A.W Comix

Comic hour

2012-02-01T21:58:00.001+11:00

Ever since I started full time work it has been a real struggle to maintain the level of work I used to produce. I am someone that constantly needs to be working on something and when I am not working on something I am thinking about working on comics or art.I started feeling really down about my work life and not being able to produce as much work (ie, any work at all) but I couldn't get too down on myself I was genuinely busy after all.

Still it is an awesome time to be involved in Australian comics, with so many artists producing great work, exhibitions, workshops, events, studios and international trips planned to promote Australian comics.Bit by bit I had been slowly creating a studio space in our sun room at home and actively looking for drawing challenges to partake in. But most nights I still battled tiredness and the overwhelming temptation to surf the web or just watch TV.

Something drastic needed to be done! I came up with the idea of what I like to call 'comic hour'. This is an hour that I dedicate to my comics each night, it has to be the first thing I do after putting the kids to bed and cleaning up dishes etc.

I use the time to do anything related to producing comics,

Sketching
Writing notes and stories
Actual comic drawing

I realised that now that I had less time for the smaller stuff, sitting down to draw was a major challenge with out having first laid the groundwork. This was a big realisation for me, as I had kept expecting myself just to be able to sit down and launch into drawing a comic with out having first done any writing plotting sketching musing etc.

In a nutshell my advice would be,

Make a time every night/day to be creative; a set time if you are time poor
Use this time for various activities not just producing finished work
Keep it fun, listen to music or podcasts, make a cup of tea
If doing it at night do it before anything else, a quick 5 minute email check is the best way to lose your night to websurfing

Whilst I have not completed 5 graphics novels I have been chugging away at various projects and the work has been progressing along. If you have a similar story or a way of keeping creative I love to hear form you.

PS: I realise I have been neglecting this blog and partly that has been because I get most of my thoughts out on Twitter these days. I have also been experimenting with putting images on Tumblr. Following the lead of Bernard Caleo, this year I would like to try and use the blogspot for written posts and the Tumblr for images. More to follow...

Creativity Question

2011-12-28T10:18:00.001+11:00

What is a method you use to get your creativity kick started? Pls RT
— Anthony Woodward (@awcomix) December 27, 2011

Title panel of my tintin/contact comic

2011-10-27T07:59:00.001+11:00

I'm actually not happy with this. In simplifying the radio telescope for the comic drawing they look very silly to me. And this was the best one I drew! This is where the old 'don't be lazy, just draw it again' rule comes into play

Tintin character sketch

2011-10-24T08:39:00.001+11:00

Billions of galaxies

2011-10-18T23:13:00.001+11:00

Post Card Art Swap

2011-10-13T21:30:00.001+11:00

Doubles as iPhone wall paper!

Draw

2011-09-18T23:34:00.003+10:00

Gunk

2011-09-06T23:02:00.000+10:00

Birds

2011-09-06T00:15:00.002+10:00

The Drain...

2011-08-29T22:48:00.000+10:00

Drawn from life submition

2011-08-28T20:59:00.000+10:00

Earlier this year I completed a submission for an anthology for the MWF called 'Drawn from life'. The anthology was edited by Oslo Davis who you might remember put together the anthology 'Conceived on a tram' and also has his cartoons published in the newspaper 'The Age'.

When I was first contacted about submitting some work I was a little worried. The submission called for comics about everyday stories, autobiographical stories etc. The weird thing is that the majority of my work has been in this vein. however for the previous year I had been seriously considering taking different directions, I wasn't sure if auto bio comics was were I wanted to go. How was I going to come up with an idea that fitted the theme but was a little different than before.

I ended up coming up with the idea above (click for readable version) and I decided to take a different direction than my more sketchier work and fully pencil and ink the piece. I then digitally coloured it using Photoshop.

PS- I would like to post some process pictures of the comic too, that is if I get around to it

Links
http://cargocollective.com/oslodavis#1862126/Drawn-From-Life
http://theember.com.au/?p=1915
http://maribyrnong-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/footscray-artist-toons-up-for-festival-fbready/

Alec comic

2011-08-25T21:28:00.000+10:00

Tortured artist

2011-08-15T21:01:00.001+10:00

Post card

2011-08-14T18:19:00.004+10:00

Spent the day at NGV studio for the last day of inherent vice. I whipped up these postcards on the photocopier there

Drawing

2011-08-11T22:45:00.004+10:00

Life Hack

2011-08-07T21:01:00.002+10:00

Brains and drawing

2011-08-06T22:49:00.000+10:00

I may have mentioned a book earlier in the year called 'the brain that changes itself', I don't want to do the science in the book a disservice by trying to sum it up here, but basically it's an awesome book about how flexible the brain is when it comes to learning, changing and dealing with trauma. The book got me thinking about how artists could take some of the principles from the book to create brain training activities for improving drawing skills. Developing such activities properly is probably beyond my capacity unless I wanted to get a research grant and write a PHD on it.
However last night I started watching the DVD version if the book, basically they take some if the content and simplify the research to make a tidy little tv doco. One phrase they repeat in the book and also in the DVD is, 'neurons that fire together, wire together' which led to an interesting insight for me personally.

Before I explain that, I'll remind the reader that I've been struggling with my own little creative block problem over the past year. Basically it's been a busy year and I feel as if I've fallen of the creative wagon. Self doubt about my work and what I actually want to do has been extremely high.

Back to 'neurons that fire together, wire together'...
I've been trying to draw in the evenings, exhausted and tired from work and home life. Needless to say this state of mind has not created great results. But that's what I realised last night. Each time I draw in this state, my brain associates drawing with basically unhappy and tired feelings. Therefore it's this vicious circle where drawing becomes frustrating and unenjoyable. Self doubt and insecurity is then allowed to run rampant further adding insult to injury so to speak.

Other than just trying to draw every day I need to make it fun, remember that drawing and creating us fun. And just lighten up a little.

Fingers crossed!

Mr Spudjobs

2011-08-05T23:18:00.003+10:00

view full image

"Old Mr Spudjobs"

New paper

2011-08-05T12:27:00.001+10:00

June Project wrap up

2011-07-05T02:47:00.001+10:00

I enjoyed undertaking the 30 days project during the moth of June. I was in a real need of a kick start with m art practice after a busy year of family and work commitments taking over. I set myself the goal of drawing and colouring one comic panel each day during the previous month. Some days I posted a photo instead and other days I was unable and or limited in how I could colour the panels. I plan to compile the panels into a full colour comic that I will be offering digitally. I really appreciated the comments and tweets over the period of the project as it gave me some good insights into what was working and what wasn't.

To conclude the project I would like to ask readers to post a comment/tweet on their favourite entry if they haven't already and for your effort I'll keep you in mind when I finish the comic and send you a free digital copy.

Twitter

@awcomix

Facebook

Anthony W Comix

Day 30

2011-07-01T13:27:00.000+10:00

"Twenty years later, the astronomer Joseph von Littrow came up with a similar idea to pour kerosene into a 30-kilometer-wide circular canal that would be lit at night to signal our presence."

http://www.astrobio.net/index.php?option=com_retrospection&task=detail&id=3019

Day 29

2011-06-30T00:30:00.000+10:00

"Florence Raulin-Cerceau of the Alexandre Koyré Center in Paris has documented the early attempts at communication with extraterrestrial intelligence (CETI), or what is now often called active SETI.
As early as the 19th century, inventors imagined "sky telegraph" equipment to communicate with the supposed inhabitants of the solar system's planets," Raulin-Cerceau recently wrote with her colleague in the French magazine Pour la Science.
The first of these inventors was Carl Friedrich Gauss, the German mathematician. In the 1820s, he spoke of reflecting sunlight towards the planets with his land surveying invention, the heliotrope. He is also credited with the idea of cutting a giant triangle in the Siberian forest and planting wheat inside."

http://www.astrobio.net/index.php?option=com_retrospection&task=detail&id=3019

Link roundup

2011-06-29T11:58:00.000+10:00

1. A Zombie RPG game, Project Zomboid,
http://projectzomboid.com/blog/

2. Breeding with Neanderthals helped humans go global
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028174.000-breeding-with-neanderthals-helped-humans-go-global.htm

3. Advice from multiple authors on writing books,
http://blogs.plos.org/neurotribes/2011/06/02/practical-tips-on-writing-a-book-from-22-brilliant-authors/

Day 28

2011-06-29T04:18:00.000+10:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal

Link roundup

2011-06-28T12:09:00.000+10:00

1. Sweet tooth animal armies a comic anthology,

http://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Tooth-Vol-Animal-Armies/dp/1401231705

2. Want to receive some awesome floppy comics in the mail, An awesome kickstarer project by Box Brown,

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1154777626/retrofit-comics-the-return-of-the-alt-comic-floppy

3. PYRAMID-EXPLORING ROBOT REVEALS HIDDEN HIEROGLYPHS

http://news.discovery.com/history/pyramids-hieroglyphs-robot-mystery-110526.html

Day 27

2011-06-28T04:17:00.000+10:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SETI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SETI_Institute

Day 26

2011-06-27T14:31:00.000+10:00

The Drake equation

As interpreted by xkcd

Day 25

2011-06-26T14:16:00.001+10:00

Link roundup

2011-06-25T11:53:00.002+10:00

1. Richard Dawkins on Boing Boing
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/06/18/richard-dawkins-sex.html

2. Read online, Jon Mcnaughts 'Pilgrims'
http://www.jonmcnaught.co.uk/index.php?/project/pilgrims/

3. Good news everyone (For Futurama fans),
http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/hqb2w/good_news_everyone/

Day 23 & 24

2011-06-25T08:49:00.002+10:00

Even though we though we don't have proof, I know it in my bones it's there. Earth can't be that unique considering the size of our universe.

Day 22

2011-06-23T14:23:00.002+10:00

This is the start of a new comic looking at the possibility of intelligent life in the universe. The text for this one would be something like, "If there's one question that plagues me...when will we get confirmation of other intelligent life in the universe?"

Day 21

2011-06-22T13:06:00.000+10:00

Coloured and edited using another online image editing software, Pixlr

Day 20

2011-06-21T07:11:00.004+10:00

This one didn't turn out exactly how I had envisioned, maybe a redraw is in order

Hemp comic

2011-06-20T21:47:00.003+10:00

I have just realised I never posted the full version of this Hemp comic that appeared in the anthology 'Blood and Thunder'. I like to get some posters made of the comic, especially if there was any interest out there.

Day 19

2011-06-20T06:45:00.000+10:00

A photo taken today and compared to a drawing I did of the same sign in 2008

Day 18

2011-06-18T21:34:00.000+10:00

Day 17

2011-06-17T21:33:00.001+10:00

This panel is inspired by a panel from the David Collier book Chimo

Day 16

2011-06-17T01:22:00.000+10:00

Away from home I don't have photoshop to add any colours. For this picture I used picknik to edit crop etc.

Day 15

2011-06-16T01:14:00.000+10:00

Day 14

2011-06-15T21:44:00.000+10:00

Day 13

2011-06-13T00:05:00.000+10:00

Day 12

2011-06-12T23:41:00.000+10:00

Day 11

2011-06-11T23:31:00.000+10:00

Day 10

2011-06-10T23:56:00.000+10:00

Day 9

2011-06-09T23:46:00.000+10:00

Day 8

2011-06-08T22:51:00.000+10:00

Day 7

2011-06-07T23:55:00.003+10:00

Day 6

2011-06-06T12:03:00.000+10:00

Day 5

2011-06-05T20:53:00.001+10:00

Day 4

2011-06-04T20:52:00.004+10:00

Day 3

2011-06-03T21:40:00.002+10:00

Osama Bib Fortuna

Day 2

2011-06-02T20:55:00.002+10:00

Elliott and a blue umbrella, taken with instagram

Day 1

2011-06-01T00:08:00.003+10:00

Colour chart

2011-05-28T09:53:00.005+10:00

I just read the boingboing article linking the colour chart put together on Ed Piskors blog. I was extremely interested in creating a colour chart like this after I read a cool article on the colouring department at DC comics in the 80's.
I then went on to create a version of a simplified template of colours that was achieved by mixing shades of Cyan, Magenta and Yellow in five overlapping shades. Below is the result.

I liked it so much I recently changed my blog header to a version of it

Quick sketch

2011-05-25T21:21:00.001+10:00

iPhone backgrounds

2011-05-25T11:45:00.001+10:00

I want to create some drawings especially for phone backgrounds, but in the meantime here's a few pics I found that you're free to save and use

Link roundup

2011-05-23T23:36:00.000+10:00

1. Where do ideas come from?

2. Crashed spy plane that makes it easier to imagine a UFO type cover up

3. Hunting a yeti?

4. Protein flaws responsible for complex life, study says

'Link roundup' inspired by this awesome art blog, superpunch

Emerging Technology Forum 2011

2011-05-17T17:49:00.004+10:00

Thanks to every one who attended my emerging Technology Forum talk. Click here to see all the related posts or click on the tag 'talk'

Other sites I mentioned,
http://www.illustrationfriday.com
My I.F posts

My comics online
Click on the links tab above for more sites that I'm involved with

This is the creative commons licence I use for my images and the blog

Velvet Soap 1998

2011-05-17T12:00:00.001+10:00

The cover of my very first published comic, 'Velvet Soap' 1998

Way back man

2011-05-17T11:30:00.001+10:00

Courtesy of the way back machine
I'm wishing that I took screenshots of my blogs appearance over the years now

Old technology becomes popular for its faults

2011-05-17T11:02:00.006+10:00

"new, further developed types of media never replace the existing modes of media and their usage patterns. Instead, a convergence takes place in their field, leading to a different way and field of use for these older forms.“

-Wolfgang Riepl, 1913

Profile: Box Brown

2011-05-16T20:00:00.009+10:00

Box Brown is the pen name for the Brian Michael Brown a cartoonist living in Jersey City, United States

A few months ago I noticed that cartoonist boxbrown had hit the top of Reddit

Unfortunately other than the fortuitously placed signature at the bottom right the image did not link back to the artist's site. It's ironic that this artist was rocketed to the top of one of the most popular websites ion the internet but received little traffic back from the post.

http://ww.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/f34c5/i_hate_when_i_forget_my_phone/

Boxbrown also launched a successful Kickstarter fundraising drive to print his comic 'Everything dies'

boxbrown on Flickr
boxbrown on Livejournal
@boxbrown on Twitter

Profile: Pat Grant

2011-05-16T18:00:00.000+10:00

Pat Grant is an Australian cartoonist currently working on his PHD in comics, his thesis is actually a comic and is being published online as it get completed.

@patgrantart on Twitter
Bolton Blue

Profile: Lucy Knisley

2011-05-16T17:30:00.000+10:00

Lucy Knisley in another American cartoonist who has gained wide popularity on the internet.

She has successfully completed a kickstarter project

And is often reposted on Tumblr without credit

Lucy Knisley on Livejournal
@lucylou on Twitter

Profile: Jess Fink

2011-05-16T13:00:00.000+10:00

Jess Fink is an American cartoonist, illustrator and game designer. She is well known for her winning Threadless T-Shirt designs and has recently had her two of her graphic novels officially published by Top Shelf

Jess Fink's original design from Threadless and the copy that appeared recently

An etsy seller under the name 'glitter biscuits' was recently discovered to be selling copies of Jess Finks T-Shirt design

Jess Fink Livejournal
Jess Fink on Threadless
Jess Fink on Tumblr

I Donate

2011-05-16T11:00:00.002+10:00

A comic blog I read called Inkdick recently was the victim of theft. He had just scrimped and saved and bought himself a new computer which was then stolen from the car he was in soon after.
You can read the whole sad story here and also make a donation, I know I'm going to.

EDIT: This is an old post from 2008. The donation drive was completed successfully

Remember stealing is bad!

2011-05-16T10:30:00.001+10:00

This kind of stuff confuses me as much as it angers me. I know it's been going around for awhile but it shouldn't be old news until it stops.

more here...

EDIT: This is an old post from 2007. It became a huge meme on Livejounral. Unfortunately the practice of stealing other peoples ideas and selling it as your own is still an ongoing concern.

How about this!

2011-05-16T10:00:00.000+10:00

A little time lapse video I made of drawing a comic strip

Creating Screen tone effect in Photoshop

2011-05-15T22:44:00.000+10:00

Also known as zipatone, Ben-Day dots, halftones etc

For this tutorial a basic knowledge of Photoshop, colour modes, resolution, history and layers pallete, copy and paste functions will help.

It is often desirable to achieve screen tones for artwork for either practicality or for effect. What ever you need it for I am going to show you the most effective way to achieve this using Photoshop. If you can master this, then there is no need to track down real zipatone and fiddle around with cutting it up. The middle section on ‘creating dot patterns’ is fixed although how you create your grey areas and how you use the dot pattern is up to you.

Firstly this tutorial has nothing to do with the halftone pattern in the Filter menu. In my mind this filter gives a poor, hard to control, and fuzzy result. Which is not suitable when you need real screen tones for something like screen printing.

Creating greys

First open the artwork you want to add screen tones to; Be sure that this artwork is exact physical the size that you will be printing at, which I will explain more later
Either duplicate the file (Image>Duplicate) or create another layer from your artwork (Layer>New>Layer via copy)
You could just create a new blank layer and paint grey areas onto this, it is up to you
Add grey tones to this layer or the new document using any tool of your choice, eg, paint brush or paintbucket; The percentage of black (Grey) you choose will create differing dot sizes, experiment with 20-30% black to start and change later as you see fit

Notice how I have painted greys loosely in the image above, I have first used the paint bucket and got into some of the hidden areas with the brush tool.

Creating dot patterns

Once you have added the grey areas, you may want to get rid of your black lines (just paint bucket them white or select them with the magic wand and hit the delete key)

At this stage I could paintbrush grey over those blank white areas in the face where the eyes eyebrows and nose shadow are, but as both files are exactly the same size they should line up perfectly.

Go to Image>Mode>Bitmap (this will be greyed out if you are in RGB mode, you will need to convert to Greyscale mode first)
Go ahead and flatten
Your resolution should be at least 800 DPI, although using 1200 DPI is usually standard practice; Any smaller and your dots will turn out chunky/clunky
Just retype/change number to be between 800-1200
You also need to have ‘Half tone screen…’ selected from the drop down menu
Once you hit ok, another dialogue box will appear which is where you can choose the frequency, angle and shape of the pattern; In this case we want ‘Round’, experiment with other shapes later if you like

The numbers I am using above, are only an example and are not meant to be represent the only ideal numbers you can use; Experiment with different ranges to find what you like
Your image will now be converted to bitmap mode using a half tone screen

The dot pattern will look much better than the image above, which looks awful as it has been shrunk to web resolution for the purpose of this blog post

Using the dot pattern
Hold on tight this next part could be confusing at first,

Depending on which option you chose at the beginning, ie, to duplicate the layer or duplicate the file there are two options

For duplicate file

You will need to 'copy' the flattened layer and then 'paste' it into your original art file; The one you made a copy from
Be sure the image resolution of your dot pattern matches your original art file before you paste the dot layer in

For duplicate layer

'Select all' (Apple/Control 'A'), 'Copy' (Apple 'C')
Go back in your history (using the history palette) to the state of your file where layers were possible, ie, before you deleted your line art and flattened the image
'Paste' (Apple/Control 'V') the dots
Set the new pasted layer to 'Multiply' using blending modes in the layers palette, or what ever layer is on top should be set to multiply

Flatten image and save; WARNING, save this final file with a different name to original file line art as you do not want to save over the original line art file!

Here's the final flattened and saved image. Notice how my dots line up perfectly as my file dimension stayed consistent throughout the process

Conclusion

You will need to play around with differing percentages of black (ie, Grey) and differing degrees of lines per inch to achieve the dot size that suits what you want.
Also do not reduce the size of an image after using this process or you risk creating a moiré pattern in you screen tones, which looks ugly and is distracting to the eye; This may also happen if you dot pattern is to small
Try this out on a photograph and see what effect you get; remember to increase the resolution to at least 800 DPI when converting to bitmap mode or before.
The angle of the dot pattern is helpful to play around with if you a making multiple layers of dot patterns, so they do not overlap.

Review of Sanford Prismacolour Non-photo blue pencils

2011-05-15T05:07:00.000+10:00

WARNING: Comic talk ahead!

I wanted to write a short review of the 'non-photo' blue pencils I have been using lately. I'm doing this so that if you have to order these things through the mail or don't want to waste money trying and buying these things then hopefully this review will point you in the right direction.
There are three pencils that I have come across. There are other types and brands, but these are the ones I have had experience with and I think may be the most commonly used in comics.

1-Sanford col-erase non-photo blue. (pictured)
This pencil's lead is quite hard and hardly shows up on the paper. This is good if you only want faint marks as guidelines and not so much an actual finished drawing. There is an eraser on the end that actually works to a certain degree. Although it's really only for peace of mind as you don't need to erase the pencil after inking anyway. I found this pencil too light to do actual finished or rough outlined drawings with. But if you were wanting a pencil to use in conjunction with a photocopier this may be a better option.

2-Sanford Verithin non-photo blue. (pictured)
A lot softer than the col-erase non-photo blue and would be better for a more finished drawing approach. Although I find this lays down too much of a waxy coat and makes inking with my tech pen difficult and clogs the pen. I imagine it would work better with brush or dip pen but I haven't tried this as yet.

3-Sanford Col-erase light blue (not pictured but looks the same as the col-erase non photo)
Although not officially non-photo it does the same as the non-photo (the blue's light enough not to show up in copies) this one puts down a slightly darker line than the col-erase non-photo and it's softness lands in between the Col-erase and verithin non-photo pencils.
I was initially pointed to the possibility of using this pens from Jessica Abels great DIY guide to comics (Currently under construction) or you can read hers and Matt Maddens great book on comics 'Writing pictures and drawing words'. I find that you can get a much more finished drawing out of the light blue as opposed to the non-photo, and would definitely recommend it as the best one to draw with for inking.

Conclusion.
I ended up settling on the light blue col-erase pencil. I enjoy the darker line it lays down and it's not too hard not too soft lead. From the tests I've done the line seems to disappear as easily as the non photo blue in Photoshop.

I usually just use the 'threshold' option in 'Image>Adjustments' in photoshop. I have seen that you can take out the blue by going into 'Image>Adjustments>hue&Saturation' then from the drop down list (defualt is 'master') choose either blue or cyan and increase the brightness. The blue will then disapear. But from my tests I have not found this to be any be any better than the threshold option.

I have also found that a gentle erasing helps, especially if using the light blue instead of the non photo. You don't have to get rid of all the blue, just knock the blue back a little.

My advice: Buy one of each and try them out, they're $1 each. Go crazy and blow $3 on your art.

Why use non-photo blue pencils?

-The light blue colour does not show up when scanned and edited correctly in Photoshop. It also shouldn't show up in a photocopy but a more sensitive copier may pick it up

-If the blue doesn't show up then there is no need for erasing...
Ever ripped a page erasing lines, ever gotten sick of the pile of eraser dust at your feet, ever dirtied a page from excessive overdrawing?

-The blue pencil doesn't smudge like regular greylead pencils.

-It looks nifty ;) This is the reason I'm leaving the blue in for the web versions of my latest comics, I'm hoping this also helps differentiate them from the B&W versions that will be collected in book format.

Example of my drawing process. Click on comic to read more.

Can't help it

2011-05-10T20:44:00.000+10:00

Toronto Comic Arts Festival: Pencil it In from Toronto Comic Arts Festival on Vimeo.

I know this has been posted just about everywhere possible, but after seeing it linked for the tenth time I felt it should be reposted here too.
For lovers of drawing and comics everywhere.

Free Comic Book Day

2011-05-07T21:03:00.003+10:00

A bit over a week ago I was reminded that it was going to be free comic book day (FCBD) today. As I've been playing around with downloadable digital comics, I had an idea to round up some comic pages from fellow comickers and offer it as a free download.

I know FCBD is about getting people into brick and mortar stores but I think it's also about getting new readers into comics. Why not digital comic then!

This is the result,

-download here-

It's basically a PDF file with dimensions that are perfect for an iPad screen but can also be read on your computer or any other device that reads PDF files.
It's totally free to download and you will be able to match the artists pages to an to their names by using an index at the front of the book; as well as links to each creators site.
The material is mostly compiled from Chugnut attendees with some guest appearances.

I'd love to do this again sometime in the future, and I look forward to hearing about what you think.

Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Comic_Book_Day
http://www.freecomicbookday.com/

Print media job

2011-05-01T15:57:00.002+10:00

This is the second part to the comics librarian image I posted recently. This was also drawn in 2008 with a nib and ink. I thought being involved in publishing somehow would be cool, but then I realised print media was in decline; enough so it would be hard to make a career out of anyway.

Another inking test

2011-04-26T14:59:00.002+10:00

This was done in preparation for a large comic project recently. I wanted to test out some paper, penciling techniques, lettering and inking with a nib. Being nostalgic i chose to use the professor from Z-Factor and an unknown, albeit purple, super powered freak. The success of this panel lead me to choose the paper and other techniques for the final comic project.

Digital comic

2011-04-23T09:33:00.005+10:00

I have been wanting to offer my comic book, 'This Town' as a digital download for ages now, and I have finally gotten around to doing it. I will have it here free for a short time. If you enjoy it consider leaving a donation, which you can do by clicking the donut donation picture in the footer.

It's formatted to work with an iPad but could also work on a eReader, or simply on your computer.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B0xATg_g33GqOTFlNDViYTUtOTI2ZS00OWNmLWJhMjAtYjdjOWU4MWMyMjE3&hl=en&authkey=CKmz79MC

Nibs and old rope

2011-04-11T22:18:00.000+10:00

Having recently received new inking nibs in the mail I have been very excited to try them out. In my head I can envision the ink flowing gloriously off the end of the nib effortlessly. Of course when I put pen to paper it does not exactly work that way.
For one thing I think nibs have to be broken in, secondly all new skills take time to learn, you have to get a feel for the nib and how it works. I also think there is another factor and that is the inking style you wish to go with. I have never been one to deliberately focus on style and i think doing so is detrimental to your final artwork, but the catch is that there has to be some sort of style that grows out of a approach or mentality, even if that is 'no-style'.
I think the best way to find style is to first find the tools that suit how you work and then just draw as much as possible with that tool until a natural style emerges.

The image above is a pencil sketch that I did in 2009 and just inked recently. The idea was to create a weird family portrait. Originally made for an art installation in Albury, however I ended up going with drawings of people walking around town.

Lately I have realised that I'm a bad blogger, as I forget to make follow up posts to things I mention I'm doing or working on. To make up for this I'm going to post the photo's from the art installation mentioned above.

***

After writing this I proceeded to use a nib to ink a large comic for a anthology submission, and I was really pleased with the results. I still have some room to improve but I can see how I could develop my technique further. I will be posting some process pictures of the comic soon.

Subscriber comic #3

2011-04-11T21:49:00.002+10:00

I'm feeling a little sheepish about the subscriber comic #3. Not only was it way over due being printed, but now that I have got it printed I have not sent it out yet. I'll try and find a way to make it up for it being late. Rest assured it is coming!

Comics Librarian

2011-04-05T13:43:00.001+10:00

A comic panel of me imagining myself as a Librarian. Drawn in 2008 trying to foresee what my future would hold

Aspect comic from Chugnut

2011-03-23T22:19:00.002+11:00

This past weekend I attended my third Chugnut comics weekend. I had set myself the task of trying to draw as much as possible and also stretch the old inking muscles. On the first day, Friday, I drew anything that moved, but after I had drawn everyone I could see I got tired of that and wanted to move onto something else. I was really wanting some sort of idea to strike me and I would then just run with it. It got to 1am in the morning and I still had nothing. I then proceded to have the worst sleep ever that night going through ideas in my head; also having to pee and stomach pains didn't help.

The next morning I decided I would just do an aspect to aspect comic taking in the scenery at the camp grounds. This turned out to be a really good idea, however it ended up taking me all day to draw and ink. I tried a slightly new technique for me which involved drawing in a coloured col-erase pencil (in this case red) I then knocked that pencil back with a kneadable eraser, and defined the image as best I could with a pencil. The penciling was the crucial stage as I have realised recently that I am an extremely lazy penciller. This is partly due to leaving room for energy in the inking stage but in equal parts just lazy. I tried my best to make the pencil stage as complete a drawing as possible. For the final stage I inked the picture with a dip pen and ink. By the end of the day I was really over it, but mostly happy with the result (Ive liked it!). You can see the completely finished and computer coloured piece at the top of this post.

For Sunday I got out a collaborative comic I started with Chris Downes in April last year; yes it's taken me that long to finish. Just the mention of this comic at Chugnut would flair up the argument that I apparently said wordless comics aren't actual comics. I'd have to stop myself launching into explanations about how it's not what I exactly meant. But by this stage it's too hard to live down, so I just have to shut up about it.

I felt nervous going back to the comic, and the poses I had to draw were going to be complex; basically me recoiling as Chris unleashes his mighty fury on me and then drags me to a toilet to flush my words down them.

Even though I didn't get very far with my parts I did get to pencil them in and I should be able to complete the rest in the next few weeks.

It's always a pain leaving these weekends as you just start to get into the swing of it and remember how awesome everyone can be to hang out with.

I'll post some more camp pics in the next few days. You can also see some photos at the flickr group page.

Also don't forget the official Chugnut blog where there'll be some updates from new members.

Ps- the food was better than last year, and last year the food was awesome. Thanks to all the chefs!

Chugnuts is almost upon us

2011-03-17T23:17:00.001+11:00

Off to Chugnuts comic fun times tomorrow. This will be the third time a bunch of us cartoonists have gotten together for a weekend of drawing and assorted sillyness. Expect to see a whole lot of updates coming through on Twitter and also some pics on my flickr account (Linked previously)
Sadly a few people cannot make it this year, we will just have to have fun without them!

Share creative

2011-03-10T23:51:00.000+11:00

Internet = Free

Currency = Page visits, Links, Comments

Often people who are interested in the arts and not necessarily practicing artists themselves don't realise the potential they have to support artist and the work they do, and how much this means to people who are putting themselves out there.

If you like an artist,

Visit their site regularly; or subscribe through RSS
Leave comments on their site or reply to their tweets
Tell others by sharing links to the artist's website
Purchase merchandise or donate to support their craft

Some of my favourite blogs simply just talk about other peoples art and link to interesting sites.

Subscription comic #3 'In the Lost & Found'

2011-03-08T20:20:00.002+11:00

I am pleased to announce that I have finished laying out the pages and have the additional artwork for my next book. All going well I will be taking this issue to the printer in the coming few days and getting the first copies off to my subscribers. The comic should be available after this in a few weeks at places like Sticky in Melbourne and on my etsy store.

You can't copy skill

2011-03-07T17:44:00.002+11:00

Thank you greatly to Pat Grant for posting some insights into his drawing process for a recent illustration gig.

I think it's really awesome when artists aren't afraid to share their process, tools and tips. It shows their confidence in their work and themselves. I have always tried to be extremely open with the materials I use and I answer in questions people have in regards to them. Can you imagine if musicians would not divulge what sort of instrument they used?

I often ask cartoonists what they use and I often get no reply. Perhaps it is because they are swamped with these types of questions and get sick of answering them I am not sure.
Perhaps I will have to do my own process post sometime in the near future. I feel I need to get some more solid work done before I really have anything to share.

Also, I have a link to my google Buzz if you are into that sort of thing. I find it cool to share things from my RSS feeds which in turn pop up in Buzz.

Last page

2011-03-05T21:48:00.001+11:00

I just finished scanning the last page for my next comic. An I have to say I am very happy with how it turned out. It is funny how whilst I am constructing a page I have to fight myself not to tear it to pieces, but then when it in in the finished book I do not mind it so much. This particular page is an extra one I wrote for the new comic which explains how I was feeling when we moved back to Australia from Canada. It was an emotional page to write and draw and I hope it shows in the work. I think it can be difficult writing about feelings with out it being trite or cliche, so hopefully it rings true.
I also had a panel where a drawing of a face just was not right. I I have learnt over the years that it takes skill to recognise these weak spots and then courage to go back and redo them. I was almost about to redo it and then realised it was juts a slight proportional mistake in the face and I was able to move the nose and eyes over slightly and it looks much better.

Order from jetpens.com

2011-02-22T21:34:00.001+11:00

I just received my order from jetpens for some new nib (and lovely wooden nib holder). Also in the order are some Tombow brush pens and a small click eraser.

Found!

2011-02-21T11:34:00.000+11:00

Looking through some files in a sub folder I found one of the missing pages of artwork from the comic Z-Factor I wrote about last year. It still saddens me that I may never see the other pages or the colour work I did for them.

New Collier book

2011-02-20T15:46:00.003+11:00

New book from Canadian comic artist David Collier

Collier also did the inside album artwork for Canadian musician Luke Doucet,

http://www.lukedoucet.com/2010/e-lukedoucet.html

Etsy Cirlces

2011-02-19T22:31:00.004+11:00

I was excited to hear about Etsy Circles*, a new networking feature on Etsy. I have always lamented the difficulty of keeping up to date with favourite stores and I am hoping this will do the trick. I made a post a long time ago about LJ users that were on etsy. Which I will list again below. If you have an Etsy store and you are not on this list leave your user name in the comments.
This also prompted me to relist some items so my store didn't look so bare!

http://www.awcomix.etsy.com
http://www.bellen.etsy.com
http://www.nedroid.etsy.com
http://www.reidsrow.etsy.com
http://www.tinymonster.etsy.com
http://www.superteamnonstop.etsy.com
http://www.poisonrational.etsy.com
http://www.cozmiclin.etsy.com
http://www.lucy1ou.etsy.com
http://www.piratecore.etsy.com
http://www.wormulus.etsy.com
http://www.heypaiscomics.etsy.com
http://www.skullyflower.esty.com
http://www.jessicaFink.etsy.com
http://abrassea.etsy.com/
http://www.lizbaillieetsy.com

*other people were horrified that etsy would try and add a feature that would promote their store for them!

New ideas

2011-02-19T14:24:00.002+11:00

More story ideas coming into my brain. This has to be one of the most fun writing experiences I have ever had! It's a project that I hope I can see through to publication. I am following an old creativity rule that states not to let idea out of the bag prematurely which could possibly deflate the energy of the project. I know it is pointless then just to talk of some vague project so I apologise in advance. My main reason for mentioning is that i have never had much luck writing fiction, I usually end up feeling like the whole thing is pointless or just thinly veiled autobiography anyway.

Also how cool is this big Golden Book? There's not many pages (28 p.) and has a hardcover; which is perfect for the library shelf. Dimensions are roughly 21cm wide by 27cm high I would love to publish something this size and format.

Creative outputs

2011-02-14T18:34:00.002+11:00

I am starting to get into the swing of full time work, however I am still finding it hard to do much else. The simplest of things like pay bills or pick up something important or needed from a store is so hard when you work in busines hours and can not make the post office or electronic stores. However I have always told myself that I never want to hear myself say that I work full time now and do not have time for art. Needless to say I still have the overwhelming desire to create and draw and I have been trying to release this energy in a few ways.

For example,

Photography- I was never really interested in analogue photography (And still not) but I love the flexibility of digital, the ability to play and experiment at no cost; except for the camera itself. I have been getting into using the instagram app that you can get for iPhone and I have been uploading the pictures to my flickr account.

Reading- Working at a library you see all kinds of cool and interesting books you have never heard of, and my imagination is getting sparked in all sorts of ways. I began an anthropology obsession which seems to be morphing into and evolution obsession; It seems I always have to always have some sort of obsessive topic to think about to keep my brain ticking.

Writing- I have been working on a writing project that has been taking of recently. I am wiring in a way that I never have before where I have developed characters and a concept and I am slowly building the world around it and the story further. It was meant to be a collaborative project with another writer which I am still hoping will happen. However I am just riding the wave of inspiration for now and seeing where it ends up.

Drawing- I have decided to change the way I approach drawing my comics, which I discussed in an earlier post. I had questions about my comic practice and directions I wanted to head which could not be answered or achieved by my current technique. As much as I was fond of it I felt something had to change. I have decided to go back to good old grey lead and put away the blue lead for now. I have made a plan to practice my pencil drawing and I have picked up a new sketch book for the purpose of trying to draw in it everyday(see some samples above). For now I am focusing on figures. I had forgotten the joy of sketching with pencil as I do not like the smudgy pencil effect after a few days of it sitting in the book. The decision to practice pencil came from reading the excellent book, 'The brain that changes itself' which leads me to,

The Brain- Again working in the library I was recommended this excellent Non-fiction book which I then listened to in audio book format. I would strongly recommend that every one should read this book and think really hard how it applies to them. A lot of what is in the book may seem like common knowledge, eg, use it or loose it, but may not know the science behind it and how it applies to us as individuals. It got me to thinking about the ways that artists can train their brains to be better artists. The number one way would be to actually draw, but I think there is potential for some other brain training exercise to be developed like memory and concentration exercises that would definitely aid drawing practice. I think the other key thing that an artist can get from the book is that the brain is more like a muscle than it is a computer. Learning and getting better at art is about training and reinforcing that training, not just theoretical principles that are easy to know and keep.

2010: Year in review

2010-12-28T21:31:00.001+11:00

It has been a varied year comics wise with some highs and lows. I thought it might be good to look back and sum up what has been happening in awcomix land in 2010.

State library work
At the start of the year I was lucky enough to be able to volunteer to catalogue part of the State Library of Victoria's comic collection. I got to see a lot of gems both in zines and comics, including work from Mandy Ord, Tim Danko, Michael Fikaris, and Amber Carvan. It gave me a good sense of how things are not necesarily lost with time and printing your own publications has a strange pertinence and importance in both art and literary culture.

Comics camp (Codename Chugnut) 2010
What can I say good times, good people, good food, drawing and reading comics in the bush for two days. Lots of jokes to be had and new friendships were formed. I had real Masa corn tortillas for the first time (Thanks to Pat Grant), and ate the most fluffy and delicious pancakes in my life (Thanks to Andrew Fulton). A highlight was giggling like school kids one night in the cabin whilst Neale Blanden retold a story about an AC/DC concert where some young punks were throwing lit sparklers into the crowd.

Computer fundraiser
I ran a fundraiser to help go towards a new computer after my old one decided it did not want to turn on anymore. I had an excellent time creating fundraising artwork and there were a few supporters for the campaign which at least helped me get a little over $100. I am almost certain the computer's cost is still sitting on my credit card.

Blood & Thunder anthology
I jumped at the chance to get a comic printed in colour when the call out arrived. I used this opportunity to write a comic on a topic that I am passionate about; the commercial uses of industrial Hemp. Originally I had planned to write a 20-30 page story on Hemp and spent a year researching the topic whilst I was in Canada; I almost even got to visit a Hemp farm in Manitoba right before the harvest in August 2008; sadly I had too much going on at the time and missed it by just two weeks.
Due to the difficulty of writing a non-fiction comic I scaled back the idea to fit on the large B&T page. The same comic at A5 would have covered 3-4 pages, the one page was dense with panels. I have not had much feedback on the comic itself other than the visuals. It would be interesting to know if it was too dry a topic for an interesting read.

Dylan Horrocks comics master class
A group of wonderful and friendly comickers spent five days in April hunkered around a large table at the Wheeler centre discussing aspects of comics drawing writing and creating and led by New Zealand comic artist Dyaln Horrocks. Dylan was a friendly guy with helpful advice for us all. It was great to see some of his original art and hear about his process with comics. At times it was surprisingly emotional as we all discussed our hopes, fears and thoughts on comics, or in other words we took a good hard look at ourselves and came out better on the other side. Like the camp, it was so cool to hang out with these comic people and I wished every day could be like it.

Comic artist rehab
I was invited to get involved with rehab by Amber Carvan at the launch of Blood & Thunder at Brunswick Bound. I wasn't sure how I was going to tackle the challenge but I felt I wanted to try something that would push the boundaries of what I was usually comfortable writing about. I ended up biting the bullet and doing a comic about a guy, Alec, who I briefly knew a few years ago and had passed away. I have always had the story in the back of my mind, but I always put it off thinking I could not do it justice. The format of rehab was excellent motivator to get me to formulate the story and keep it on track. I did feel a little burnt out after rehab so it almost has the opposite effect. Truthfully I had a lot of other commitments happening at the same time which caused the burnt out feeling. I am looking forward to adding some more pages to the story and I have some plans to print it out once I have finished the set of subscription comics. The story feels like the first real independent story I have done, ie, a story I am passionate about telling and not just one pagers or little snippets strung together.

Tiny Peeks
With the birth of our daughter Zoey in July, regular life including drawing comics took a back seat. However in the crazyness of those first few months I somehow manged to draw a one page comic for the Melbourne exhibition Tiny Peaks. It was mostly wordless describing my long days balancing family and work. Fikaris said he liked it, which is good enough for me.

Subscription comics
I set out to publish 4 comics containing my diary strips from early 2008 to early to mid 2009. In have officially published two and have been on the verge of the third for approximately 2-3 months (in other words it is slow going) The frustrating thing is that the material is all completed, it is just the post production stuff which is taking awhile to do.

Library talk
I was invited to give a talk about my comics at a local university library. It was good to take a look back at my work over the past 10 years and try to explain it in some coherent fashion. The talk led to a few other interviews (including one in the Weekly Times) and a illustration gig which was nice.

And...
To summarise the year I thought I had not achieved as much as I would have liked to, although now looking back I can see I did more than I realised. I struggled with the idea about where I wanted to take my comics, which was somewhere away from the autobio genre, or atleast different from what I have been doing. I was able to try out different approaches in my Tango anthology submission (Love&War, a non-auto bio piece), the Dylan Horrocks masterclass (talking about the reasons/issues around a change), my failed Going Down Swinging submission (another non-auto bio piece), Blood&Thunder (a non-auto bio piece on Hemp) and the Comic Artist Rehab comic (still autobio but not focused on me).
I am not sure what has got me wanting to head away from autobio, perhaps it is that social media now fulfills (to a certain extent) the role that autobio played, ie, peeks in to other peoples life's, or that I feel I have said enough about myself, or that now I am older and have younger kids I am less willing to talk about my private goings on, I am not sure completely. One of the many things that came out of the Horrock's master class was meeting Jen Breach and discussion the possibility of collaborating on a kids comic. At this stage perhaps something for the ages 8-14, which is a big range in a way but perhaps we will focus on a smaller segment.
Thanks for sticking around and taking an interest, I hope to updating the blog with new drawings and or writing in the coming months.

New Job

2010-12-07T21:06:00.000+11:00

Recently I was the successful candidate for a full time library job. I am currently having to commute every day which is taking a lot of my energy. I am hoping to start posting some new things in the coming year. Meanwhile my top priority id getting out issue 3 of my subscription comics.

Inking test

2010-11-24T23:00:00.001+11:00

I abandoning inking comics with a nib around four years ago for my trusty tech pen. I was finding that I could create much more fluid drawings at a quicker rate with my pen than using a dip pen.
I resolved that I was going to forge my own way with the pen, even though it is not considered a proper inking tool as such, and that I would make it work for me. I have always taken note since whenever I would read that an artist used pens to ink, and not the traditional brush or nib; Ron Rege, John Porcelino and Jeffery Brown to name a few.
But then I would look at the work of Mandy Ord with her big juicy brush strokes, or Craig Thompson's beautiful lines, and more recently the work done by Clowes in his latest book 'Wilson' and wish that I could switch to the dark side and ink with a brush. I've attempted it a few times over the years, and I am probably happiest with my efforts with 'Z-Factor' inked with a Pentel brush pen.

More recently I have been wanting to explore some new inking styles that will allow for larger scale drawings. Whilst I love my .05 tech pen for drawing I find it does not suit the drawing of comics larger than A5 in size. I have decided that I am going to try my hand at inking with a nib again and see what sort of images I can come up with. My aim is to get artwork that has a nice natural loose feel to it and not a stiff and stilted lines. I am pleased to say that I am happy with my first attempt, part of which you can see above. My hand was a little shaky, but over all I was happy with the line I produced. I am going to come up with a few more tests and hopefully I can post them here soon.
Perhaps I should have read these inking tips first.

Z-Factor

2010-11-22T23:02:00.005+11:00

I recently lamented on Twitter and made a post over here that I had lost the digital files to a comic I produced in 2008 called 'Z-Factor'. It was a super hero parody with out being over the top or whacky. After hours of fruitless searching in backup disks (yes I backed up my whole computer on DVD's stil no joy) and external hard drive I can only fin the one page which I am posting above. To add insult to injury I am not even sure where the original art is.

Kirby Panel

2010-11-21T20:55:00.001+11:00

A few weeks ago I did this redraw of a Jack Kirby panel from 'The Demon' #15 (pg.13) to flex my brush pen muscles (not that I have any) It was a good chance to swish the brush around and produce a different kind of drawing. My aim was not to reproduce the panel exactly or necessarily do it in my style but rather create some sort of hybrid.
Another reason I did it as I have been seriously considering changing my inking style; which is due to a number of reasons which i need another post for.

A comic from 2007

2010-11-10T00:35:00.002+11:00

oops

2010-11-04T23:21:00.001+11:00

I got carried away and made a blog post on my image blog over at posterous, here's a link,
http://awcomix.posterous.com/z-factor-first-panel-t-shirt-design-by-awcomi
Some important thought I felt I had to get off my chest, inspired by looking at my redbubble shirts. Which may I say are on sale right now if you enter this code,
awcomix_is_on_sale_5230

New beginning

2010-10-22T23:20:00.002+11:00

Now that things are starting to settle down in the household with Zoey (our 3 month old), I am starting to think of some ways that I can start up my drawing habit again. I have a few projects that I would like to get up and running again, the most pressing being the third installment of my four issue subscription series.

The break has been a good time to reflect of new directions and thoughts on my comic work.
There are two new developments I am looking forward to getting started on,

My composition writing book

I made a decision to keep a separate book for writing, which includes both my notes and comics. I used to have a Mead composition book that I picked up in Canada on my first trip in 2001! The thing I like about these books (other than their pop culture significance) is the they have a hard card cover and the binding is sewn which make them durable. I also like anything that you know will remain consistent. If I start using these books for writing I can line them up evenly on a shelf for example.

Portable comic drawing pad
My usual method for drawing comics is in my spiral bound A5 sketchbook. I do this because if I limited myself to only drawing comics at a drawing board or on 'proper' paper, the comics would be few and far between. I like my comic set up to be portable. Perhaps if I had a house with a good studio this may change, but I do not like limiting the art to happen only in one place.
However drawing in my sketchbook can be limiting too. The pages can get dog eared and dirty and when it comes to scanning I never want to rip out the pages, even though I should if I wish to get the best possible scans (the rings in the book lift the page of the scanner slightly).

Then I read Lucy Knisely's instructions for making a portable comics drawing pad (here) which made me realise I may have stumbled across the solution. Lucy was kind enough to encourage others to try making their own books.
So far I have only cut my paper to size and printed panel guides in light blue on the page. I still need to get access to a hole punch and find/make a little folder.

Improving my outlook

2010-10-14T10:14:00.000+11:00

Lately as I may have mentioned I have been a little depressed from not drawing as much as I would like to be. Even though I have vaild reasons, I also want to come out of this experience energized with a new sense of purpose with my drawing and writing.
Here are some interesting tips I have come across recently about noty getting stuck in metal traps with your art

List from here,
http://www.doedeereblogazine.com/articles/how-to-feel-miserable-as-an-artist

And this from here,
8 Bad Habits that Crush Your Creativity and Stifle Your Success
“The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts the moment you get up and doesn’t stop until you get into the office.” — Robert Frost
It’s a myth that only highly intelligent people are creative.
In fact, research shows that once you get beyond an I.Q. of about 120, which is just a little above average, intelligence and creativity are not at all related.
That means that even if you’re no smarter than most people, you still have the potential to wield amazing creative powers.
So why are so few people highly creative?
Because there are bad habits people learn as they grow up which crush the creative pathways in the brain. And like all bad habits, they can be broken if you are willing to work at it.
Here are eight of the very worst bad habits that could be holding you back every day:

1. Creating and evaluating at the same time
You can’t drive a car in first gear and reverse at the same time. Likewise, you shouldn’t try to use different types of thinking simultaneously. You’ll strip your mental gears.
Creating means generating new ideas, visualizing, looking ahead, considering the possibilities. Evaluating means analyzing and judging, picking apart ideas and sorting them into piles of good and bad, useful and useless.
Most people evaluate too soon and too often, and therefore create less. In order to create more and better ideas, you must separate creation from evaluation, coming up with lots of ideas first, then judging their worth later.
2. The Expert Syndrome
This a big problem in any field where there are lots of gurus who tell you their secrets of success. It’s wise to listen, but unwise to follow without question.
Some of the most successful people in the world did what others told them would never work. They knew something about their own idea that even the gurus didn’t know.
Every path to success is different.
3. Fear of failure
Most people remember baseball legend Babe Ruth as one of the great hitters of all time, with a career record of 714 home runs. However, he was also a master of the strike out. That’s because he always swung for home runs, not singles or doubles. Ruth either succeeded big or failed spectacularly.
No one wants to make mistakes or fail. But if you try too hard to avoid failure, you’ll also avoid success.
It has been said that to increase your success rate, you should aim to make more mistakes. In other words, take more chances and you’ll succeed more often. Those few really great ideas you come up with will more than compensate for all the dumb mistakes you make.
4. Fear of ambiguity
Most people like things to make sense.
Unfortunately, life is not neat and tidy. There are some things you’ll never understand and some problems you’ll never solve.
I once had a client who sold a product by direct mail. His order form broke every rule in the book. But it worked better than any other order form he had ever tried.
Why? I don’t know.
What I do know is that most great creative ideas emerge from a swirl of chaos. You must develop a part of yourself that is comfortable with mess and confusion. You should become comfortable with things that work even when you don’t understand why.
5. Lack of confidence
A certain level of uncertainty accompanies every creative act. A small measure of self-doubt is healthy.
However, you must have confidence in your abilities in order to create and carry out effective solutions to problems.
Much of this comes from experience, but confidence also comes from familiarity with how creativity works.
When you understand that ideas often seem crazy at first, that failure is just a learning experience, and that nothing is impossible, you are on your way to becoming more confident and more creative.
Instead of dividing the world into the possible and impossible, divide it into what you’ve tried and what you haven’t tried. There are a million pathways to success.
6. Discouragement from other people
Even if you have a wide-open mind and the ability to see what’s possible, most people around you will not. They will tell you in various and often subtle ways to conform, be sensible, and not rock the boat.
Ignore them. The path to every victory is paved with predictions of failure. And once you have a big win under your belt, all the naysayers will shut their noise and see you for what you are — a creative force to be reckoned with.
7. Being overwhelmed by information
It’s called “analysis paralysis,” the condition of spending so much time thinking about a problem and cramming your brain with so much information that you lose the ability to act.
It’s been said that information is to the brain what food is to the body. True enough. But just as you can overeat, you can also overthink.
Every successful person I’ve ever met has the ability to know when to stop collecting information and start taking action. Many subscribe to the “ready – fire – aim” philosophy of business success, knowing that acting on a good plan today is better than waiting for a perfect plan tomorrow.
8. Being trapped by false limits
Ask a writer for a great idea, and you’ll get a solution that involves words. Ask a designer for a great idea, and you’ll get a solution that involves visuals. Ask a blogger for a great idea, and you’ll get a solution that involves a blog.
We’re all a product of our experience. But the limitations we have are self-imposed. They are false limits. Only when you force yourself to look past what you know and feel comfortable with can you come up with the breakthrough ideas you’re looking for.
Be open to anything. Step outside your comfort zone. Consider how those in unrelated areas do what they do. What seems impossible today may seem surprisingly doable tomorrow.
If you recognize some of these problems in yourself, don’t fret. In fact, rejoice! Knowing what’s holding you back is the first step toward breaking down the barriers of creativity.

I wrote down a few things for myself last night that I thought may help too

Rules for making awesome comics

Create the most awesome ideas you can with your full effort. Make them as if they will be remembered as the best comic in the world

Focus on one project at a time and complete it; obviously sometimes you have to take a break and refresh yourself but stay on target

Add all those little extra things in there; don’t produce for lowest common denominator or so that everyone can get it

Do not let self doubt get in the way; Create a plan and just work through it to the best of your ability at the time

Present your work the way it deserves to be shown; Do not chicken out, be proud, produce and distribute your work accordingly

Update

2010-10-11T12:30:00.011+11:00

It has been a crazy couple of months as expected. The day Zoey was born I had an overwhelming feeling come over me that I had to give up drawing comics. It freaked me out in a way, but really I think it was just my mind preparing the mental space for a new baby in the house. Coming down of my comic drawing addiction has been tough and has put me through the wringer of self doubt.

Notice how I smudged the wet ink when erasing

Luckily more recently things at home are starting to settle into a more normal routine. I even drew two panels today (part of which pictured above), my comic muscles were very weak and sore.
I also wanted to let subscribers know that I am working on the third instalment of the four issue subscription. I do not want to say when it will be done other than I am working on it. If it takes any longer than a month or two then I will be contacting subscribers to ask if they are happy to wait, if not we can work something out.

If you had not guessed I am working on a digital version of 'This Town' that will be available for download shortly on a donation basis. It is always a challenge looking at old work and not coming up with a hundred reasons as to why it should be thrown out never to be seen again. There are a few minor edits I would like to make to 'This Town' and perhaps even another page or two thrown in to hopefully clarify what I now see as some hazy aspects of the storyline.