What I Did Today

Remember the short-lived 90s cartoon Yo Yogi! in this week’s installment of Billy Badass.

Today’s been a busy one. Before I even got in the studio I had to finish laundry and dishes. Then I spent the morning scheduling posts for the next batch of comics; making thumbnails of panels; scheduling posts for the thumbnails; making thumbnails for my Minecraft Let’s Play, Crafting Mines – A Minecraft Adventure; and then I started uploading the videos for it. After lunch I started on another LP series, NoRights Plays…, by working on an intro sequence, enhancing the audio, and designing a thumbnail for the first episode.

Uploading HD video to YouTube makes you forget you’re living in 2015. It brings back the “Don’t touch anything! You’ll break it!” feeling of dial-up. I do feel fairly productive getting all these tasks done. It just feels like office work since I’m not devoting my time explicitly to drawing. At least I’m getting chunks of things done ahead and loading them up.

Remember when MC Hammer was the Saturday morning superhero Hammerman? Check out my webcomic Billy Badass for more!

Spent the morning editing a video. Pretty happy with the way it turned out, too. After lunch I changed some stuff on page ten and shaded page eleven. Usually when I do non-drawing stuff first I worry about getting back into the proper mindset. Today worked out pretty well, all things considered. Still a bunch of miscellaneous stuff I need to do. I’ll see what I can catch up on over the weekend and anything left gets tacked up on the To Do list.

Sometimes I feel like I’m a creative crock pot. I’ll work on things in various stages and then next time I check in, oh hey look, time to put this out there. I liken productivity to playing Don’t Starve. You learn to do things in the downtime you have from working on other stuff until eventually you’ve got a pile of dry grass and you’re not sure where it came from.

Remember when MC Hammer was the Saturday morning superhero Hammerman? Check out my webcomic Billy Badass for more!

Today I finished flat fill coloring page eleven and shaded page ten. I’m enjoying seeing them finished but I need to work out better breaks. I’ve been trying to get into the zone lately and that makes everything feel like a marathon by the time I finish. I’m just worried I’ll get distracted. I’ve done it before where I pace myself, work a bit, watch some youtube or something, and keep going. I like the idea of reaching the end of the day and still having steam. Happily realizing the work day is over is always preferable to aching to get away. Regardless of all that, though, working on my own projects is wonderful. At least as long as I avoid the self doubt that creeps in. Usually that stuff only gets to me in the quiet of the night when I should already be in bed anyway. Sometimes it comes when I’m doing something that doesn’t engage the brain too much and it wanders. Usually it’s settled by the fact that I’m doing what I want to do and that’s such a rewarding feeling.

Remember when MC Hammer was the Saturday morning superhero Hammerman? Check out my webcomic Billy Badass for more!

Set my alarm for 5 this morning, woke up on my own around 3. I put together a link image for the homepage to point to Billy Badass.

If you get the reference, give yourself five points and a pat on the back. Then click it and check out my comic 😉

I spent the later half of the day editing a Let’s Play video. I started on another one but by then I was burnt out and it was time to grab dinner and go grocery shopping. I’m trying to get things done in order. I’ve had this footage for awhile and I need to get it edited, uploaded, and scheduled for release. Then I can write some more newsletters, configure the sign up form, and get things rolling on that.

You’ve probably noticed the ads are gone right now. I was getting error messages and pages were failing to load. I needed to retool the way I display ads anyway so I’ll take a day somewhere and deal with it.

Remember when MC Hammer was the Saturday morning superhero Hammerman? Check out my webcomic Billy Badass for more!

Today was a non-art day as I cleaned up and added stuff to the guide I’m giving away when people join my mailing list. I still need to type up some more of those newsletters and to configure the sign up form for the site. I’ve just been very distracted lately and need to get that out of the way. There always just seem to be so many things to do and I have trouble finding the time for just one or two. Then the site starts spurting water and I have to plug a hole somewhere. It’s just so very easy to look up and realize, “Where’d this six months go?”

I’ve been trying to focus on what’s important to me, what I need to get done. But then there’s all the tangental stuff, or the time you spend a week doing something that isn’t really related to the goal you’re trying to achieve. So much time can get sucked away by things with good intentions. The best advice I’ve seen is to build systems so you’re not thinking just doing. My problem is my systems either get screwed up by other people or by myself when I don’t want to follow them.

Remember when MC Hammer was the Saturday morning superhero Hammerman? Check out my webcomic Billy Badass for more!

Today’s been a slower, more relaxing day. Slept in, went for lunch with dad, flipped through art magazines at Barnes & Noble, and spent some time doodling gestures of my little pin up mascot. I like drawing her and I want to do some bigger pieces of her. For now my focus this week is to relax, doodle to play around and explore, and to just enjoy drawing and animating again. I like my work and every so often I need to remind myself how fun it is. Or maybe I just need to allow myself to remember how much fun it is. As long as I’m drawing, even if it’ll never become a finished piece, it’s productive on some level.