ArtSnacks is Deliciously Awesome

For my birthday this year, my Grammy (who is one of the most interesting people I know and I could tell stories about her for days) said she would help cover two subscriptions for me. I just had to tell her which ones I wanted.

I knew my answer straight away. 1. A subscription to The Artist’s Magazine (which I’ll talk about in a future post) and 2. A subscription to ArtSnacks.

Now, ArtSnacks is NOT paying me to write this. They didn’t ask me to write this, either. I’m just writing this to tell you about the service…

Because it’s deliciously awesome. Continue reading “ArtSnacks is Deliciously Awesome”

Blogging Every Day in November?!

holy banana pants johnson and sir ackles

Yeah, it’s pretty bananas, I know.

Even though I’ve been feeling sick lately, I’ve also been feeling a creative slump. When I sit down at the drafting table to draw, I either can’t focus or I can’t muster up the energy draw the thing that’s in front of me.

It’s not just election bullshit, either; it’s the day job scheduling me so I have to get up at 3:30 am (which no sane human being should ever be obligated to do so). It’s trying to handle KickStarter, TWO Patreons, two webcomics, and freelance gigs on top of the day job. And trying to do all of that while trying to remember to eat and sleep. And shower. Grace bless whoever invented showers.

“But,” I can hear you say, “if you have all that shit to do, why blog every day? Wouldn’t that be more work?”

Yes and no.

Yes, on the surface, it seems like more work, but to me, it’s a good way to purge whatever is up in my brain part to make room in the brain part for new ideas. I’m doing this to kick-start the creative juices.

It’s also a good way to keep track of the work I’m doing, and bringing you along for the ride so maybe you can get some ideas.

As far as comics or works-in-progress goes, that’ll all be Patreon-exclusive. So instead, I’ll be blogging about ideas, stories I’ve wanted to share, new books and comics I’m reading, and I GUESS I’ll do list posts. But if I’m going to do a list post, it’s going to be how I want to do one, not just obligatory traffic-boosting clickbait.

If that all sounds like your cup of tea (and I’ll be writing about tea, also), stay tuned and come back tomorrow! (Maybe tomorrow’s post will be about tea… Maybe. Possibly.)

Thank you for reading.

You. Are. Awesome.

I’m Back from New Mexico

I went on a small vacation to Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico to visit Christian Beranek, co-creator of Validation.

Newsletter subscribers got some cool stories about what we did during the vacation. So for you, dear reader, I’m going to share some of the sketches I made during the trip.

new mexico trip sketches

We saw the lava rock petroglyphs on the outskirts of Albuquerque, so I made lots of sketches of those.

new mexico petroglyphs sketches

Then, on our way to some restaurants in Santa Fe, we stopped through Madrid and Cerillos.

new mexico madrid sketches

And yes, that is a zebra on a roof with a guitar. Here’s a picture me drawing the thing in real life if you don’t believe me.

madrid new mexico photography by christian beranek
Photography by Christian Beranek

Christian took lots of pictures while we drove around, which turned out really nicely.

madrid new mexico dinosaur sign
Photography by Christian Beranek

By the end of the trip, I felt rested and rejuvenated! It was great to get out of Ohio and West Virginia for a change and see the enormous, expansive desert that I missed so much.

I may have moved out of Arizona two years ago, but the deserts will always make me feel more at ease.

…I’m already planning a return trip next year.

Thank you for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.