Social Media, Graphic Novels and the Art of Procrastination

Okay, so this is going to be a long post since I haven't done anything a while. The irony of this post, specifically the part about procrastination, is that this post was sitting as a draft since November. Damn, I guess I really do procrastinate.

deviantART

I recently (late last year, which isn't that reason anymore) started a deviantART page in order to get my name and artwork out to a larger audience of artists and art lovers. I've barely caught on to the whole deviantART craze (not sure if craze is really the word, but I know alot of people who are either on it or take material from it) and I have to say that I really like it. It's great to have people who actually like and appreciate art critiquing or complimenting your work.

That's mainly the reason why I haven't been updating this blog that often... Wait, that's a lie. Really though, it's mostly because I haven't been creating any new work. All of the art on my page, which can be found at evolvemikl.deviantart.com, is old stuff. While there are a few pieces on there that I haven't posted either here or on my Facebook page, they're all older scans. But I still hope you check it out and maybe follow me. Or whatever the equivalent is on deviantART.

Twitter

More recently though, I joined Twitter. After thinking about it long enough and the fact that I finally got a smart phone, I just went ahead and signed up. The thing about it though is that there's alot of nothing on there. Hell, even the things that I post are really not that interesting, except to me (and even then..) So if you want to follow me and see me post about the most random things (mostly sketches and things I'm working on) you can check out my profile at twitter.com/evolvemikl

Graphic Novels

I've really been sleeping on all the new (and not so new) graphic novels that have been coming out lately. There have been so many good books in the last year that I really should have been reading. I think ever since I stopped driving I kind of stopped buying, or even reading, any new graphic novels or comic books. Usually I check them out online first then go out and buy them. It's too hard for me to sometimes just order one online without first holding the physical copy in my hands. Books (comic, novels, graphic novels) are just about the only thing that I never think about pirating (pirating any media is bad and I do not condone illegal downloading of any kind).

Here are a few on my wishlist that I will more than likely purchase in the next couple of months (Not all are from 2012, these are just graphic novels that I have yet to read).

Building Stories, Chris Ware
I was originally going to purchase this from Amazon, but they were out of stock when I put my order in. And after waiting so long (and watching the price fluctuate back and forth from $25 up to the msrp of $50) I just cancelled it altogether. The book is more like a box set. More info and pictures of the set can be found here.

X-ed Out, Charles Burns
The Hive, Charles Burns
If I'm not mistaken, both of these books are closely relate to one another. I read his other book, Black Hole, and absolutely loved it. I wrote about it before, so I wont go into it again. Any of his work is highly recommended. My previous post about Black Hole and other graphic novels can be found here.

Spaceman, Brian Azzarello (Author) & Eduardo Risso (Illustrator)
I loved 100 Bullets, also by the same pair. And I've read positive reviews about this one.

Saga, Vol. 1, Brian K Vaughan & Fiona Staples 
Truthfully, I know very little about the actual plot of this series but again, I've heard great reviews on this one as well. As long as its not some typical, corny superhero plot then I'm all for it.

100 Bullets, Brian Azzarello (Author) & Eduardo Risso (Illustrator)
These have been out for a while, but I only have up to the first 7 graphic novel adaptations, an now they're re-releasing them into thicker hardcover books which I don't know to feel about.

The Art of Procrastination

Okay, so alot of times I post about how I'm going to do this next time (ballpoint pen drawings) or do that (watercolor painting) and so on. But I'll either not do it (procrastination) or I do but then I wont post it due to my dissatisfaction with it. This time though I'm actually going to do something that I've wanted to do for a very long time. Write and draw my own graphic novel.

The hardest and most frustrating part is writing the script and scenario. It's one thing to get a basic story which I more or less have. It's a whole different thing trying to write natural speech and narration. As you can see by my posts I'm a better artist than I am a writer (would never even consider myself a writer).

The basic story more or less is about a mentally unstable man living in a dystopian -like future. What comes to mind is something similar to Blade Runner. By that I mean a 1980's view of the future where there's an antiquated mixed of digital and analog technology. Kind of like steampunk, but without the polished brass. Hope that made any sense. But it really doesn't have to at this point.

Anyways, this is something that I am definitely going to be working on in the next few months and I'll be posting updates like storyboards, sketches and other related material to both this blog, deviantArt and on Twitter.

Left Hand Sketches

So here's a quick update (for once). I drew this last night before going to bed. As you can see on the closeup there's a bit of smearing/ink buildup on certain parts. That's mostly because I'd been up late playing videogames on my computer with the lights off so my vision was kind of blurry after I turned on the light. And also these pens tend to bleed a little. But I wanted to try something different so I used Paper Mate InkJoy ballpoint pens, mostly for the colors.

Different versions of my left hand

They're alright as far as art pens but that's not exactly their function. I've been wanting to try these other pens, Bic Cristal Pocket Scent ballpoints but it's a bitch finding them in the U.S. A couple of users on DeviantArt who do amazing work with ballpoint pens use them to do portraits. I think because of the odd colors that can be blended very nicely to match skin tones.

Work in Progress (untitled, Moleskine)

Okay, so I've stated numerous times in the past that I have a hard time with procrastinating when starting a drawing. And it doesn't matter whether it's a sketchbook drawing from my Moleskine or a full blown piece. I find myself posting more unfinished drawings lately. But in some cases I'll post an unfinished drawing if it's taking me too long to finish and I need some content for this blog (as is the case for this post).

The other day I was looking through one of the several poster shipping tubes that I have put away in the corner of my room and I came across a few unfinished pieces. One of them I stopped halfway through because of a rather interesting object I decided to add to it. I'll explain in another post once I get a chance to pin it down and take pictures of it (since the drawing has been in the tube for several years now, it naturally rolls together like a poster). But I digress...

Another unfinished (for now) sketch

The problem with me is that I don't usually start a drawing with much of a goal in mind. Meaning that I don't know where it's going really. An example is the image above. While the two images don't really look cohesive, eventually they will once it's finished. Though I'm not sure how I'm going to accomplish that at this point.

Therein lies my biggest problem, not enough planning or organization. I just start something with not much of an idea as to what's going on really. That's usually the reason why sometimes I don't complete a drawing, that or the drawing just sucks. But then other times, in those rare instances, I end up with a drawing that's far beyond my own expectations of what I'm capable of.

Found Art

I've been thinking about doing some art outside of the sketchbook I usually draw in. So I decided to try and complete a piece for an art show coming up soon. As I was pulling out some mat boards I found this old unfinished drawing.

I kind of remember this drawing, but honestly I don't even know how old it is. I would say maybe 8 years at least. It's an alright drawing, nothing special or great but I kind of like the fish tail on the lower-left hand side. I tried to take a good closeup picture of the fin to show better detail. This is the best I could do.

closeup of partially finished fish

unfinished ink drawing

Ballpoint Pen Practice

I've either taken a break from drawing or just been lazy recently because I haven't been keeping up with posts this year. Usually I start up again whenever I see something, or someone, that inspires me. This time it was the work of Jim Rugg whose work I first became familiar with from the Drawn Blog which I frequent on a daily basis. His ballpoint pen drawings are awesome to say the least.

They remind me of old drawings and sketches I used to do in class a long time ago when I was in high school. I would have 3-5 sheets of notebook paper stacked on top of one another. The top one or two sheets I would use for actual note taking. The next couple of sheets were the ones I used for drawing and then I would usually have a final bottom sheet to give the ones I was drawing on a softer surface so that it would be easier to shade and bring about a smoothness to the pen, rather than pen and paper on a hard solid surface. Had I kept all the "doodles" (I hate that word) that I created back then (and some in college), I would have at least a hundred. But sadly they're all gone... Then again, I doubt they were even as good as I thought they were back then.

Unfinished practice in ballpoint

I wanted to try it again. Even though I mentioned in earlier posts that I was going to try ballpoint pens again, I have yet to fully experiment with them (besides this drawing). I'm going to look into getting a set of colored pens and really bust out an actual, complete drawing. Until then, there's this one from my moleskine.

Obviously it's not finished and I don't plan on finishing it unless I feel that I could add more to it. It started as a picture I found online, but mostly though the face and right arm are what I took from the original. Once I started with the pen he looked different from what I had planned so I changed it up quite a bit. So much so that even if you saw the picture you wouldn't find much, if any, similarities.