April 9, Friday (Patreon)

Friday: Shipping day! Sent out lots of orders for Periscope Studio. 

Then... tried to work on the book cover. Was mostly paralyzed by indecision and, well, I don't want to say "lack of inspiration" because while I do think inspiration is lovely to have, I've spent the last six years producing work on deadline whether I was feeling "inspired" or not. Creativity is a muscle, you can train yourself to produce on command. It may not be work that represents your soul, but it can be solid, sound, and achieve the goals it needs to. 

But aaaaaaauuuuuuuhhhggggggggg book covers. 

How do I represent a couple hundred pages of content in a single eye-catching graphic? I want it to be pretty, silly, flirty, and friendly. Without being explicitly sexual, because I don't want people afraid to pick it up in a store or have it in their house. 

See, I learned from my GirlFuck minicomic that I made back in 2005: The cover has just the title, which is overtly sexual AND drops the F bomb, while the back cover has a giant wobbling dildo front-and-center. No matter which way a person flips the comic over, there is something boldly incriminating on either side. 

The cover for the OJST book needs to be sexy-ish enough that people interested in sex and sex toys will pick it up, but not TOO sexual so that people are afraid to be seen holding it. 

I came up with some sketches that are solid designs, but that don't really convey what the book is about, that capture its feel. And the designs I did that do advertise what the reader can expect inside, they looked cheesy and dumb. 

fret fret fret. 

This is not my forté.