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I had this whole long argument written up about subjectivity and objectivity in art...but lately I've been finding my opinions somewhat annoying and why should I subject you all to that? 
So instead I'm just gonna pull something from it that I thought was kinda cool.
Here is a page from Chapter 1 of Twisted Mirrors.
Here is a page from Chapter 21.
They're both depicting pretty much the same thing - the aftermath of a particular spell being cast. I realized that this is probably the best point to compare how I've changed, since they are so similar. (I mean, you could go back one page from each to the actual spell being cast, but the circumstances are so different that they're a lot harder to compare.)
Now before anyone says anything, am I saying the second page is "good"? NO. NO I AM NOT. But it is much better than the first one, and that's what's got me interested. It's so hard to see the progression when you're actually working on these pages. You could do two you really like and then one you think is terrible and feel like you're just spinning your wheels. But when you look back farther down the road, it all comes into focus and I freaking love seeing this stuff!
I mean, you can see how the styles of the first one are still totally present in the second. They were clearly drawn by the same hand, and yet they're so different, and you don't even notice how it's changing as you read through the stories.
I mean, I know everyone's aware of all this, it's pretty obvious and I harp on it a lot myself. (It's why I have the progression pictures for FFC, after all.) But although chapter 1 was in my mind as I was drawing chapter 21, and I intentionally tried to make them similar, I didn't realize until I went back and looked how good an illustration this was of how my art has changed over the years. And again, I just really like this stuff.
...maybe when the comics are done, I should do that "draw this again" meme with one of the early pages, just to see the difference...might be fun!
So instead I'm just gonna pull something from it that I thought was kinda cool. Here is a page from Chapter 1 of Twisted Mirrors.
Here is a page from Chapter 21.
They're both depicting pretty much the same thing - the aftermath of a particular spell being cast. I realized that this is probably the best point to compare how I've changed, since they are so similar. (I mean, you could go back one page from each to the actual spell being cast, but the circumstances are so different that they're a lot harder to compare.)
Now before anyone says anything, am I saying the second page is "good"? NO. NO I AM NOT. But it is much better than the first one, and that's what's got me interested. It's so hard to see the progression when you're actually working on these pages. You could do two you really like and then one you think is terrible and feel like you're just spinning your wheels. But when you look back farther down the road, it all comes into focus and I freaking love seeing this stuff!
I mean, you can see how the styles of the first one are still totally present in the second. They were clearly drawn by the same hand, and yet they're so different, and you don't even notice how it's changing as you read through the stories.I mean, I know everyone's aware of all this, it's pretty obvious and I harp on it a lot myself. (It's why I have the progression pictures for FFC, after all.) But although chapter 1 was in my mind as I was drawing chapter 21, and I intentionally tried to make them similar, I didn't realize until I went back and looked how good an illustration this was of how my art has changed over the years. And again, I just really like this stuff.
...maybe when the comics are done, I should do that "draw this again" meme with one of the early pages, just to see the difference...might be fun!
Comic Website Down
My website for my comics is currently down. There seems to be some kind of back-end error with the PHP that I thought I fixed, but it doesn't seem to be changing anything. I'm not sure, I don't know much about websites or programming beyond very basic HTML, so it'll probably take me a little while to fix (if I even can). IN THE MEANTIME, I don't intend to slow down updating. All three comics will post on Monday as normal over at The Duck. So if you're looking for updates, they can currently be found at the links below: Sorry for the inconvenience. I'll try to figure it out, but yeah, the comics will continue to update as normal. Thanks for reading!
COMIC GIVEAWAY!
So I've decided to stop going to conventions, but this decision leaves me with a lot of leftover merchandise that is just taking up a lot of space. I spent money to have them made so I don't want to just throw them away. I thought about selling them through my sites, but I didn't think I would get rid of many that way. Then I thought about giving them away while asking for people to pay shipping, but that's still asking people to buy them in a way, and I still probably wouldn't be able to get rid of too many. So that leads to the obvious answer: I'm just going to give them away. Make a request of the available items and they're yours (1 copy of each item per person. Not to limit supply, but to lower the shipping costs on my end somewhat...I can't imagine anyone would want more than one anyway, haha! ^^; ) What do I have to give away? Well, there's Volumes 1 through 4 of the original Twisted Mirrors. It's a much older series with a lot of flaws. The main benefit of this one is
Looking for New Reads?
So, I like telling stories. I guess at the end of the day, that's all there is to it. I know I'm not very good at it, but it's what brings me joy, so I do it anyway. I suppose we've all had a bit of extra time over the past year, so I used mine to create some additional stories. And now I'm posting them online so if you're bored and looking for something to read I've got some options for you. Bear in mind that all of these stories were written by me, they're amateur stuff and this is all just for fun. :D The links to and descriptions of the stories are below. After each description, I'll babble a bit about each project, so if you just want to see a quick couple of lines on what each story is about, just read the first paragraph and skip the rest. (Also, my deepest apologies that I'm not very good at writing a synopsis.) CONSCRIPTED Conscripted on The Duck : 01 - "A Good Soldier" (theduckwebcomics.com) An army led by mysterious giants is traveling across the land and
DA or Wattpad?
So I finished the second draft of a story I've been working on today. There's still a lot that needs to be done, I need to go through it for a third draft and cleans up bits of it. Hell, the damn thing still need a title. But I don't foresee the third draft taking nearly as long as the second draft. I don't necessarily know the "proper" way to go about it, I'm not a writer, but to put it in drawing terms the first draft was a sketch, the second draft is the base drawing and the third draft will clean up the details, so I don't think it will take nearly as much as the first two rounds. So I'm starting to think about where I can possibly post it. I'm not very good, so I'm not interested in looking into anything professional. I just want to be able to share this silly fantasy adventure that I wrote. So my question (finally!) is where should I post it? I've been told Wattpad is good for posting prose stories, but I've also heard that in more recent years it's gone kinda to crap. Does
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Sometimes I wish the college I went to had each class start with us doing our best to create whatever it is the class is about (perspective, figures, etc). And then at the end of the class, we'd have to bring in our final project and the very first one we did, and compare them. As it stands, often I and my friends don't have any good art to compare our new knowledge too, because often we avoided the things we were weak at... which is a lot of what we're made to do.
But of course, there's always older sketchbooks. I like browsing my old stuff. Sometimes I look at the super old stuff to be reminded of the ideas I had at 13, other times I look at my more recently finished ones to see where I was 1-2 years ago. I don't feel I grow as fast as I'd like. And sometimes I see the same issues in my current art that were issues when I started. But no matter how broody and gloomy I feel, I can't EVER deny that I haven't improved AT ALL.
It's just a pity that it takes YEARS before you can look back and see an obvious difference. But when you're in it, when you fill a sketchbook start to finish with 100 figures, faces or hands... and at the end there's only a few subtle changes -- changes that may just be your imagination, or a good art day... that can be discouraging. But repeat that over 5 sketchbooks... 500-10,000 figures, faces or hands... and look back at that very first sketchbook? You see improvement.
and I'm sure you, being the prolific, steady comicmaker you are, don't need me to say that the only way to keep at it is to make it a routine you don't think about, and find a joy in the act of it. If you're only doing it in anticipation of seeing progress, you get discouraged fast. You have to have fun in the act.
But of course, there's always older sketchbooks. I like browsing my old stuff. Sometimes I look at the super old stuff to be reminded of the ideas I had at 13, other times I look at my more recently finished ones to see where I was 1-2 years ago. I don't feel I grow as fast as I'd like. And sometimes I see the same issues in my current art that were issues when I started. But no matter how broody and gloomy I feel, I can't EVER deny that I haven't improved AT ALL.
It's just a pity that it takes YEARS before you can look back and see an obvious difference. But when you're in it, when you fill a sketchbook start to finish with 100 figures, faces or hands... and at the end there's only a few subtle changes -- changes that may just be your imagination, or a good art day... that can be discouraging. But repeat that over 5 sketchbooks... 500-10,000 figures, faces or hands... and look back at that very first sketchbook? You see improvement.
and I'm sure you, being the prolific, steady comicmaker you are, don't need me to say that the only way to keep at it is to make it a routine you don't think about, and find a joy in the act of it. If you're only doing it in anticipation of seeing progress, you get discouraged fast. You have to have fun in the act.