Where have I been?

Well sir. I got it in my head I should stop doing what collage had taught me and do what I did before I went. The idea came to me when I decided I didn't want to be the guy who animated someone else's creations. I wanted to be the guy who had his creations animated. So I dropped the whole animation side of thinking and went back to feeling shit out.

Should have slit my wrists and hung myself. Would have been more productive. At least I'd have died and done something right.

So here I was, trying to draw what felt right. Trying to find a character's voice. Spent forever crumpling up and tossing bagfuls of failed designs. Eventually did come to rest on something I liked again, much more in tune with the over zealous drawing of the '90s. You know. When the crosshatching was crosshatched and no one knew how to draw hands or feet? I whipped a few pages of this junk and passed it off to be inked. Turns out I hatched so much, that Darlene actually had trouble figuring out what was a hatch line, and what was a figure line.

In short, the art Was terrible and I was back to square one. So I emo'd for a while. Thought, very honestly, I was done with drawing as a whole. Can't do what I want to do? Well. Fuck that noise.

Then Darlene, being a woman and a brain ninja, makes a small quiet comment last night. "Its funny how hard you try when all your characters look like Bea."

Got me thinking. Bea is a character I can draw quickly and easily. To this day, I can pick up a pencil and doodle her out without much thought. Know what that is? Thats the mark of a good design. Can piss it in the snow, easy to replicate, instantly recognizable? Great design.

I had another character I had designed I could do the same thing with. Both characters were toons with simple and easy to recognize shapes. I drew each one a few times and did what I was taught in school, I deconstructed them. Found out they both were drawn outward from one line. The line would make one eye, then their nose. Lips down a bit, other eye and presto! There they were.

So I did it again and came out with the new toon's design. In ten seconds flat.

What did I learn?

College wasn't as useless as I thought it was. I remembered I can't find a character's voice. I have to give it to them. Silly me. And oh my. What a lot of wasted time.

Now to design the cast.

I'll show what I'm working on eventually. Test is all I have for now.