Miles traveled, miles to go, my friend. Miles traveled. Miles to go. Back in the first one of these missives I wrote for you, I said this is a long game. There is no real shortcut to get from "I can sort of art, and I sort of dig it" to "I can make a modest but meaningful living as a visual teller of stories." I don't know what the path to "My doodles paid off my house in the hills, my Benz and my Ex" looks like, but I'm assuming there's no shortcut there, either. (If there is, hey, I will take your calls.) So we're left with the long road. Work-work-working the days and nights away ..read more

If there is one thing you could and should do to further your creative endeavors, it would be to start carrying a small sketchbook or notebook or both. Anywhere and everywhere, all the time, and make the effort to put pen to page at least a couple of times a day. Are you going to succeed every day? No, probably not. But that's OK. It'll get easier as the habit sinks in and, sooner or later, it'll add up. You'll have pages and pages of drawing and writing practice, and a wealth of raw material to pull from. And if you keep trying, and succeed even some of the time, that well will never ru ..read more

Look, you already know you will end up drawing a lot of images as a storyboard artist or visual storyteller of any sort– no Shocker on Shock Street there. And we’ll assume you came into this by your own free will– not by gunpoint, guilt trip, threat of blackmail, or any other manner of coercion. Which is to say we’ll assume you actually want to draw a lot of images over your career.   Even so, it can be hard to nail down just how many images you should draw to cover off your scripts, or scenes within said scripts, or actions within said scenes within said scripts. We’re talking about a m ..read more

If there is one thing you could and should do to further your creative endeavors, it would be to start carrying a small sketchbook or notebook or both. Anywhere and everywhere, all the time, and make the effort to put pen to page at least a couple of times a day. Are you going to succeed every day? No, probably not. But that’s OK. It’ll get easier as the habit sinks in and, sooner or later, it’ll add up. You’ll have pages and pages of drawing and writing practice, and a wealth of raw material to pull from. And if you keep trying, and succeed even some of the time, that well will never run dry ..read more

I’m not saying I’m getting on in years but… I’m not not saying I’m getting on in years. You know what I’m saying? Those odd stray grays have become some ever-increasing patchwork… And the lines on my face have transitioned from temp work to full-time… Also, I now feel the cold in my bones. What the sh*t is that about? I live about two blocks south of Santa’s joint… Age comes for us all. Maybe age comes a bit more hellbent for some than others. I’ve put many a mile on me. But sooner or later, old happens. And, inevitably, getting older is going to change how we work. Which, naturally ..read more

Miles traveled, miles to go, my friend. Miles traveled. Miles to go. Back in the first one of these missives I wrote for you, I said this is a long game. There is no real shortcut to get from “I can sort of art, and I sort of dig it” to “I can make a modest but meaningful living as a visual teller of stories.” I don’t know what the path to “My doodles paid off my house in the hills, my Benz and my Ex” looks like, but I’m assuming there’s no shortcut there, either. (If there is, hey, I will take your calls.) So we’re left with the long road. Work-work-working the days and nights away. Falling ..read more

Use it or lose it. I mentioned before, I’ve had two surgeries on my drawing hand, and I’ll tell you, coming back to the table and tablet each time was like learning to draw all over again.  My hand seemed scrubbed entirely clean of any recollection of any of the particular marks one might associate with my work. Twice now, I’ve had to basically get born again, artistically, on the fly while still attempting to create some stuff I can pawn off to make rent.  Errrr… I mean, while continuing to make works of art for their future forever homes.  (OK, I probably actually very much m ..read more

There’s a scene in Forgetting Sarah Marshall where Paul Rudd’s character, Chuck (Kunu), tries to teach Jason Segel’s character, Peter, how to surf in Hawaii. You know the one. It’s been a while (that film was 2008-ish, I think), but it was the source of much internet meme-fodder for a long time. “Don’t do anything. Don’t try to surf– don’t do it. The less you do, the more you do.”  “Let’s see you pop up. Pop up. … That’s not it at all. Do less– get down. Try less– do it again.” “Pop up. … Nope– too slow. Do less.” “Pop up. … You’re doing too much– do less. Pop down.” “Pop up now. … Stop ..read more

So, I’m now two surgeries in on my right hand. Yup– the one I draw with. Sooner than later, most likely, I’ll have a first surgery done on the other hand, and that’ll make for three total, to date. Sooner or later, most definitely, that number will hit an even ten– one for each and every finger as they fail me. Chronic tendon issues– fun stuff. I don’t talk about it much, and when I do– because sometimes, it’s hard to hide a bandage-mitt, and harder to draw with the horror show going on underneath– I tend to shrug it off and crack a joke about “suffering for my art” or some such. I don’t much ..read more

This week in Writing Advice From A Guy Who May Or May Not Know What The Hell He's Talking About, we're going to talk about sharing our Glorious Works. Because stories without at least a couple of eyes on 'em that aren't our own might as well be falling trees in forests without a pair of ears for miles, yeah? And because sharing is caring.  Which is to say you should care about your work enough to put it in front of folks-- your work only gets better when you do. I said something similar-- I think it was back in my very first column here-- about showing your boards to anyone and everyone ..read more