I think everyone has wanted to be a pirate at one point in their life. Especially when you’re a child. Thrills, excitement, danger, sword fights, and all of the swashbuckling fun that goes with being a scallywag. There are very few adventures you can undertake as an adult that hold that kind of wide-eyed wonderment, and even fewer jobs you can wind up having that fill you with that enthralling sense of fascination.
I’ve been very, VERY lucky the last 3 years of my adult life to have such a job. But I’m not sailing the high seas, raising a flag with a jolly roger on it up the mast, drinking obscene amounts of rum or pretending like I know how to handle a sword (well...that’s not entirely true, I do enjoy drinking obscene amounts of rum now and again) No, I’ve been coloring comic books and doing illustration and digital painting commission work, but mostly coloring comics.
So while that can be a pretty exciting job, that allows you a lot more freedom and the occasional moment of wide-eyed wonderment, it can also at times be the thing that causes the kind of stress which drives you to want to drink obscene amounts of rum for one reason or another. Trust me on this.
Taking into account all of the positive and negative aspects that come along with being a freelance artist, it is still almost like stumbling upon buried treasure when you come across a project that gives you freedom, enjoyment and offers you the opportunity to grow as an artist. So I was more than a little wide-eyed with wonder when I was given the opportunity to work on my next comic coloring project......
Neverland.
THE Neverland, of Peter Pan fame. My absolute favorite story of all time. Everything that you ever dreamed of doing when you were a child, meeting Indians, giant pirate ships, rescuing maidens in distress, fighting pirates and fighting WITH pirates, living in a treehouse, mermaids, fairies, sword fights, danger, excitement, and lots and lots of FUN. Especially when you take into account the fact that THIS version of Neverland is going to be a darker, more twisted version of the classic tale, complete with all sorts of new interpretations on the characters we all know, and introducing some new ones as well. All of the things I love, and an opportunity to really showcase all of the strongest elements in my work.
You can read more about the series here,
It seems whenever you come to a point in
life where you have to make decisions, whether they’re BIG decisions or
little ones, you inevitably find yourself drawing some sort of lines.
These aren’t lines on paper, but rather metaphorical lines that you’re
drawing into those spaces in your life between the old and the new, or
the stressful and relaxing. My own lines have been sort of zig zagging
every which way for a few months now, in ways that required me to
really focus and find a way to draw straight lines, but I think after a
lot of struggling, I finally found a good ruler to use in the short
term, and hopefully after a short period of time I’ll be able to set it
down again and get back to some freehand drawing
The transition back into the working world is going moderately well
so far. It’s a job that I know I can do, and I’m not running into
anything that is really mind bending and causing me problems yet, so
that’s a huge plus. It’s also nice to be able to put in my hours, and
LEAVE when it’s done. Hoping I can get all the hours I want when
football season rolls around soon, but that’s still kind of up in the
air right now. I know I’ll be able to get game days and at least one
practice day off, but hopefully I can get things worked around the
other practice and stuff. we’ll see. It’s going good as I said, and
it’s going to be nice to have steady money coming in again for a change.
I wanted to wait until after the weekend of the 4th to really get
moving on stuff again, but I may have to man up and just start DOING
things again before then. So much to get started on here. I’m going to
really start moving on my creator owned project here, as well as some
other things with DJ Coffman.
Working on a cool pitch now with writer/creator Eric Hobbs. It’s a
great little story, weaving elements from various sources like
Neverland, Oz and others into a gigantic, all ages, adventure that
looks to be something very special. Artist Derrick Fish is doing some
absolutely amazing work on this so far. Some of you might know Derrick
from his webcomic work on Dandy and Company. I’ve been reading that
forever, and was excited to see his name and his work on this project
and get a chance to work with him. We’re doing some really great work
together, can’t wait to show some of it later.
As for my own project, I’m going to share some new stuff soon from
that. However I’m NOT going to be sharing the name again any time soon.
Needless to say, in the last week, I went to see if the domain name I
wanted was available for it, and it was. This morning, it’s been
registered and has some template thing installed on it and mysteriously
has no contact information, no links, no content, but a header and a
flaky looking “this belongs to me” tagline. Probably a coincidence, but
in a day and age where people just scoop up domains for things left and
right in hopes of selling them off, it just as well could be someone
hoping that I’ll shell out money for a name I was going to build an IP
around.
On the homefront, things are great. We’re getting a lot of little
things around the house and yard done that we’ve been meaning to, and
enjoying spending time just hanging out this summer so far. Not going
to baseball/softball 5 nights a week and weekends is a HUGE bonus as
well. Leaves you with a lot of free time in the evenings that’s for
sure. Just in the last 3 days, I’ve put in a screen door in the garage
that my wife has wanted for 3 years (evidently so I can now hear the
speakers from the garage stereo better, which I guess is partly true)
put landscape lighting around the water garden/pond by the patio with
the wife, finished laying a natural stone wall on the backside of the
burm by the pond, and trimmed all the grass in the front yard. that
doesn’t even take into account the consumption of extra greasy and
crispy onion rings, the graduation party with a live band, playing Lego
Batman on the pS3 with my son, sleeping in late on Sunday, having
friends over for a 4th of July PRE party, party on Saturday night
etc….. so life is definitely good. The only thing I could complain
about is that I’m still owed a lot of money from one comic publisher,
but really…if that’s the worst thing going on in my life, I’m lucky.
I’m sure that situation will be resolved one way or another, hopefully
in the next several weeks or in the next month. It needs to be resolved
so I can get on with my life. Something I’m making an effort at doing.
And while things are hectic, it’s a good hectic now, and I’m enjoying
it.
So I’m going to get working on some things that I feel good about
now, and hopefully….set that ruler aside and find time to start drawing
some of my own lines.
Tony Washington has been a
digital artist in comics, film and animation for over 12 years now.
This is his 2nd CD release. If you're into techno, down tempo,
electronic music at all, this is a must listen. Not only is the dude a
SUPREMELY talented, all around artist, he's recorded and produced one
hell of a fine CD here. Seriously great sounding stuff. The Road Ahead
is definitely a stand out track on this CD, a lot of Thievery
Corporation undertones in it. Give it a listen and go support his new
effort if you like what you hear!
not much time for that much rambling right now. Working on Take a
Chance #5 right now, as well as starting colors for 1001 Arabian
Nights: Adventures of Sinbad #9, cooking dinner and taking care of a
sick wife, running kids to basketball games and practices, and trying
to find time to get some gaming in still. Not to mention planning out
the rest of my year so I can get some personal projects completed too.
and boy is that Prince of Persia for PS3 is addicting for some reason
(i’ve got to get back to it some time soon here), and I’ve found myself
playing some OLD SCHOOL Castlevania lately on the Wii. Who needs sleep
right?
Not sure if I can split my post on here, but this is a LONG one! :D
Life becomes infinitely MORE hectic once
you have kids, I’m convinced. However having YOUNGER kids is nowhere
near as crazy as it is when your kids get to be of an age where they’re
gone at sporting events every night of the week. I’m not the type of
dad who is going to miss TOO many games that my kids play in, I rarely
have an excuse to not make a game since I work from home. The wife and
I have decided to trade off going to the away games this year for my
daughters bball team, simply because I don’t feel like shelling out $10
at away games and subjugating my son to have to travel and sit through
the away games as well. The season is roughly half over, but….on the
horizon is track season (and having run track and been pretty
successful at it, I think I’m going to have to venture out to see how
those meets go too) as well as “conditioning” and “training” that my
son wants to start for football this coming fall. In addition to the
time that the kids want to spend on basketball. I won’t complain, at
least not right now when I don’t have any deadlines creeping up on me.
My kids are healthy enough and have the DESIRE to go out and play
sports, and really, that’s what is the most important I guess.
Been a LONG week in the studio. Wrapping it up by saving out high
rez files and getting those uploaded today, and enjoying a semi-day off
here. If I can manage it. Going well so far though. One the agenda for
the weekend are 2 pages that I have to get colored by Monday, need to
help with taxes (which hopefully haven’t become too complicated being
self-employed), and I’d like to do some other things over the weekend
as well. Need new biz cards designed and printed, need to update my
portfolio with new work since it hasn’t been done in MONTHS now.
Saturday is going to be an all day bball tournament for my son, so I’m
planning on that entire day off as well. more after the cut….
Need to get a few more things done yet before I sit down and get
pages uploaded to the server for Take a Chance 4 though. This book has
been like a breath of fresh air for me to work on really, because the
artwork that Ardian Syaf is going is so stunning. He’s going to go
places in the comic industry, I guarantee it. Also, it’s great to
actually read the script, it’s a really GOOD story (I’m sure Catie
would agree with that assessment) I usually read scripts enough to get
what I need from them to do my job, color keys if there are any for
characters, time of day settings, things like that. However I’ve been
lucky enough the last few months to read some really GOOD stories, by
not only Catie, but Dan Wickline, Raven Gregory and Joe Brusha…makes a
difference to ME at least, when I get a book in my hands and I actually
LIKE the story and not just the artwork.
Landscape studies. What started as a goal to do one landscape study
digital painting a day, has obviously fallen off track already. With
the way my deadlines creep up on me and with being a family man as
well, there are days that I just don’t HAVE an hour to spare.
However….I’ve adjusted this goal to now reflect something more
attainable. I’d like to complete 200 landscape studies this year by the
end of the year. I have roughly 196 to go yet by my count. Wish me
luck.
Comics. Been writing and developing some of my own ideas so far this
year as well. Not sure where they’ll go, or if I’ll have time to get
anything more than just a framework setup for stories that I can come
back to a few years down the road and dust them off to get moving on
them, but it’s more than I’ve done in the last 5 years so that’s
something at least. I’ve been debating the merits of changing the way I
approach projects as well, moving towards an online distribution and
creation aspect much more, and possibly bringing in a partner to help
get some things moving forward. I’ll have to keep you updated on that
though, it’s much like being a freelancer in a lot of ways, it’s an
always evolving-very fluid process.
Direction. I’m struggling to find direction in my work right now.
There are different paths that I think are in front of me still, and
I’m still sort of standing around waiting for the wind to blow one way
or another and move the crickety little arrow signs in the direction
I’m supposed to take. I already KNOW that I won’t be doing what I’m
doing right now, just coloring comics, 3 years from now, because I
don’t think comics will be around in the capacity they are now in that
time. Knowing that is the case I’m trying to figure out what to focus
on. Every path you take on the road to being an artist is different,
and unfortunately, each one requires a SPECIFIC portfolio of work. I
need to be versatile and able to do a bunch of different things, but at
the same time, SPECIALIZING is really the best way to get noticed in
any one thing. That being the case, it’s almost like you need to have a
portfolio for EVERY possible thing that you can do. Which of course,
requires a SHITLOAD of work to put together. Nobody is paying you for
portfolio pieces, nobody PAYS you to take time off work to get better
at anything as a freelancer. You have to work usually twice as hard
most times if you want to add a skillset to your artistic arsenal
because you can’t justify taking time away from paying work and
deadlines.
So on top of all these decision, I’m also factoring into the
equation…that my daughter is going to be graduating high school 5 years
from now. There are things that I don’t want to miss out on, and things
we want to do as a family, before that happens. We don’t get this time
in our lives back. There are things that I can do now for my kids, that
they will likely remember the rest of their lives as we get older. I
don’t want to make sacrifices on their behalf, or my wife’s, just to
make money or make myself a better artist. That opportunity will be
there forever once the kids have grown up. So…likely I’m talking myself
into many more sleepless or nearly sleepless nights here. Because
yeah….in 5 years we’ve got a kid likely going to college (and like
everyone else in America, we’re basically starting over with retirement
and college savings now)
So if you know me, if we talk, email or whatever…and I seem cranky
sometimes, it’s not you, it’s not really the way I am, it’s lack of
sleep and stressing over things like that which are on my mind. I still
like you (unless you’re one of the 3 or 4 people I think is a total
ass, in which case you probably aren’t reading my blog anyways) honest.
so with deadlines out of the way on Monday, I took all of Tuesday off for the most part aside from a logo design I had to get done. I took a good portion of yesterday off, started colors on a pinup commission of Jean Grey/Phoenix, watched a bit of a Dylan Cole Gnomon DVD, and tried to get my body back to feeling somewhat normal. Still have a shoulder that is now only KIND OF sore, but I also have a kind of sore neck now, and I pulled something in my ribs of all places, while turning over in bed the other night. Talk about lame. However the upside...there is one I promise, is that I feel almost completely recharged mentally.
On the agenda today, more digital inks on Take a Chance #4, finish up the commission pinup, and get some of the flats for TAC4 pages I have back already dropped into my files for color scheming. I'm still in really good shape here for a somewhat EASY 2 page a day schedule on that book as I've set aside time to do NO other comic work for the next 2 weeks really BUT that book. I deserve a small break in my coloring schedule after 2 completely busy and insane months of cranking out pages.
My daughter lost her first bball game yesterday by a large margin, but she was one of the 3 girls who actually scored any points (the team only had 5) and I think...I'm going to leave it at that. It will be a long year for her, there will be a lot of unrest and turmoil within that team, and it won't change until they all get on the same page and really start to care about the game. *edit* I just typed a bunch of crap about parenting, pride, and respect that I'm going to delete as it contradicted me not leaving it at that.
On to art related stuff now. Somewhere in the last 2 months, I think it was after I passed 70 pages worth of work just after the New Year, I came to realization. I like to paint more than I like to color. I've been trying to paint as much as the comic page will allow, but sometimes pages just don't make sense for that type of thing. I really got to do a lot of it with the giant sized Grimm Fairy Tales issue in Decemeber, I've been getting away with it on some pages for the Take a Chance book, a couple of pages in Herbert West 3, but not many really in Grimm Fairy Tales 35 which is what I wrapped up on Monday here. So as I sat there yesterday, after realizing that I had done almost 120 pages in about 6 weeks (which included some commissions) but basically almost 6 books worth of work, I was feeling an odd mixture of pride and disappointment. Sure that's a LOT of work. MOST of which I'm proud of. But honestly, I felt more like a machine set to automatic at times than I did any kind of artist. So I started thinking hard about what it is that I enjoy the most in my work, and it's really the painted elements. When they're present that is.
So I'm contemplating things here now. Do I see myself as a top tier colorist at Marvel or DC some day? Because really that is probably the only way I can continue this as a career in the future. With the comic industry shrinking, and it was already small, I can't answer that question really. There are some amazing artists working there already as colorists, and on a GOOD day of mine, I can come close to them. On a consistent, page by page basis though, I fall short. So I wonder if that is a circumstance of my own creation sometimes. Would I be able to aspire to BETTER work if I only did about 44 pages a month? I damn well could come a LOT closer than when I'm doing 90 pages a month, that's just the truth of the matter. I know I have the drive, and when it comes down to it, the confidence in myself and my abilities to get to that place, but it comes back to the question, is that what I REALLY want? I don't know many people coloring comics that make a living doing it WITHOUT working for DC or Marvel. The fact that I've been able to get by for going on 3 years here doing just that, is still kind of hard to figure out. With the changes to the market that have taken place over the last 3 years, and the changes that are occurring now, it makes me wonder how feasible it's going to be for me to keep making the kind of money I'm making now WITHOUT moving on in my career.
Without rambling too much more this morning, because I have some things to do today, here's where I'm at. I'm thinking of really making a push towards matte painting and concept art here. I really think that it's something I can excel at. Looking at what I've done in the last 6 months, I think that I have a much higher upside if I were to focus more of my energy into that, than if I was to continue to sit here and crank out 80-90 pages worth of comic work a month. I'm seriously considering enrolling in some of the Gnomon online workshops that they offer for things like that.
HOWEVER, with the way the economy is right now, the fact that my wife's job is tied directly to the automotive industry as a 2nd tier supplier, and with so much uncertainty in THAT, I'm not sure that I can justify turning DOWN any work that comes my way. Especially when I can GET that much work, and have smaller publishers willing to pay my page rate, outside of the Big 2 in the comics industry. I offer something that evidently JUSTIFIES my page rate or I wouldn't keep getting work.
It's a tough position. It's hard to find people to talk to really in either industry, that I can relate to. My situation is really, honestly, pretty unique. I've talked with a lot of colorists, comic artists, concept artists and designers, and really....just looking around, I sit at home scribbling all day and make money without really working for any BIG name companies. Things just end up working out somehow in the end every time for me. We all take different paths in life. I guess it comes down to which fork you end up taking in the road sometimes. My problem I think is that I'm at a crossroads here now and it feels like there are about 10 different forks in that road of life. Which one do I take?
I think I need more coffee this morning. That's about the only thing I'm sure of today. :D
I'm not going to blabber on and on today. I'll keep it short and simple. I'm taking almost the entire day off here. I've earned it. I've worked extremely hard since the beginning of December here. I've worked myself to the point of pain and exhaustion. However I'm beyond thankful that I've been able to do that. With the way the job market and economy is right now, I've been truly lucky and blessed to have work to DO.
So today, I will wrap up invoicing, and a logo design and then enjoy a day of change. I'm going to watch the Inauguration. I'm going to pick my kids up from school. I'm going to enjoy dinner with my family and spend time with them tonight. I'm going to draw in my sketchbook. And above all, I'm going to enjoy what it is to be an American today. I'm going to enjoy what it is to be able to LIVE the dream that is the American dream. And above all, I'm going to enjoy a refreshing change of pace in my schedule- a day off! I hope you are lucky enough to do the same.
I know, I know, it’s almost a week late. I’ve been extremely busy, which is of course a good thing in these troubled times. I had to go back and actually check the blog from last year here to revisit my goals I had set for 2008, and to recap them a little bit. Funnily enough, I sort of KNEW from the start that they would be hard to accomplish because life is in flux so much of the time, however I think I came away from the year having done just that. I’m going to just update my last year goals first here.
2008 goals revisited.
1- Find more time to create art for just me. CHECK.
2- Finish losing the weight I wanted to lose last year. I lost 15 lbs in 2007, I have about 10 more lbs to lose to get to where I wanted to be in 2008. CHECK. (although I seemed to gain quite a bit back between Thanksgiving and New Years :D )
3- Become a better digital painter. CHECK!
4- Learn a new software program. HALF-CHECK. picking up on Vue 6 somewhwat.
5- Paint the elvish script around the decorative ceiling shelf in our living room for my wife, and include a large celtic/elvish design motif painted on the ceiling for her. FAIL. we put off painting the living room until this year. so it’s not exactly a fail I guess.
6- I have a comic coloring related goal I don’t want to mention really. CHECK.
7- Make more connections. CHECK.
8- I want to start to step back a bit and give my kids more freedom. CHECK.
9- Relax more. HALF CHECK.
10- Become a better person. Don’t get me wrong, regardless of the few people out there that may think I’m a jerk, I’m really a good person. There are certain things I want to work on though for sure. I think we probably ALL have this goal somewhere deep down, for some it might be buried in their sub-conscious, but the bottomline is just being the best person you can be. A better dad, a better husband, a better friend, a better brother, a better son, a better artist, a better citizen….that’s a lot of hats for any of us to where, and yet finding the BALANCE is the key. CHECK.
2008 in review.
Now on to the recap. Talk about a crazy year. Work was erratic, which was complicated by an erratic financial situation as well. Through it all though, I accomplished more work wise, and had my best year financially as a freelancer. SOMEHOW. So in retrospect, I’m not going to complain about any of the problems that arose, as they were overcome through good fortune, grace, and perseverance.
This was the LAST year that I coach for 6-7 months out of the year though. I think I’ve decided that I’m scaling back the coaching to JUST my sons football team for the next 2 years, and then I’ll be done likely as not. That proved to be quite an added amount of stress trying to juggle all of that responsibility on top of the hectic and sometimes crazy deadlines of a freelance career. There were times that I was completely worn out looking back. Thankfully enough football coaching came last and was high energy enough to keep me going until the end.
The kids have taken huge strides this year in finding their own independence and discovering what they’re made of. My daughter is going through a lot of adversities and what not as she navigates the waters of middle school but is managing fairly well thus far. She really enjoyed playing on the MS volleyball team and the competition, and the team had a great year. She’s just now starting basketball and is loving it, I think :D
My son had a really good year of baseball and the team did really well. This was also the first year that we decided to get him into football. He’s been bugging for a couple years now and the timing seemed to be right, in addition to the fact that I was asked to help coach his team. I think there was an adjustment period at first, but it was definitely something he enjoyed. He learned a LOT about himself, and I learned quite a bit about him as well from the entire experience. He seems to welcome the challenges and responsibilities that come with playing quarterback, and he’s determined to make himself the absolute best player that he can. He’s already started his off season conditioning for NEXT year, and if the kid wants to go outside and throw a ball at targets when it’s 5 degrees outside, I can respect the heck out of that sort of commitment and determination. It will lead you down all the right sorts of roads in life.
My wife and I enjoyed our FIRST anniversary away all by ourselves in 12 years this year as well. Needless to say, we don’t get enough time with just the two of us when we’re running around everywhere, but it was nice to spend time together for a change without having to be anywhere at a certain time, or do anything in particular for a while. It’s amazing still, that we can both work from home and not end up at each others throats all the time :D Honestly though, we are both extremely fortunate in today’s job market to be able to have that kind of luxury. It’s one of the incentives for working hard all the time I think in some ways. I would go get a real job in the outside world again if I really had to, and I’ve been pretty damn close to having to over the years, but it’s hard to imagine having a better job than I do right now.
In general, we just really kept ourselves busy, tried to handle all the obstacles that came our way, and enjoyed our time together with family and friends. So a big shout out to all of those friends and family that we enjoyed spending time with this year. You helped us get through a topsy-turvy year whether you realized it at the time or not. We don’t have anything to REALLY worry about, and our lives continue to be filled with nothing but AWESOME for the most part.
On to 2009…
So as the New Year gets underway, I have some of the same goals I had as last year. I’d like to lose another 10 lbs, 15 if I’m lucky, that would put me at the “;perfect” weight. Plenty of things to get done around the house obviously, when isn’t there. I’d like to really work on the RELAXING bit more I think too :D Finding more time for my own artwork, and really get at least one of my own projects off the ground this year, regardless of setbacks. Aside from all of those things, after having spent 2 years coloring comics for a living now, I’d really like to land some work at DC or Marvel I think. Something related to, or including Batman is my goal. It may not happen, but looking back on my past goals the last 5 years, there is very little that I have NOT accomplished if I have set a goal to do something. So I figure I’ll get that out there in the Universe somewhere and see what happens. :D
forgive the spelling mistakes today. just finished an all nighter, literally, and I could care less about how many spelling errors I make right now.
just wrapped up colors for Beyond Wonderland #4 with Nei Ruffino, Garry Henderson, and Blond (who came on at the last minute to save all our butts) The issue is made of complete AWESOME in my opinion, Dan Leister did an amazing job on the art for the book.
Put on a pot of coffee for my wife who's waking up in about 5 minutes now, thinking of cooking a huge breakfast, and then crashing till the afternoon once these high rez files finish uploading. I probably won't take off the entire day today, I'll squeeze in another page or so I think likely as not. Strangely, not too tired right now, so if I can't fall asleep I may just stay up all day and dork around.
this week, have to get the rest of our xmas shopping done, for the kids. I have a couple things left to get my wife, but I think we're planning on heading into town on Friday to do shopping. then I'll probably take the kids either Saturday or Sunday to pick up gifts for her.
It's pretty apparent that I'm jumping all over the place right now too. It's been really refreshing to have so much work lately, regardless of how busy it seems I am. I'd much rather be swamped right now, than be out of a job like so many other people. I think I'm doing some good work too, at least it seems that way to me :D I'm pretty happy with what I've been cranking out, and I've been cranking out a LOT of stuff. The first issue of my Dabel Bros. comic, Take A Chance is out this month. Can't wait to get a copy of that and check it out, the art is fantastic, and I love the concept of the story (and the writing)
K, I'm losing it, it's time to wrap things up, and get something to eat here, I'm starving!!!!!!
Was a long day yesterday. Took my daughter to get her braces on yesterday morning. It was probably the LEAST stressful appointment I've ever taken her to for anything. She did a really good job of not getting too worked up, and she seems to be taking the right approach to getting braces. She likes them, and isn't all upset about having to get them either, which is a good attitude to have considering she has to wear them for almost 2 years :D She toughed it out at school yesterday, and is still a little sore today as well, but she's doing a good job handling it, and I'm proud of her.
It was a late night last night. Went to see the MSU/N. Carolina game at Ford Field with my son and his friend and his dad and brothers. Was a good time, and the kids had a blast. MSU got TRUCKED by 35 points, and they embarrassed Detroit, the auto industry, MSU and the LIONS on ESPN this morning when they played the highlights of the game, but the kids enjoyed going and staying up so late on a school night. My son was dragging this morning heading to school, and I won't lie, I'M tired myself this morning too. I took some pictures, and shot a couple of short videos as well.
I finished a painting commission yesterday that I've had for a couple of weeks, and it turned out good I think. I've got 4 days less to finish my Grimm Fairy Tales annual here, but I'm DONE with prior commitments and stuff now until I'm finished with the book, so I'm looking to knock pages out like nobodys business the next week here. Then I have 6 pages left to finish up issue 3 of Take a Chance, then I MIGHT be tackling Grimm Fairy Tales issue 35 before the end of the year as well. So things are definitely busy on the work front. Somewhere in there, I have to find time to take the kids xmas shopping for their mom too.
I need another pot of coffee today for sure, and maybe another piece of the AWESOME peanut butter/chocolate fudge my wife made. mmmm, mmmmm good!!!!
Was a busy weekend decorating the house, setting up the xmas tree and working here. Wanted to take as much time AWAY from the studio as I reasonably could with a deadline only 2 weeks away here. Still a few things on my mind this morning as I prepare for another LOOOONNNNGGG day in the studio here.
First off, I didn't get a chance to sit down and really express what I was thankful for this year, even though I may have done that in my head the last few days. So here goes...I'm incredibly thankful for such a beautiful, loving wife (even though when I say that out loud it always sounds like kissing up or sarcasm it's not, I genuinely mean it) I'm thankful for the 2 kids which have caused me to age prematurely, start losing my hair, turn the hair I DO have still to gray..just kidding. I'm incredibly thankful to have 2 very intelligent, well mannered (when they want to be) talented, loving children. It makes the difficult job of parenting that much easier, because everyone knows I'm unfortunately not the most patient person in the world, even though I try to be.
I'm also very thankful for the job that I have, even WITH all of the ups and downs that come with being a freelance artist. I'm afforded the luxury of working out of a beautiful home, having my own studio right off the upstairs living room, and being able to spend my days coloring comics, creating artwork and painting. It's been a hectic, rollercoaster ride of a year here, however I am looking at my 5th straight year of growth since I started freelancing, and I'm actually making more money than I have at any other job I've ever had before. It's encouraging to keep setting the bar higher and higher, and somehow finding a way to get over it. It's not easy by ANY means, but it is rewarding.
other things that I'm trying to file away this morning....I've got 14 days to get 41 pages of comics colored here for 2 different books, and a painting to finish before Wednesday. Lots of work. I can do it, but thankfully we got the house decorated for Christmas over the weekend, the tree is up, and all of that is out of the way. The only other real tricky part over the next 2 weeks is this Wednesday. Taking my daughter to get her braces in the morning (which won't be nearly as bad as she thinks), then am headed down to Ford Field with my son to catch the MSU vs. North Carolina basketball game which doesn't start till 9pm. Going to be a LATE night. Then it's JUGGERNAUT mode until I'm done with deadlines and hopefully, HOPEFULLY, a little time off this year for the holidays. I've got a staircase and railing in the basement that needs painting, and some other things I'd like to get done around the house, in addition to being able to just relax with the family this year.
k, time to get things going this morning, finish the page I started at 7:30 and find a groove.
I'm groggy this morning. I have a bit of a headache as well, which doesn't mix with being groggy very well at all. The good thing is, that I don't have to go anywhere today to get to work. The roads are a mess my wife informed me after dropping the kids off at school. So once I imbibe enough coffee this morning to actually start functioning I'll be set.
Flipping through a book I just sold on ebay as I was getting it ready to mail out, I came across a great little quote by Normal Rockwell. It went something like this, "Painting is like throwing a ball against a wall, it never comes back to you as hard as you throw it. So throw it hard!" Such sage like advice there.
Colored the cover for issue 4 of my Dabel Bros./Del Rey book Take a Chance yesterday, in addition to more pages from the Grimm Fairy Tales Annual. Superheroes and fantasy in the same day, it doesn't get a whole lot better than that :D I'm hoping to get a great deal of stuff accomplished today as well, since I was planning on taking all day Thanksgiving off. Which means I have to work that much harder before and after to make up for that of course.
I'm trying to ignore the news lately, as it manages to frustrate, depress, and anger me all at once. Hard to escape that sort of real life stuff though. What would help is if checks would come in the mail on a more regular basis. Speaking of just such a thing, there SHOULD be a rather sizable check in the mail today, which would make me happy. So I'm hoping when I walk the 100 feet down the driveway through the snow to the mailbox, there's actually a check in there. Because freezing your giblets off to get the mail, and having it not contain anything to warm you up like money (or the new Victoria Secret's catalog) feels like a waste, you know?
Alright, not a whole lot else on my mind, it's sort of cluttered still a bit, and as I said, groggy. I may have to make a second pot of coffee today after I get around here. It just feels like a 2 pot of coffee sort of day today.
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