Now I Can't Lose

Hey everyone, it’s been a while.

I’m sure some of you are wondering why I’ve been absent for the past three months, and while I’d like to answer in clear-cut and satisfactory way, I’m not sure I can. Of course, all the usual culprits apply: I’ve been busy with work, travel, and so on. I was sick once or twice. I got a video game for Christmas. I read a few books, cooked some new things, and tried to go to bed on time.

However, all of these reasons could also explain why I haven’t cleaned my room in a month, or why I haven’t been exercising. And the truth is that I have been drawing. I’ve been working on comics on my off days, before and after work, and during my breaks at work. So why haven’t I been uploading anything? After thinking about it, I’ve come to a tentative conclusion. Here it is:

I can’t stand drawing digitally. I’m fussy about little details as it is, and being able to redraw and mess around with brush and tone settings is too tempting. Furthermore, I can’t get used to the graphics tablet interface. You know how you feel when you want to sleep, but, no matter how you toss and turn, you can’t get comfortable? That’s exactly how I feel using a tablet pen. At least, that’s how it’s been for the past couple of months.

So what can I do about this? First, I plan to simplify my style. I’m going to steer away from tones and complicated designs. Second, I plan start drawing more non-comic stuff. Even if it slows down production a bit, I want to stave off burnout. Third, I’m going to switch back to mostly traditional work as soon as possible. Although, “as soon as possible” might be in half a year. Who knows.

Anyway, I’ll post another comic next week. And hopefully the week after that. It shouldn’t be too hard, because I have something like 50 comics planned and written. If only drawing them was as easy…