Articles Written By: Ben

Remember Adventures of the American Rabbit in this week’s Billy Badass!

Minecraft and Chill 8.

Stayed up late last night looking into Vine. 2016 I’m diving into animation as my main focus and I’m considering places to put things. I’ve had bigger projects in mind for a long time but I think smaller things like an animated gif webcomic and 6.8 seconds or less videos on Vine would be great for breaking my workflow up. I still have testing to do but I’m excited about what I’ve figured out so far.

Spent the evening typing up a thing you should find out about soon enough. I’m going to work on more of it later but it bogs the network down around the house while I’m working on it so that needs to be later.

Merry Christmas from this week’s Billy Badass!

Minecraft and Chill 8.

Spent today in the studio working on something for the new year. Typed part of it up, drove around to find Subway and Chinese restaurants were the only places open early on Christmas, then collected and organized stuff for another part. I see a few more days of editing and typing ahead but what I did today should make the other pieces easier.

Frank and his wife came up to visit. We traded gifts and cut birthday cakes after dad showed up. It’s been a nice little Christmas.

Merry Christmas from this week’s Billy Badass!

Minecraft and Chill 7.

Recorded M&C with the guys late and slept in today. Went for lunch with mom and then dad wanted me to help him grab some groceries. I’ve spent most of the evening sorting through browser tabs I’d accumulated, saving some on OneTab and closing others. I try to keep articles that may be useful organized because every so often I’ll remember something that covered just that thing and not be able to find it online again for the life of me.

Tomorrow’s Christmas and I’ve got a few tasks I want to deal with in the morning. Any time between that and when family visits will be for working on that wallpaper drawing I started. It’s going to brand my stuff for awhile so it’s worth taking time to make it right.

Merry Christmas from this week’s Billy Badass!

Minecraft and Chill 7.

Last night I played Don’t Starve: Shipwrecked before bed, then listened to another Dirty Old Ladies podcast and the latest Dana Gould Hour. Slept in, then dad wanted to do some running around. Came home, went with mom to get birthday cakes, came back home and did some research until Ian messaged me about hanging out. Invited Frank in and we recorded another M&C.

So yeah, even though I wasn’t going to do anything because it’s my birthday, still a busy day.

Merry Christmas from this week’s Billy Badass!

Minecraft and Chill 7.

Spent today working on the wallpaper/header for my social profiles. I’ve had a rough idea for awhile so I started inking the elements I knew I was going to use. Then I started playing around with stroking effects in Manga Studio and sketching other elements trying to get a feel for the over all layout. I’m still filling it out, deciding what stuff works and what doesn’t. I need to figure out the environment more so I can tie it all together instead of making it a bunch of random pieces on the same page. Did research for inspiration and similar aesthetics before I tuckered out and went for lunch. Came home, played some Don’t Starve: Shipwrecked, played some guitar.

Tomorrow’s my birthday. As tempted as I am to sleep in I like getting up early and working in the studio while I can.

Merry Christmas from this week’s Billy Badass!

Minecraft and Chill 7.

Got up this morning and finished Monday stuff. Exported, watermarked, made a preview image for, and scheduled the Tumblr blog post for today’s comic. Typed up and scheduled the blog post for today’s podcast, then I answered some email and listened to the Dirty Old Ladies podcast. Then my dad called. We went for lunch and drove around a bit. When I came home we decided to go for groceries. A few games on my wish list have been on sale so I picked up They Bleed Pixels, Organ Trail, and the Shipwrecked DLC for Don’t Starve.

Today was productive though I wish I’d done more with the second half. I’d felt a bit like a clenched fist with stuff needing to get finished and when it was done I needed to take a bit to relax. I still need to figure out what’s causing the podcast feed to invalidate before it gets kicked off the iTunes store again. (I’ll try stripping it down, see if there’s some setting that shouldn’t be ticked that’s screwing with it.)

Tomorrow I want to come down to the studio, map out my projects for 2016, and just dive into drawing. I need to figure out how I’m going to work my Daily Doodle routine in with my Patreon plans. Maybe I’ll post sketches here and refined versions in the activity feed or post them on Patreon early. I’m still working on specifics. I do know I want my animations to be the focus for next year.

Remembering Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in this week’s Billy Badass!

Minecraft and Chill 7.

Had a slow start to the day as it took me awhile to fall asleep last night and I woke up a few times. I turned my alarms off the last time, a few minutes before they were to go off, thinking I’d nap an hour or so and get up. Woke up about 6 hours later. Showered, heated some breakfast up, and just as I was sitting down to eat my dad called. He wanted to find his brother a coat so we went looking for one then had lunch. Spent the evening since working on Monday’s comic. It took some research but I like how it’s looking so far. Started inking, think I’m gonna save that for tomorrow.

Remembering Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in this week’s Billy Badass!

Minecraft and Chill 6.

Recorded M&C last night with Ian. Went to bed at 11, set the alarm for 8, woke up 30 minutes early thanks to the cat. Felt tired most of the day and wasn’t the best to get my creative juices flowing. Was going to switch to working on Monday’s comic to see if it helped my drive but then my dad called for lunch. Ate, came home, watched some YouTube, and napped. Worked on designs this evening but I need to get more done.

Going to draw the comic tomorrow and see if I can get in the proper mindset for other things later. When I have to draw a page I can work efficiently. For some reason getting new ideas out of my head it’s like squeezing the last bit of toothpaste out.

Remembering Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in this week’s Billy Badass!

Minecraft and Chill 6.

Spent today working on part of an animatic. I wanted to sort out the beats and write the dialogue. Changed the character to make it more entertaining. Still have ~half to write but I like how it’s shaping up. It’s just been on my mind so I wanted to get it out before I forgot anything. Took a nap then went for lunch with dad. Came home, called in my prescriptions, then went to pick them up and renew my driver’s license.

Tonight we’re recording another M&C. I’d like to spend tomorrow drawing. Today was mostly writing and thumbnailing. I didn’t focus on any one drawing because I was trying to lay the bulk of it out to refine later. Friday I’m devoting to Monday’s comic simply because I never know how much work I’m going to be able to do over the weekend.

Remembering Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in this week’s Billy Badass!

Minecraft and Chill 6.

We got new front and back doors installed today so I had to be upstairs to let the guy in this morning. Spent most of the time reading as I couldn’t concentrate on much else while he was here all day. Started backing up my media to the RAID today. Went for dinner and groceries this evening.

Looking forward to having a quiet empty house again tomorrow. I need to ideate on a self portrait and wallpaper for my social media profiles. I’ll put some music on and just draw as much as possible. I’ve got a concept, I’ve just spent a lot of time researching for elements of it. I want to draw themes that represent me as an artist and I want to make them look right. I’m not sure how they’ll look as a unifying whole but I’ll try to make it work. I also need to design some graphics for my Patreon page. I’ve got some ideas from looking at other campaigns. I’ll just do a mockup and flesh it out.