Levelling up: a lot of small tasks make for a big one

Hey everyone!

So I missed last update, getting back into things after my holiday proved to be harder than I thought.
I could tell you all about my travels or blog about the experience of expanding your world and how it feeds your imagination but that’s something for another time. (It IS what happened by the way, travelling always does that for me, it’s great!) Right now I want to tell you where I’m at and what you could expect in the next few posts or so.

During my holiday, the last lesson of Painting Drama 2 was taught. So when I got back I had set for myself the task to go full force working on my comic and portfolio again. That last one is due this November, when I’ll be attending CTNX in LA.
I was hit with the sheer amount of work ahead of me and the old feeling of doubt crept in again. Could I pull this off? Will this comic ever get done?

I went back to the things I’ve learned through the last few years: one step at a time, focussing on progress, not the end result, etc. I want to build a habit of working on my art every day, so I cut my action list into even smaller actions so I have something I can do every day, even if it’s just for 15 minutes on days I have no more time to draw. (I can probably still squeeze out 15 minutes on those days)

I made a sheet on which I can keep track of my monthly progress. I follow the concept of Chris Conlon’s Illolife, a fun way to track your artistic progress through a RPG-game-based system of scoring points and levelling up. (Check it out, it’s fun and there’s a community that can help you stay motivated)

Here is a character sheet I have made for it:

I’m now working on the introduction pages of the Reminiscence comic. I want to add those to my portfolio and it’s a small enough bit of the story that I can finish it in a reasonable amount of time. Some of the things that need to get done for it are:

– Setting on a final design of my villain(s)
– Doing some more style tests (esp when it comes to the colouring)
– Deciding on the page format for the comic

I’ve divided these points into a bunch of smaller actions, like gathering a certain kind of reference, doing thumbnails or trying out a different technique on some sketches. I’m getting back into the fun of things and I hope to be able so share some more art soon. Of course you’ll be the first to see those. So stay tuned for some more behind the scenes stuff.

Have a great week!