Articles Written By: Ben

Remember when MC Hammer was the Saturday morning superhero Hammerman? Check out my webcomic Billy Badass for more!

Today’s been a slower, more relaxing day. Slept in, went for lunch with dad, flipped through art magazines at Barnes & Noble, and spent some time doodling gestures of my little pin up mascot. I like drawing her and I want to do some bigger pieces of her. For now my focus this week is to relax, doodle to play around and explore, and to just enjoy drawing and animating again. I like my work and every so often I need to remind myself how fun it is. Or maybe I just need to allow myself to remember how much fun it is. As long as I’m drawing, even if it’ll never become a finished piece, it’s productive on some level.

Did you know there was a Little Shop of Horrors cartoon? Check out my webcomic Billy Badass to find out more!

Spent the morning coloring a page. There were more little details than previous updates so it took awhile longer. I also discovered Manga Studio has a context menu for “copy all these layers and flatten them into one” though it added a white layer to the bottom. (or at least it did when I used it) I started on another page but after a phone call I was just in a bad mood the rest of the evening.

I think after I get these three pages I’ve got done I’ll take a break and work on another project for a bit. I miss animating and trying to work on comics and animate in the same day doesn’t really work unless I’m flying on all cylinders or something’s almost done already.

Did you know there was a Little Shop of Horrors cartoon? Check out my webcomic Billy Badass to find out more!

Today was not a productive day in the studio. Rather than beat myself up over it or even work on stuff now like I’d been planning to do I think the best option would be to go to bed so I can get up in the morning. There’s planning I need to be doing and it only makes sense to do it when I’m keeping a regular schedule. I’ve been frustrated/agitated lately and I think not being on a regular routine is adding to that.

Did you know there was a Little Shop of Horrors cartoon? Check out my webcomic Billy Badass to find out more!

Slept in today hoping to balance my system out. Went to lunch with my dad and then grocery shopping with my mom. Last night I flat-fill colored two pages and today I added shading to them. I’ve got two more inked pages to color and tone before I need to start drawing and inking again. The ideal is to finish two pages a day to keep on top of things and get ahead. Realistically I know there’ll be days where I can only get a stage or two of the pages done. These pages have a lot of panels, there’s research involved sometimes, and some days I won’t be starting until the evening.

I really hate saying it like that because of course I want to meet the ideal. But I think it’s an important realization to make. Sometimes life gets in the way. I love drawing, it’s what I want to do for a living. Yet somehow days happen where the sun sets and I haven’t started working yet. I’ll get swept up in something, I’ll wake up sick, or one of myriad of things prevents me from doing what I know I want to do. Sometimes it’s even myself. I’ll want to work on something else or be frustrated with the progress I’m making. Some days I’ll just want to not be productive at all and take a break. And really it’s healthier to acknowledge that. You can’t solve a problem if you fail to believe it exists. If I don’t want to be working maybe I should clear my head and do something else for awhile. If other things keep monopolizing my time maybe I should start saying no more often. Maybe instead of beating myself up that I’m not knocking out of the park every day in the studio I should accept it’s not a sign of weakness to fall short of perfection once in awhile.

Did you know there was a Little Shop of Horrors cartoon? Check out my webcomic Billy Badass to find out more!

Today was a slow start and an uphill climb for some reason. I went to bed about the same time last night as I did the night before yet I couldn’t get up in the morning. Then lunch with my dad dragged on as I helped him clean up his Facebook feed. I was getting frustrated trying to work so I took a TV break while I waited for it to cool and quiet down around here. The plan right now is to flat fill color two pages tonight. I’m going to listen to some podcasts while I work so hopefully I’ll relax before bed.

Check out my new webcomic Billy Badass, now in it’s second week on tumblr!

Morning was spent researching and collecting info. I still need to properly go through it and map out what I want to do based on everything but at least it’s gathered now. I want to regularly assess my goals and progress towards them so it’s worth it to take the time to think clearly. I try to save that time for weekends but sometimes I just need the sobering calm of a Monday.

I got two pages shaded this afternoon musing a sharp edge and some gradients. It’ll probably be the approach I’ll take going forward, save a few effects here and there. Flatting should go smoothly, just turn on some music and a podcast to keep me company. I’m not sure if I’ll try shading and flatting in the same day or divvy time up and work on another project. It depends on how out of it I’m starting to feel. Two pages at a time is a nice pace because they’re different enough from each other to keep it from feeling monotonous yet it’s not so many it feels overwhelming.

Check out my new webcomic Billy Badass on tumblr!

Slept in this morning because I was tired, woke up to a storm outside. I decided my shower could wait for the lightning to stop. (Never being naked while it’s lightning is always good life advice.) Then my dad called so I got ready and rode around with him until lunch. I come home and my mom wants to go grocery shopping.

After all that and some disagreements that have left me angry with a headache I’m in little mood to work. I corrected a character’s hairline, which meant redrawing on 3 layers, and I started shading. It’d be a frustrating slog and I’ll just make mistakes if I keep at it. I think we’ll just start the weekend now.

Check out my weekly comic Billy Badass on tumblr!

Got up this morning fairly easily. Sketched a few key poses in Harmony but spent most of the day shading two pages. I’ve been getting frustrated with how the shading looks. I like the soft edged brush when I’m rendering it with the color layer hidden. Then I turn the color on and it looks like sprayed dirt. Lowering the opacity loses a lot of the detail. Then there’s the issue of streaks versus things looking muddy if I blend too much. I may end up using a hard edge and then blurring it on another layer. I should probably experiment with color some more, too. But that’s the fun of trying to push myself and change the style of this project up from previous ones I’ve worked on.

Check out my weekly comic Billy Badass on tumblr!

Last night I finished the shading on next week’s comic before bed. Tonight I finished the next week’s. I used to have trouble working in the evenings. I think it was a result of trying to keep studio hours and free time separate. I’m starting to relax on evening work in the studio as I put on some music and ease into it. It also helps when I get a lot of the planning and decision-making out of the way so I’m working on things that require a more instinctive reaction. “No, that’s too dark,” or, “No, this color doesn’t look right next to this one.” People tend to carry a lot of stuff with them that you have to unpack before you can do the thing you’re trying to do. Ever have the family member try to tell you about something and they eat up time explaining superfluous stuff? Who the people are, how they’re related, what they brought to the potluck three years ago… When decisions are made ahead of time you can focus on the task at hand.

Check out my weekly webcomic Billy Badass on tumblr!

Today my sinuses have been acting up and I slacked off more than I’d like. The problem with not getting anything done early is it becomes a motivation killer as you look at the uphill climb. The first half of the day I’d been debating going back to bed with my stomach and head bothering me. I napped a little this evening and I want to get some work done before I turn in.

It’s been rainy here lately. Muggy when the sun’s up, cool but damp otherwise. I usually prefer to work early in the daylight hours but tonight I’ll be burning some midnight oil. Considering I spent most of my weekend working on podcast stuff I don’t feel too bad about a slack day. Time to relax and recharge is good provided more time is spent being productive later. Tomorrow I’ll sleep in a bit, see if a later wakeup keeps me from getting a headache.