More Scores: February Comics

Stopped into one of my favorite comic book stores, here in Pittsburgh, (Copacetic Comics) and picked up a few things this past weekend.

The following two comics were by Mardou. I am writing reviews of comics and zines on my tumblr site.

When I went into the store, I was really looking for a book to help me learn more about the craft of creating comics. This past Thursday was the Fun-A-Day Art Show, where I displayed my comics from the month of January. (Thanks to those of you who came out!) Trying to create 31 short comics was sort of hard and I learned a lot about my lack of skills in that time. I have little to no formal art training, even though I have been doodling for years, and I want to teach myself as much as I can. (My Fun-A-Day comics are available for you to see on my other tumblr site: nervousindustry.tumblr.com.

A Few Things I Have Learned About Art (and Stuff) In the Past Six Months:
- Pencils intentionally come in different hardness ranges. That's why my art pencils from middle school aren't as crisp as my mechanical pencils. I always thought it primarily had to do with the lead thickness (like pens).
- Brush-tip pens are not a myth and are readily available!
- Those cross-hatching skills that were taught in grade-school art class DO come in handy!
- Quill-style calligraphy pens, not just for writing! Very good for comic drawing.
- Comics book artists and other people use this lettering tool to make their words uniform and beautiful Below is an example of an Ames. This literally blew my mind apart (I learned this in the DW+WP book).

Seeking the advice of people who know more than me, I asked the owner of Copacetic what he would recommend for someone with my current interest. After making a few suggestions, he pulled out this:

Drawing Words and Writing Pictures is a college textbook designed out of the classes that Jessica Abel and Matt Madden teach. It is very comprehensive and has a companion website that people working through the book can follow along with. Not only is it full of comics and tips, but it explains what tools are commonly used by comic book artists with specific brand recommendations and supplies lists. This book is exactly what I was looking for and I am working my way through some of the exercises.

Every Day and Evey Night

Tonight is one of those nights where you want to tear everything you've made apart and maybe start anew. Maybe it's because working from home all day and drinking two giant cups of coffee for the first time in months has made you zany. Maybe it's because for the 5th straight day in a row, you don't feel like being bothered to go anywhere without socks (they are in the dryer now). Maybe it's because winter-hibernation mode causes you to lose weight because you're not going out to lunch and dinner all the time you are now between sizes and you hate all of your clothes.

Or maybe it's because the past few weeks of utter laziness and lack of exercise have you finally fed up with everything. Sitting at home all day while you're expected to work only draws your attention to everything you try to escape from when you leave the house.

I had a lot of things to accomplish today work-wise and I even put in a little extra time so I can make tomorrow deal-withable (not looking forward to a million voice mails). At 5.30pm, I was trying to bake a cake before settling in for The Simpsons. In our house, we eat meals in front of the tv, computer, or on the way out the door so I settled into the couch with some kale chips to relax. (By the way, this is just the first usable recipe I found online. I don't think I am a fan of that person, from what I perused, but the directions were straightforward.) As soon as I was done eating, I was ready to gtfu and do something productive with my day.

Having a desk job is only something I am accustomed to within the past 11 months. Last year at this time I was still running my butt off through a maze of tables and cocktails and hot plates. Now, three days can pass before I realize that the farthest I've walked was from the bus stop at the end of the street to home.

In order to make sure that my cabin-fever is productive and not destructive, I plan to do the following things in the near future:

1) Walk to the end of my street and sign up for the gym as soon as payday happens
2) Get school items together
3) Put all of the laundry away and keep it off the floor
4) Clean a little bit of the house up every day for the next week and a half
5) Take these small mountains of stuff to Goodwill as soon as the weather clears enough for me to move my car
6) Set goals for some of the projects I am working on through the end of next week and meet them
7) Limit tv

None of these things are particularly difficult but most of them seem to require coffee.