Monthly Blog - "You're Going to Learn A lot from This" (Patreon)

I wake up at 4:50 AM, and go through my usual morning routine: go to the bathroom, wash my hands, gauge my swollen glands, take my temperature (96.8) and check my phone for messages, I then just stare at a character lineup for Jockstrap Academy that I recently drew. After completing a piece of work, I usually just stare it at for the next couple of days, I think I’m looking for errors - which usually I find, the difference here is - because I drew it digitally -  I can make changes.

I clean my bathroom, my bedroom, drop off my laundry, go through my task list and join a couple of video conferences for work. With every work call, I’m greeted with dread. I just don’t want to do them. So I stop to think about the negative thoughts and push through by writing down: “You’re going to learn a lot from this.”

In times like these, that's all I can tell myself: "You're going to learn a lot from this" - well, that and "Focus on what you can control". But the learning is essential, learning how to develop a new routine, learning how to make myself want to cook instead of ordering in and learning how to better create in my down time.

I figure out how to import information into my iPad so that I can draw & color comics digitally. It has some limitations, but it’s nothing I can’t work around. The hand-drawn angel that sits on one of my shoulders reminds me of the benefits of working with physical tools and how producing hand drawn work is more stimulating to the brain - but the digitally drawn devil interrupts, pointing out that all of that is moot because I haven’t really drawn anything substantial in months. 

Years ago, at a comic convention I met two artists whose work I admire and asked them, separately, the same question. Both are skilled artists who rolled over from hand drawn work to digital work with absolutely no dip in quality - this impressed me - however, recently they both went back to drawing by hand. When I asked them why they had made this choice - to return to working with pencils and paper, they both had the same response: “I found that working digitally took longer,” they said, “You can make endless changes working digitally, as opposed to when you work on paper - when the work is done it’s done.” 

This information is one thing I've been hanging onto that's been prolonging my transition from hand drawn to digital - but now I've come to a place where I can prolong no longer. It's time for a change. And ultimately, these two artists did not just go back to pencil and paper - they had both evolved their work streams to include the most effective results of both mediums.

So I remind myself that, it doesn't have to be one or the other. Nothing is permanent. Things change. i.e.: "You're going to learn a lot from this."