A strange transition

Welcome to today's narcissism.

Thinking about it this morning, I realized that doing anatomy chart studies has slowly transformed from a intimidating chore to an almost self-indulgent pleasure. I like to do warmup now with some charts and I have to tear my self away usually. I could do, and have done, such work all day for many days in a row. It is very much a form of meditation.

However, I did a pile of gaming maps at the end of last week, and weekends are a bit of a lost cause right now, as a result practice got dropped for a few days, which means I can blow all of today on it.

This is the cover of the third Godland HC. It is bound to me in the post, hopefully it wont arrive today and blow my plans.

 

 

Ups and downs

It has not been a good ten days for drawing. I had some sleep issues related to my most recent foray into underemployment and lost a few days in a row, got sick and lost a few more days, and the momentum that goes with them. Momentum is important because it helps shore up what the writer John Gardner referred to as necessary delusions.

Work falters; momentum dies; confidence crashes; hope dies. I tend to avoid the crescent of shit (see pic) for a few days at the close of this cycle.

I have found practice and rote help break this cycle or, more accurately, kick into its opposite rotation.

To that end, although I still have half the hand book to get through, I added the excercises in Bert Dodson's Keys to Drawing to my routine.

 

And I signed up for my first ever drawing class- at the community college. Hopefully I do not embarass myself too severely. I think I may go back to making comics when the class ends in december. I may wait another year.

I started working on a map the day before yesterday. I may ink it later today.

I made this too.