A watercolor light study from my sketchbook, based on a photograph
BASEBALL
Baseball season is over and the Rangers have their first-ever franchise pennant! How awesome is that?! Truth be told I was rooting for the D-Backs, but the Rangers are one of three MLB stadiums I have attended, so I’m happy nonetheless.
HOPE NEVER TO SEE IT
Complete! The book is done, I turned in the manuscript last week. The next step is a marketing meeting with UGA Press to discuss the timeline for release and advertising.
I am going to make a video soon about pricing out all the original pages on my YouTube. Look for that next month.
FAMILY MUSIC VIDEO
Instead of taking a ton of pictures, my wife and I like to make music videos of our vacations. This year we went to visit my brother’s inlaws up at their farm in Minnesota.
COLORING
I have several small books that I am coloring right now. Here is one that particularly enjoyed.
THE NATURALS
I have written the first three issues and organized a detailed outline for the remaining 6 issues. I would like to start drawing this month. Below is the outline (blurred to avoid spoilers)
I have a few irons in the fire, and some great things on the horizon, but I need something with a little more certainty. I’ll keep grinding and searching, but sadly there is not much to report in this column for now.
FIRESALE
Speaking of fires… I have an art sale I am going to start on my Instagram next Monday. I will put some art up for sale, and if it doesn’t sell within a week… then I will burn it. I’ll explain more on Monday.
READ: Paper Girls
This award-winning series is beautiful to behold. The line art by Cliff Chaing is crisp and clean, but in my opinion, it’s really the colors by Matt Wilson that make this series sing. While the art is fantastic, sadly I didn’t really care for the story. It is a time travel narrative and time travel can be really tricky to wrap up in a pleasing way. This one tied a few bows, but in general, left me shrugging my shoulders.
LISTEN: Upgrade
I listened to this audiobook this month while inking pages. I have listened to Crouch’s previous work, Dark Matter, and both of them have a Michael Crichton feel. Crouch clearly does his research and it helps the reader (or listener) feel like an expert. Great storytelling with high stakes, and I feel that the ending was sincere in its morally ambiguous ending.
WATCH: Winnie the Pooh
My son was sick for a few days this month and nothing comforts the soul like Winnie the Pooh. We sat on the couch together and enjoyed frolicking through the hundred-acre woods. The original movie has some fantastic 4th wall breaks that are really charming.
PLAY: Forbidden Island
This is the best kind of game for my wife and me. It is a cooperative game for 2-4 players where you are on an island full of treasures. You have to collect all the treasures and escape the island before it sinks below the waves and you drown. Similar to Pandemic in its intensity but with a fun unique gameplay
Second Draft
I had a half-baked Rant about risk here, but instead of sharing it, I would like to stew on it a bit longer. Instead, I’m going to talk about the importance of a second draft.
I had a very foolish concept of the rough draft in high school. I would intentionally write poorly on a report so that in the final draft I could “improve” the paper with preplanned changes.
If I had instead submitted my final draft as my rough, then my second final draft would probably have been far superior. At its core, it was my hubris to think that I could not possibly improve that stumped my growth.
Now I am working on the scripts for the Naturals. I have a writing club that I am sharing my scripts with for critique. I am most receptive to feedback when it is given in the proper setting by people that I trust. but even then, it was difficult to take their feedback and actually enact structural changes to my story.
Since receiving feedback, I am now on version six of the original story. Some changes are small like the length of sequences, or a character’s name. But others are far-reaching, like a character’s motivation, or a whole new character being added to the plot.
“in writing you must kill all your darlings”
attributed to writer and Nobel Prize laureate William Faulkner
This advice is morbid and yet true. As a storyteller, I must eliminate any element that does not positively service the story. When I stumble upon an element that I love but must be removed, I like to analyze it and determine why it is that I like it. It may be able to be retooled or transferred into another project, but it is also possible that it is just a bad, cliche, or weak idea. So, in the bin it must go.
Cheers,
&