You, Yourself, and your Drawing

Super busy lately. I don't like going so long without a post so I'm putting up a drawing I did yesterday or the day before (the days all blur together when all you do is work work work). It's an unused drawing; part of the freelance illustration job I'm currently working on.

I think, in the end, I'm glad this one isn't being used. It's me. I often use myself as a model (I'm the only person I know who's always available when I need someone) but rarely do I ever try to keep 'myself' in the work. Actually I usually put a lot of effort into making sure the end result doesn't look anything like me. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don't.

One thing you'll learn by drawing yourself a lot is all your imperfections. They jump out at you when you start changing yourself to be more 'ideal'. So the me you see here is a slightly more ideal me. Not too much in the way of changes, but a few. The biggest change is the missing goatee. And the glasses. Then there's the face being a little thinner. The eyes are in line. I could go on...

The Little Things

When you're busy working your butt off and not getting to experience normal life you have to learn to love the little things. For instance, after using Photoshop for ten years or more I discovered the other day the "sample all layers" option when using the magic wand. Holy christmas has that saved me some time when coloring pages! How I didn't see this before is beyond me. I had another flash of brilliance the other day: as I was leaning way over on my drawing desk, uncomfortable, I suddenly pondered "why the hell is this thing so low?" So I raised it. I was whistling ditty little tunes the rest of the day. It's these little things that bring so much joy if you let them.

On the other hand, Apple has finally updated their operating system to the point where it no longer recognizes my perfectly good but older large bed scanner. Just a little thing that will cost me $300 now that I have to go and buy a new scanner. Thanks Apple. How do you do a middle finger with text?

RECOVERY INCORPORATED, page 1

First page of the new comic I'm doing that will appear in STRIP magazine. The first issue hits the stands, in the UK, in November. I think this first page makes for a nice teaser.