Wow...the third month just passed.  When did it become April?!  90 Comics and 31 drawing challenges behind me.  When I started, I was dubious I'd make it this far.  I thought surely something would cause me to miss a night and throw the whole schedule off, but...surprisingly, thankfully...nothing has.  Some nights have definitely been much more difficult to draw through, but like anything, there will be good and bad days.  Push through the tired and the wrist pain!

I have noticed a marked decrease in the time it's taking to complete comics for 2 reasons: my drawing skill and setting limitations.  Obviously the skill will be honed as I relentlessly scribble my comics, but there's another skill underlying the drawing itself; setting realistic comic goals.  Often I'll get huge ideas spanning frames and frames, which is a lot of time and effort.  Before, I would do the whole thing, regardless of how long it took me.  Now, I see that there's nothing wrong with breaking up a joke into parts and spreading them over a few days to give my eyes and wrist a chance to heal up a bit.  

Of everything I've done, my favourite part is drawing hands.  Hands seemed really complex to me at first until I broke it down in my mind to basic polygonal shapes.  On a good day, I can play with this figure in my imagination and figure out how the hand will be drawn.  I'm often my own hand model though every other day.
Shoe and foot foreshortening is difficult, too, which is ironic that the easier shape compared to the hand is giving me more grief.  Something about it...I dunno.  Perhaps my next drawing challenge will be all about hand and feet gestures to whip me into shape there as well.  I haven't decided yet when I'll be starting the next drawing challenge, but I'll be giving myself at least a month off before jumping back into it.  I have to admit, I was quite pleased with the work that came from the challenge.

A friend at work told me about blogger sites where images (comics) can be uploaded as well.....and for free.  May look into that for the first year into my webcomic series (starting on my birthday!) before buying ad space for my own site.  I shall cross that bridge when I come to it.  

Thanks to anyone who reads this rag on anything that could be considered a basis.  I don't think it's bad form to shamelessly (yet humbly) self-promotion; If you like the comics, tell your friends, share my gallery link, or print and mail them to your friends and family!  I'm going to be trying to open up venues to start getting my comics to different places.  Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Pleasant evenings,

-Bryan-

After tonight's comic is finished, I'll have made it through a second month of Comic Bootcamp, with 10 more to go.  Drawing again has filled my time nicely.  I used to think you couldn't force creativity; now I'm well aware that you can.  Creating these comics has kept me up until hours of the morning I'd just as soon rather not see again, but I'm still having fun with it.  A few days ago I found myself re-reading all my comics from the beginning...it was reassuring that some even made me laugh, even though I knew the joke forwards, backwards, and upside down.

As I had mentioned previously, March marks the beginning of another one of my New Year's resolution: one of the four 30 Day Drawing Challenges...though, in this case, it will be a 31 day drawing challenge.  I scoured the web looking for themed ones and really didn't have a lot of luck.  I found only about a bajillion copies of the same list in my searches, and once on the other side of the crap-swamp I had to wade through, I found this one:

[link] - As supplied by G-Townsend

I've been playing with the look of my comics a bit.  I'm trying not to get pinned down in one style.  Admittedly, I fall back on a still generic looking set of characters, but I'm trying not to get stuck in a rut.  I started off drawing stick figures waaaaaaaay back in middle school, so I like to present a dressier version now that I can draw a little better.  

Off to draw my comic tonight!

-Bryan-

^_^

The first month has come to a close and I have 31 comics and a handful of doodles to show for it.  I'm pleased with progress so far.  Progress of skills; Hands started out tricky, but I'm starting to understand the underlying polygonal framework, which make a hand's dimensions more tangible in my brain.  I'm slowly noticing a change in the way I draw my backgrounds, too; in the last 2 or 3 comics, I've started adding small interior contour lines that follow main lines.  Seems to make the scenery more dynamic, perhaps.  

Things I think I still need to definitely work on; perspective, facial/hair variances, weight on character's frames, and how to color in photoshop are all things I need to work on.  I'd more than appreciate any additional critiques.  I know I need them.

I'm going to start hunting down my 30-Day Challenges this month and start the first one in March, I've decided.  Definite challenges include...

1. Limbs and Extremities
2. Perspective
3. Features of the head/face
4. (still undecided)

Good luck to those still sticking with NY's Resolutions.  I'm going to play some Oblivion, then go to bed.

-Bryan-