February 20, 2014 (Patreon)

But I finished inking the comic! So that part's done. I mean, I should have been coloring today, but at least I can get that done tomorrow and I won't have to do it over the weekend. 

Oh, and I dropped off 11 original paintings at Sequential Art Gallery (http://sequentialartgallery.com) for a group show I'm going to be in with the other Periscope Studio members who featured in our Maiden Voyage Kickstarter from months ago (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/periscopestudio/periscope-studio-maiden-voyage) 

But, man. I was just grumpin and scowlin for most of the day. I'm so frustrated with my art and I just.... I've really been hating drawing lately. The only part of making comics that I truly love is inking, and now that I'm doing even that part digitally, it's sucked a lot of the joy out of it for me as well. My digitally inked lines are SO HEAVY HANDED and no matter how hard I try to be nuanced and get variation in there, it all just looks so thick and flat. 

HOWEVER! 

I was whining at the lunch table about this and then my brilliant studiomates were like, dude, you know you can adjust your brush settings, right? And I was like, what are you talking about. And it tuuuuuuurns out that this was a case where I've been fighting with my tools and it's not actually a case of Erika You Are Just a Bad Artist, Period, The End. 

Ron Chan (http://ronchan.net) came over and tweaked some toggles and flipped some switches in my Manga Studio & Cintiq preferences and now suddenly the brush is being WAY more responsive to my strokes. This was implemented in time for me to ink the last page I'd left to finish (#3 out of 5), and my line weight looks so much nicer than the rest. 

So this kinda breathes some hope into me that the next comic will be more pleasurable to ink. 

Next step, I gotta start going to life drawing classes with Lucy Bellwood (http://lucybellwood.com). The only way I'm gunna get better is if I start drawin' some motherfuckin' Real Naked People again. 

Another thing that's cheered me up a bit was becoming a Patron to Katie West and I've slowly been pouring through her very well-stocked activity feed whenever I needed a little break from work. I love her photography and her writing and maybe you will too? http://www.patreon.com/KatieWest 

Alright it's a quarter to eight. I gotta head home. But I'm too tired to ride my bike so I'mma catch the bus. 

Take care, Erika