character. At least, I think it beats not having a background at all.

Of course, I'll put the appropriate amount of effort into a panel where the background is the main subject x) but generally, starting this year I'd been putting about half the effort into a bg compared to my characters :smile:

It's awesome to hear. Developing a healthy "normal" lifestyle is one of the best and underrated ways of developing a creative framework.

I gave up my art itself actually. Sounds very weird but totally freeing. I don't care at all anymore how much or what kind of attention something I make gets, so I have zero reason to stress about making something unless I genuinely just want to make it for the hell of it. As a result I don't care about tracking numbers on social media or my pages either. \ o /

Doesn't sound weird to me. I've taken a similar approach to my art. Although I'm a perfectionist, I'm only focusing on the things I feel matter to the art.

Yeah but when you're hitting 340,000 words and all of google says roughly "books shouldn't be longer than 120,000 words" you get a little discouraged.... Thus the murdering of googling up stats like that and comparing them to my own. It's a hard change since I like being informed with how I'm progressing... tableflips

that's a book for print though, where books have to fit on the shelf a certain way, and the price of paper and way they're bound constrain how long a book tends to be...but on the internet...there's no page count. Just your own will to read words.

FireAlpaca. I used to run it to draw my lines in and doodle in, but Clip Studio Paint is just superior in every way to it. Coloring and especially borders and such for comics just make it too practical! FA was free and perfectly fine when I was just starting out, but now, I like CSP better.
This really isn't a negative change, but it's still a major change for my comic-making process.

12 days later

I mostly started this already, but I'm gonna take breaks more often. I thought taking less breaks would get me further, while it did for a bit, all it ended up doing was burning me out. So here's to taking more breaks!

I'm dropping my high expectations and how I'm always reaching for perfection. Perfect isn't real, but improvement is. Also, my traditional mindset of "work as hard as you can = instant success". Work smart, not hard. After all, why take the long way when there's a shortcut? :grin:


Let's work smart, peeps!

I am half-tempted to give up on making insert art per chapter...BUT I DON'T WANNA!!!

imma ditto on the breaks as well, i've been so afraid i would die before i finish my comic so i was working nonestop, now i'm just going with the flow, doing fun comics when i need a break from my main one. doing art experiments, trying new things, cause i wont improve otherwise

It's hard cause I wanna up my commission game a bit but I have a full time job code monkeying + dogs + baby. Not only that but I also have a backlog of chapters already written and ready for posting...that just need insert art.

STUPID TWO-HANDED BODY WITH NO TIME PAUSING ABILITY!

NEVER believed in this. I've always been the "efficiency" worker; if there's a way to make it easier and take less time- but get the same result, I'm gonna figure it out...

This is where I'm at now- between trying to heal my arms and somewhat burned out. I say somewhat, because I want to continue, but I think my process and surroundings right now are monotonous af and I feel like I'm sinking into a hole that I'm trying to dig out of. I really feel like I need a change of scenery from where I am...