Me + you + comics
Greetings everyone! I want to say Happy New Year but the truth is a post like this has been long overdue and is a lot more far-reaching than all that. But before I get into everything else: Happy New Year!
I’ll start by stating the obvious: last year sucked. I haven’t wanted to waste any words on it because so much has already been said by so many and I try my best to not add negativity to the internet, but on a personal level I can say it was the worst year of my life. I lost an aunt that was like a second mother to me as well as my dog and my cat. Not only that but my employment has been in flux, money is always a worry and I’ve been struggling with untreated anxiety issues that have been a problem for a lot longer than I realized.
Soooo: not great! But there’s a bright side, and (surprisingly?) it was art.
A couple years ago I kind of emotionally plateaued with drawing. It had always been a struggle for me but it got to a point where I felt like I had no idea what I was doing and I hated everything I touched even after hours and hours of stressing over every single detail. As badly as I wanted to, the idea of drawing made me so scared/sad/angry/anxious (in any combination of those things you can pick) that a lot of the time I wouldn’t want to bother with it at all. It was never because I hated it; it was because I love it so much that I put all this pressure on myself to be perfect.
Something needed to change, obviously.
I stopped updating Easy on a schedule and started to draw more for fun. That was when I really started to understand how messed up my relationship with art was. It became apparent that my process was anything but “efficient” or “logical” and that so many of the problems I was facing came from a lack of confidence and knowledge. I always called myself self-taught but that was kind of bogus because I rarely attempted to actually teach myself anything; I just drew constantly and hoped I’d get the results I wanted by chance, basically.
So I’ve spent most of the last year studying and practicing–something I’d never made much time for at all. I bought some books about drawing and anatomy and I got to work. Now, after filling five physical sketchbooks and a whole handful of smaller digital ones, I’m starting to feel like I have a handle on things. In short, for the first time in my life I’m actually starting to feel like “an artist.”
I’m sorry for not being more transparent/active in my time away, but I’ve been doing my best and despite how little I’ve managed to put out this year, I feel better about my art than ever before. 2020 was a very transitional one for me, and now that we’re on the other side of it I think I’m ready to move on to whatever’s next. And what’s next?
Easy, of course! The next page is almost done (I’ll share the sketch version today or tomorrow) and from there I plan on making it my number one priority again and getting it back onto a regular schedule. I know I’ve said things like that before, but the difference this time is that for once I actually believe it!
Thank you once again for all your support. A lot more people than I ever imagined got interested in this story and I’ve been honored to have each and every one of you along for the ride. Expect the next page of Easy soon and a lot more stuff from me in general!
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