What I Did Today 01/01/16

  • On January 1, 2016 ·
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Remember Adventures of the American Rabbit in this week’s Billy Badass!

Minecraft and Chill 8.

Slept in today after staying up until 2 in the morning ringing in 2016 and recording M&C with the guys. After grabbing lunch I came home to work on Monday’s comic. I sat down to write which led to researching more potential subjects. I’d like to keep subjects chronological so readers get introduced to things at the same pace as Billy. He can bring up stuff from later but I feel I should at least try to pay attention to release dates. Going to start drawing tomorrow.

Think once the comic’s taken care of I’m going to see about editing the homepage and retooling my project list. I want the site to reflect what projects I’m working on at the moment. Need to streamline it so current stuff is promoted up top and things on hiatus aren’t burying anything important.

As I said yesterday, I’m going to move away from obligatory posts of the day in favor of posts to showcase new content. I’ll do a mockup and we’ll see how easy/realistic some of those changes are to implement. The goal is to make the site more useful as quickly as possible. I have no intentions of wading in code for days on end.

What I Did Today 12/31/15

  • On December 31, 2015 ·
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Remember Adventures of the American Rabbit in this week’s Billy Badass!

Minecraft and Chill 8.

Hope everybody’s having a good, safe New Year’s Eve. I’m using the time to relax, reflect, and let my creative imagination wander.

I’m thinking today and tomorrow are going to be the last regular WIDT entries. They’ve been useful for posting more frequently but I’d really rather move to sharing fuller views of what I’m working on. It’s similar to the Daily Doodles – a good exercise but ultimately I should put my energy into bigger updates.

I’ve blogged before about dealing with anxiety and the sobering ongoing process it’s been. Getting on a regular sleep/work schedule has helped that. For 2016 I’d like to focus more on the projects themselves. I don’t want to just say I’ll update “whenever” because that’d probably lead to the next blog wishing a happy 2017 or something. I want to retool it as more of a review digest, looking at what worked and what didn’t. Something I should be doing anyway.

So happy 2016, everybody. I’ll post more tomorrow.

What I Did Today 12/30/15

  • On December 30, 2015 ·
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Remember Adventures of the American Rabbit in this week’s Billy Badass!

Minecraft and Chill 8.

Got up this morning about 4 and drew in the studio for awhile. Haven’t animated in some time so I started spending too much time shading a background that would obscure what I was actually trying to do. Think I’m getting the look I’m going for, though.

BG

Went for breakfast and some other things, came home and napped because I got up too early. Started another idea focusing on the motion first, saving hatching for later. Having a little trouble finding my groove as I’m still experimenting with the style. Also trying to settle on creepy mood music that has enough energy to keep me focused.

What I Did Today 12/29/15

  • On December 29, 2015 ·
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Remember Adventures of the American Rabbit in this week’s Billy Badass!

Minecraft and Chill 8.

Spent today typing and organizing for a thing. Feel good about getting it done so things will be progressively easier on it moving on. Sorry for the vagueness but I can’t share anything just yet.

I’ve been really excited to experiment with Vine and some other things but today I made myself focus on stuff that needed to get done first. I think after I rest up I’ll dive into playing with it. Right now, well… you know when you’re a kid and you stand in the doorway with your arms against the frame, then step out and they go up on their own? Yeah, that about sums it up.

What I Did Today 12/28/15

  • On December 28, 2015 ·
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Remember Adventures of the American Rabbit in this week’s Billy Badass!

Minecraft and Chill 8.

Stayed up late last night looking into Vine. 2016 I’m diving into animation as my main focus and I’m considering places to put things. I’ve had bigger projects in mind for a long time but I think smaller things like an animated gif webcomic and 6.8 seconds or less videos on Vine would be great for breaking my workflow up. I still have testing to do but I’m excited about what I’ve figured out so far.

Spent the evening typing up a thing you should find out about soon enough. I’m going to work on more of it later but it bogs the network down around the house while I’m working on it so that needs to be later.

What I Did Today 12/25/15

  • On December 25, 2015 ·
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Merry Christmas from this week’s Billy Badass!

Minecraft and Chill 8.

Spent today in the studio working on something for the new year. Typed part of it up, drove around to find Subway and Chinese restaurants were the only places open early on Christmas, then collected and organized stuff for another part. I see a few more days of editing and typing ahead but what I did today should make the other pieces easier.

Frank and his wife came up to visit. We traded gifts and cut birthday cakes after dad showed up. It’s been a nice little Christmas.

What I Did Today 12/24/15

  • On December 24, 2015 ·
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Merry Christmas from this week’s Billy Badass!

Minecraft and Chill 7.

Recorded M&C with the guys late and slept in today. Went for lunch with mom and then dad wanted me to help him grab some groceries. I’ve spent most of the evening sorting through browser tabs I’d accumulated, saving some on OneTab and closing others. I try to keep articles that may be useful organized because every so often I’ll remember something that covered just that thing and not be able to find it online again for the life of me.

Tomorrow’s Christmas and I’ve got a few tasks I want to deal with in the morning. Any time between that and when family visits will be for working on that wallpaper drawing I started. It’s going to brand my stuff for awhile so it’s worth taking time to make it right.

What I Did Today 12/23/15

  • On December 23, 2015 ·
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Merry Christmas from this week’s Billy Badass!

Minecraft and Chill 7.

Last night I played Don’t Starve: Shipwrecked before bed, then listened to another Dirty Old Ladies podcast and the latest Dana Gould Hour. Slept in, then dad wanted to do some running around. Came home, went with mom to get birthday cakes, came back home and did some research until Ian messaged me about hanging out. Invited Frank in and we recorded another M&C.

So yeah, even though I wasn’t going to do anything because it’s my birthday, still a busy day.

What I Did Today 12/22/15

  • On December 22, 2015 ·
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Merry Christmas from this week’s Billy Badass!

Minecraft and Chill 7.

Spent today working on the wallpaper/header for my social profiles. I’ve had a rough idea for awhile so I started inking the elements I knew I was going to use. Then I started playing around with stroking effects in Manga Studio and sketching other elements trying to get a feel for the over all layout. I’m still filling it out, deciding what stuff works and what doesn’t. I need to figure out the environment more so I can tie it all together instead of making it a bunch of random pieces on the same page. Did research for inspiration and similar aesthetics before I tuckered out and went for lunch. Came home, played some Don’t Starve: Shipwrecked, played some guitar.

Tomorrow’s my birthday. As tempted as I am to sleep in I like getting up early and working in the studio while I can.

What I Did Today 12/21/15

  • On December 21, 2015 ·
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Merry Christmas from this week’s Billy Badass!

Minecraft and Chill 7.

Got up this morning and finished Monday stuff. Exported, watermarked, made a preview image for, and scheduled the Tumblr blog post for today’s comic. Typed up and scheduled the blog post for today’s podcast, then I answered some email and listened to the Dirty Old Ladies podcast. Then my dad called. We went for lunch and drove around a bit. When I came home we decided to go for groceries. A few games on my wish list have been on sale so I picked up They Bleed Pixels, Organ Trail, and the Shipwrecked DLC for Don’t Starve.

Today was productive though I wish I’d done more with the second half. I’d felt a bit like a clenched fist with stuff needing to get finished and when it was done I needed to take a bit to relax. I still need to figure out what’s causing the podcast feed to invalidate before it gets kicked off the iTunes store again. (I’ll try stripping it down, see if there’s some setting that shouldn’t be ticked that’s screwing with it.)

Tomorrow I want to come down to the studio, map out my projects for 2016, and just dive into drawing. I need to figure out how I’m going to work my Daily Doodle routine in with my Patreon plans. Maybe I’ll post sketches here and refined versions in the activity feed or post them on Patreon early. I’m still working on specifics. I do know I want my animations to be the focus for next year.