[blakedehart]

Why You Should go to Conferences

Do you ever get emails or invites to conferences or meetups but decide not to go? You think to yourself, I would rather spend your time working on a project. Or the idea of being out of your comfort zone is just too scary. I’ve been there before and may feel that hesitation not to do something again. However, doing the alternative and going to that event can be rewarding in many ways.

Going to DesignerCon 2017 recently is what got me thinking about this. I had heard of DesignerCon, DCON for short, before but I had never been. Surprisingly, I wasn’t reluctant to go when my wife suggested we go. I don’t remember my initial thoughts and I didn’t have any expectations. I was more excited to go when I learned that Mark Brickey the host of Adventures in Design would be there. However, we didn’t go to the panels so I didn’t have an opportunity to meet him. Most of all I was looking forward to having a good time seeing the hard work of the artists and hopefully making a meaningful connection with another artist at the show.

When we got there I was surprised by the large VIP line. With it being my first time, I didn’t realize how big the event was. Either way, I was excited to be around so many creative people. It made it easy to talk to people knowing they were an artist, designer, or admirer. It’s similar to the way a skateboarder can go to a skatepark and almost instantly become friends with another skater because they both skate.

There were so many different mediums and collections of art too. Everything from sculptures to prints, books, clothing, paintings, and videos of animation projects and video games. I felt so inspired and energized to work on my own projects and so happy to see other creative people sharing their work at the event. There were so many things my wife and I wanted to buy but limited ourselves to a couple of art books and prints. For the artists that we wanted to support but didn’t buy anything from them, we would chat with them a bit more and make sure to take a business card with their social media’s on it,  follow them and message them later on that day.

One thing that surprised me was one of the artists I was talking to claimed to recognize me and asked if I had a booth at DCON too. It was unexpected and flattering. I’m thinking he thought I was someone else but I told him my name and he said he’s pretty sure he saw my work somewhere so it’s a possibility. He asked if I had any cards on me, however, I “conveniently” left my backpack which had my business cards in it in the car. Initially, I left my bag in the car because I didn’t want to carry it around all day, but as soon as we got in line I remember my water bottle and granola bars were in it...and my business cards. Subconsciously, I believe I also left it because I don’t like my business cards. I designed them to present or position me more as a graphic designer than an illustrator. I should have brought them though. Any business card is better than no business card. Going forward I am going bring them to any opportunity I may have to connect with another designer, artist or potential client. Eventually, I will be making new cards the present myself as an illustrator or cartoonist. I’m currently in the process of making an illustration portfolio. My goal is to create a full illustration portfolio before August 2018 and a micro-goal to go along with it is to start and complete a piece for my portfolio each week in addition to my upcoming webcomic that I will share more on in the near future.

I went off on a bit of a tangent. Getting back to the point, the artist I was talking to asked if I was tabling at DCON. Shortly after I thought about what he said, and how it would be a great experience to table at an event when I’m closer to feeling ready. I enjoy going to the events and admire the hard work I know the people put into their booths. At this point, I don’t think I’m ready but in a year or two, I will be closer. I’m getting more comfortable and confident in my illustration and visual storytelling skills every day. I just need to start sharing my work consistently. The same goes for anyone reading this that is in a similar position.

Overall, I would say going to DCON reminded me how valuable it is to get outside, go to events, and connect with people. You never know what could happen. You have the opportunity to make new friends, meet your heroes, and become inspired, recharged and encouraged. All of those are amazing things that could lead to new opportunities.

Until next time...

Blake

P.S. After writing this I realized that I mention meeting your heroes or people you admire, but I didn't mention who I met. Since I didn't write it into the post organically, here it is. I got to meet Stephen Silver and Stephen Holman at DCON. It was a cool experience, they were nice and encouraging people. Both of them happen to be artists behind cartoons that I enjoy watching, Kim Possible and Kablam/Life with Loopy respectively. I’m also in the process of taking Stephen Silver’s Fundamentals of Character Design Course on Schoolism.

[blakedehart]

Inktober 2017 Week One & More

The first week of Inktober is coming to a close. It’s been a productive and fun week. My first go at Inktober was fun too but also stressful because I didn’t go into with much of a plan. I used the prompt list and during my lunch time, at work, I would come up with an idea and hopefully sketch out a good enough idea. From there, I would usually refine the sketch and ink it in the evening when I got home. My goal was to stay a day ahead of the prompts. I ended up making it through the first nine days before bowing out of the challenge. During that time I was taking on too many things and was still learning how and when to say no. I had two comic projects of my own I was working on, I was writing reviews of my peer's comics in the Comics Experience Community, and working with a friend to illustrate her first children’s book.

Fast forward to now, I put both of those comics on hold to pursue a new comic I feel more deeply connected with and the children’s book I illustrated with my friend has just been nominated for the TKC Publishing 2017 Readers Choice Awards. Sometimes I find it difficult to share the things I’m working on but here’s a quick plug for the book and me asking you to check it out on Amazon. In hindsight, I wish I would have been sharing bits of the work I was doing as I illustrated this book earlier this year. Participating in challenges like Inktober make it easier to share the projects I'm working on. I just have to keep the momentum going after October ends.

The book is called Maggie’s New Home and it’s a heart-warming story about a young Pomeranian puppy. She finds herself moving away from the city, to a life down on the farm. There she meets her first friend Tammie, a Shetland Sheepdog. He takes her all around the farm meeting new friends as they go.

After reading the book, if you like it please vote for it. It was on page number 11 last time I checked.

 Back to Inktober talk. It’s only week one, but I feel better about it this year. I have a bunch of sketches of character designs done and in progress for my comic and decided to make them the main subjects for Inktober instead of strictly following the prompts. That being said, I did come up with a sketch and ink it on day four but it’s of Tjorn, the protagonist of my comic, in action. I don’t know if that shark creature will appear anywhere in the comic but you never know it is science-fiction. We’ll see how writing goes as the story evolves.

[blakedehart]

Re-evaluating My Goals For 2017

We’re more than halfway through 2017, so I thought it would the perfect time to share the re-evaluation of my goals for the year. At the start of the year, I assessed how I finished 2016 and where I wanted to go from there. I set my 2017 goals to work towards becoming a better storyteller, illustrator, and overall, better person.

Here is that list.

Focus on Finishing Personal Projects, Rather Than Getting Stuck in Perfection & Over Analyzing

Consistently Keep My Blog  

Write Every Day

Share a blog post every Thursday

 Create a Webcomic  

Focus on finishing one page at a time     

Finish One Page Per Month

Share progress updates on the blog

Draw Every Day

Draw 100 Cycles  

Read at least One Factual/Historical Event Book Per Month

Stay Up-To-Date on World Events

 Analysis of Original 2017 Goals

How well have I held up to those goals? I believe I started the year out strong, working on illustration projects, growing as an artist, and continuing my career as a graphic designer. Looking back thus far, I wish I would have included my design career and an illustration project that I’ve been working on. For example, I spent a lot of time illustrating my first children’s book this year.

 Illustrating a Children’s Book

I partnered with a coworker/friend from my previous full-time job to illustrate a story she wrote called Maggie’s New Home. It’s a sweet story about a dog moving to a new place, meeting new friends, and learning to feel at home in her new environment. As an illustrator, it challenged me greatly. We both had a rough vision of how the book might look. Internally, I didn’t feel I had enough mileage to complete the task but I remember someone once said, “Don’t Wait Until You’re Ready”. So I decided to take on the project. It ended up being an amazing learning experience of what it takes to be a professional illustrator and showed me areas where I need to improve to become the best visual storyteller. If you’re interested in buying a copy of my first published work, it’s available on Amazon for 10.99. If you decided to get the book and enjoy it, please leave a review.

When it comes to personal projects, I’ve held up well too. I completed a smaller project and kept my daily tasks. However, I had to break my commitment to a larger comic project that was going to take most of the year to finish. I broke the commitment, not because of how long it was going to take, but because I didn’t feel the story aligned with my vision as a storyteller. As the story lost its purpose, my interest and joy for it began to wane. How can I expect someone else to enjoy my work if I don’t enjoy it? The act of working on it is a different story. There will always come a time when your project gets difficult and that’s when you’ll find yourself growing the most.

 Blogging.

I started off the year okay. I had several blog posts written and shared them somewhat consistently for two months until my schedule flew out of order after pulling an all-nighter on a project for the first time in years. I was trying to rebalance my schedule for most of May. In June I had a better handle on my schedule again. However, I was focusing on my comic, personal writing, and considering vlogging the process of creating my comic. I still wasn’t satisfied with the way things were going so I took the Seanwes course 30-Days to Better Writing to get me back on track. I finished July with a clearer vision of the direction I wanted to go as a designer, illustrator, and storyteller. As for my blog, I was planning to get back into doing it on a consistent schedule similar to what I did early on. I felt like that was too formulaic and not how I wanted to share my work-in-progress. I will elaborate on it more soon.

 Create a Webcomic.

I had been working on the script and started thumbnailing a comic I titled Aster since May 2016. The story got much better than where it started and I was looking forward to having it see the light of day until I got this feeling that it wasn’t a story I wanted to tell. Maybe someday I will want to tell it. That being said, from January 2017 to July 2017 I was consistently working on either the script, character design, or thumbnails for this, with the exception of May. I planned to have a few pages done by the end of August to start sharing it online. I was considering sharing it on Webtoons or Tumblr, in addition to my website.

I also planned to share the progress on my blog until I started sharing time-lapse videos of my warmups and smaller illustration projects. That’s when I thought, wouldn’t it be better to vlog the progress of making my comic by taking on the 100 Days of Making Comics Challenge? That turned out to be a whole other animal. I thought I needed to have my YouTube Channel consistently branded from the channel page to my video intro and outro, and video featured images. That was easy enough, but recording and editing the videos was where I got tripped up. Recording and editing other people came much more naturally to me than looking at myself, hearing my own voice, or keeping the videos concise and engaging. When I couldn’t do that I decided to focus on what I could do which was making the comic. One day I’ll be up for the challenge again, but for now, I'm going to blog my progress and work on the comic.

After reevaluating my goals as a storyteller I found my goals aligning with another story that I had been thinking about and researching for since February. Since then I’ve written a twelve-page script. I’m nearly done thumbnailing it and working on character designs. By the time you’re reading this I should be done with all of those and move onto tight pencils and inking. I also have notes for how I want the protagonist to grow and where I believe his story is going. I’m looking forward to sharing my concept art and work in progress when I’m closer to sharing the introduction to this story.

 Draw Every Day.

When I was in the thick of it I attribute my drawing every day to having a warm-up session prior to working on any illustration projects for myself or clients. My most consistent warm-ups have been figure drawing, however, I like to practice shapes, lines, dimension, and perspective too. I would also record my warm-up sessions and sometimes the process of working on actual projects. That is something I plan to start doing again. Today I am still making an effort to draw every day despite not always achieving that goal. A few things I would attribute to helping me keep this goal is drawing in a sketchbook instead of always on my pen display. There’s something about touching a pencil to paper that can’t be replicated digitally. In addition to that, I would say taking an illustration course or doing master studies also challenges me to draw every day. Taking courses helps you get a new perspective on the way you approach your composition or characters. Master studies allows me to zero in on the nuances of the art I like and understand how I can incorporate some of those things into my own art. When it comes down to it, you have to do whatever it takes to get you drawing every day by using deliberate practices to grow as an artist, while having fun while doing it.

 Read at least One Factual/Historical Event Book Per Month

I never got started with this. I set the goal but neglected to clearly define a plan of action. I didn’t outline a specific moment in history that I wanted to learn more about. Whenever I would go to the bookstore or look online, I would be paralyzed with indecision. Looking back on those times, I think using this goal as an opportunity to dig deeper into researching past events, people, and places similar to the stories I'm writing is be the best way to take action on this goal. 

 Stay Up-To-Date on World Events

This year I feel like I’ve watched the news more than ever. The political climate of the US and its international relations is in a place I didn’t imagine ever seeing. I believe everything will work out for the best with everyone taking a stand in the way they find most effective. Outside of the political chaos, there seems to be just as much on the ground locally. So much senseless crime. That being said, the news always makes sure to have a handful of sweet neighborhood features about good things going on, a ray of sunshine amongst dark clouds. It’s been refreshing to make more of an effort to watch the news, especially when it comes to social issues related to inequalities and seeing people come together in hope of making a change. I don’t know that I’m any more informed about world news by watching it on tv versus visiting the news station websites. Either way, its good to stay informed.

I started writing this blog post prior to Hurricane Harvey hitting. Instead of editing what I wrote above I decided to add onto it. The devastation of a catastrophe like a hurricane is unbelievable. It’s been amazing to see people coming together to selflessly help one another. The way people and news stations have been able to use today’s technology to aid in the search and rescue efforts is remarkable. Too often people use technology for mindless consumption, isolating themselves from real human interaction or to tear one another down. Thank God, that people are coming together in unity for the greater good.

 My Current 2017 Goals

Make a Comic

Continue Blogging

Get a Full-Time Design Job

Continue Learning

Before writing this blog post I had been doing a lot of self-reflection during my morning writing on how to move forward with the goals above. During this re-evaluation, I based the evolution of my goals on where I want to be as a person, graphic designer, artist and a storyteller. I also wanted to simplify the list. That being said, just because something isn’t on my list doesn’t mean I won’t be doing it anymore unless I actually state that I won’t be doing it.

 Goal No. 01: Make a Comic

I’m still making a comic, however, I have a solid idea of the stories I believe I need to tell at this point in my life. Before I was taking every idea I had that seemed like it would be interesting and somewhat meaningful. Whereas now, I want to focus more on capturing honesty through the growth and struggles of the protagonist's character and the world around them. I feel like I was trying to do this before but I was trying to force it and it came off as unrealistic. People would tell me the stories had heart, but something was missing. It was as if I was trying to tell someone else's story. In doing that, I made the story unrelatable even for myself. I had written a twenty-something page script for my comic, ASTER, but I didn’t know where to go from there. I had taken the character to a place I had never been. Sometimes I believe that is when I needed to do more research and ideation because I didn’t know my character Aster well enough to know what she would realistically do next. Since I’ve made the decision to work on TJÖRN I feel more in touch with the character and where he’s headed. It’s almost like I’m writing about myself, except there’s a science fiction element to it.

One of the things that helped me get to that place is thinking about the comics and cartoons that had an impact on me. My favorite cartoon of all-time is Nickelodeon’s Doug so I did some research on the show and its creator, Jim Jinkins. I discovered that Doug was based on Jinkin's experiences growing up. He also viewed it essential that each episode contains a moral. On top of that, he wasn’t just the story guy he was actually the illustrator behind the characters original designs and that the show was also inspired by Peanuts. I also felt a connection to Jinkin's theme for the series, “a world where everyone took honesty seriously."

 Goal No. 02: Continue Blogging

I’m going to continue writing my blog, however, I want to rethink how I’m approaching it. I want to approach my blog as a journal and document what I’m learning through doing my projects, daily sketching, and my independent art studies. I’ve thought about this before, especially when I first saw the Gary Vee video, "Document, Don't Create", last year. As I was writing this post he released a follow-up video on how to start documenting. Both of the videos are below. (Forewarning, Gary Vee swears a lot.)

When I first considered blogging, everyone I was following recommended creating a catalog of blog posts before I got started. In theory that sounds great. It will help you save time and stay consistent, especially for a large company, but it seems a bit insincere and calculated for an individual. I believe I just need to schedule a short chunk of time, 10 to 20 minutes, to grab a few sketches or finished pieces from a project or course I’m taking and write a few paragraphs about what I learned in the process. Let me know if that sounds interesting to you?

 Goal No. 03: Get a Full-Time Design Job

I wasn’t sure how to approach this one. I didn’t put it on my original goals list. It was just something I knew I needed to do. At the beginning of 2017, my wife and I left our full-time jobs in Northeast Ohio to move back to Southern California to be closer to our family here. We had been looking for jobs here for over a year and had some promising opportunities. However, it seemed like most companies and organizations wanted someone already here. I figure companies are thinking, why go through the process of tests and interviews with someone from out of state when there is an overabundance of experienced people right here? So we saved up enough money to be okay for a year while living with my in-laws and started looking for jobs when we got here. The experience has been mostly good so far and a great learning experience. The first few months we were riding the high of our new adventure and I have some client work as a self-employed designer. During the summer my wife was hired at an awesome place where she’s passionate about the work they’re doing, loves her co-workers and the work environment.

My search is still in progress. I’ve had some opportunities that seemed like a good fit but they didn’t work out. From the beginning of my search to now, I’ve relearned a few important lessons and learned some things I feel I should have known already.

Be Selective What I mean by this is to focus on places that seem like you would be a good fit. Even when I was applying to places that I wasn’t particularly interested or seemed like a good fit for me, I customized my resume and coverletter to the specific needs of the company and did my best to appear interested in the position. However, if my application ever got in front of a real person it probably didn’t take them long to see through it or my portfolio website to decide that my work and overall personality wasn’t a good fit for them.

Communicate When you find those places that you believe would be a good fit for you, the next step is to communicate with them outside of the job application form before applying. See if you have a mutual friend to someone in the company to connect you to HR or an Art Director. Let them know just how interested you are in the position, the company's mission, vision, and products or services. Almost like a prologue to your coverletter.

Simplify To be more specific, by simplifying, I mean putting less time and attention on side projects, passion projects, and courses that aren’t helping you get towards your goal of getting a job in the certain field or industry. It also depends on what your day looks like, are you working somewhere full-time already and have limited evening time or working part-time and have more time to spare? Either way, you need to consider the amount of time you’re putting into everything you’re doing.

Prior to my recent job hunting, I’ve heard and read advice similar on several blogs, podcasts, and YouTube videos. However, I took it with a grain of salt because it wasn't something I had to do in the past. I’ve been implementing some of these tactics during my 2017 job hunt but the results have been minimal so I’ve decided to lean into the advice even more than I have been. If anyone is interested in hearing how it goes, let me know and I’ll do a follow-up blog when I’m on the other side.

 Goal No. 04: Continue Learning

In the design and illustration work that I’m doing, I’ll be growing and learning from experience. However, I also need to make sure that I incorporate time for deliberate practice and learning into my schedule. Sometimes that looks like doing master studies or drawing from life, while other times it will be taking a course or focusing on a single thing that I need to improve. After all, Bruce Lee said, “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times”. 

I don’t think I’m leaving anything out and this is already a long post so I’m going to bring it to a close. This will be the last post written in a long-form style. It’s still going to take time to put things together. However, I’m looking forward to simply documenting what I’m making rather than focusing on creating content and writing something that has to be meaningful.

- Blake

[blakedehart]

Why You Should Have A Personal Brand

Let’s start off by defining what personal branding is. Personal branding is the practice of people marketing themselves and their careers as brands. The term is believed to have been first used and discussed in a 1997 article, The Brand Called You, by Tom Peters.

Essentially a personal brand is no different than branding for a group or organization. Additionally, Seth Godin defines a brand as, “ a story, a set of emotions and expectations and a stand-in for how we think and feel about what you do”. Based on that definition, you already have a personal brand whether you’re actively shaping and developing it. Your personal brand is the way people perceive you based on your motivations, interactions with people on a daily basis (in person and online), the content you share on social media, and even the search results of google searching your name.

 The Benefits of Consciously Shaping Your Personal Brand

Since you already have a personal brand it’s in your best interest to curate it to work to your advantage. What exactly do I mean by that and where should you get started? For starters, do you have a professional website or social media accounts? I’m going to approach this from the view of being a graphic designer since that’s where my experience comes from. Being a graphic designer you need a portfolio of your work, proof of your experience and ability to produce creative work efficiently and effectively, and as a way to be contacted. Putting together a portfolio is a whole topic on its own, but to sum it up your portfolio is a collection of your best work. But it’s not just your best work, it is a selective collection of design solutions that share the thought process behind your work, the value you can provide potential clients or employers, and the work that you would like to do more of. For example, if you want to work in packaging design you need to show packaging design. To be even more specific, if you want to do packaging for children's toys show examples of work that is suitable to that industry. From there you need to meet people in the industries you want to work in and try to develop meaningful relationships.

In addition to your professional website, you may eventually want to create "professional" social media accounts where you can share work in progress, completed work, and most importantly connect with people in your industry. When you’re starting out it’s best to start with just one social media platform and develop a solid routine of active participation. If you start out with more than more you run the risk of being overwhelmed and not achieving a solid understanding of how to consistently engage on any platform. As a graphic designer or illustrator, I recommend Instagram as a good place to start. Another important tip for social media is to interact with people the same way you would in-person.

 Defining Your Values, Mission, and Purpose

Your Values

Now that you have a better idea of what a personal brand is and how to use it to your advantage, how do you come to an understanding of what your personal brand is and how to be the best version of yourself?

Defining your values and the values you want to embody is a great place to start because your values are a prominent guiding factor in the choices you make in your life. Your values are your core motivations, your morals, your beliefs, and the people you hold most dear in your life. Your values should align with your actions and the person you’re striving to be. They will determine the direction of your mission and purpose. For example, what jobs you choose will be affected by your values as well as how much quality time you spend with your family or friends.

Make a list of your top five core values. Think about the people, moments, and feelings in life that bring the most joy to your life.  This is a good place to start.

Examples:

Family & Friends

Community

Education

Awareness

Progress

After you determine your values it is important to assess whether they are in alignment with the way you carry yourself, in your daily actions and interactions. For additional help, you can ask your family, friends, or peers how well your values align with how they perceive you.

Once you’ve identified your values, you can use them to provide clarity and direction on your mission and purpose. Before we move onto the next step I want to mention that your mission and purpose are not fixed or set in stone, they are a foundation to work from. They must be evaluated and renewed over time as your grow as a person and gain a new understanding of yourself, your values, mission, and purpose. There is also the possibility that you might stray from your values and need realignment. I prefer to focus on the good and what's to come, but it's important to acknowledge that we all fall short sometimes. 

 Your Mission

Your mission is your direction. I heard it explained best by Corey Miller on episode 02 of Invisible Details, a podcast on the Seanwes Network, I am doing X to provide, this target audience with this kind of solution. When you turn your mission into a single statement or sentence like the example it will provide you with clarity on your brands direction. Your mission is how you’re doing the things you do for your employer, clients, and/or audience that make improve the quality of their lives, experiences, and their business.

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Your mission will provide your brand with clarity and direction.

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Your Purpose

People need a reason to care about your mission, they need to know you have a purpose. Ask yourself, why are you doing what you do and why should people care? There may be hundreds of people with the same skills you possess, however, those people don’t share the same exact unique experiences, passions, and motivations as you. Those things make up the drive and determination for your mission to get from point A to B and/or make a positive change in someone or something. The reason you do what you’re doing has to be more than money. Why should someone see you and your brand as unique or valuable and want to be a patron or fan of what you do?

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People need a reason to care about your mission, they need to know you have a purpose.

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Ultimately, people want to know what you’re going to do for them. You’re not the hero of their story. Your potential audience, customer, or employer are the hero of their own story and your purpose is what resonates with them. It allows them to make a choice and say, “This is something I want to be a part of because it’s going to help me be a better version of myself.”

You also want to make sure that you are growing and improving within your own story. That’s why it is important to reevaluate your values, mission, and purpose. You should be consistently reflecting them in everything you do. Your actions need to speak louder than your words.

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Your actions need to speak louder than your words.

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Your values, mission, and purpose are the foundation to establishing and building trust. You want to connect with your audience and you want them to resonate with you so that you can accomplish your goals together.

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Whether you are developing your personal brand for the first time or re-evaluating it, I wish you well. If you have any questions or comments about working on your personal brand feel free to share them in the comments.

 Thanks

 - Blake

[blakedehart]

10 posts!

[blakedehart]

How To Overcome Blank Page Syndrome

I'm sitting here talking to my computer preparing this blog post and watching my timer go down wondering how am I going to talk about overcoming the blank page. Why is it so hard to write something down or draw something on a blank page? Are we afraid to mess up? Are we afraid that what we create has to be good or it at least better than the last thing that we made? Or do we just not know where or how to get started? For me, it can be a bit of all those things. I’ve wanted to make sure that I say the right thing or that the first line I put on a page leads me in the best direction for making the best drawing ever.

Over the last couple years, I've learned more and more not to worry about being perfect. These days when I sit down to draw I usually start out with a warm-up exercise. I like to start out by drawing a bunch of lines and shapes at different angles and perspectives, then go to one of my favorite figure drawing websites and do 30 or 90-second figure drawing sketches. after that I go back and look at the ones I like the most and turn that into something. Writing is a bit different. When I'm writing I usually make an outline before I get started so that I have an idea where I'm going. However, today is a bit of an exception. I picked a topic from a list of in my bullet journal and I’m following a prompt to use dictation software instead of manually writing or typing. If you already use dictation software it’s probably nothing special to you but I think it's pretty cool. I'm sitting here watching the words appear on the screen as I'm speaking. I’m sure most of can relate when it comes to overcoming the blank page so I want to make a list of ways that I’ve found helpful.

Use Prompts

The first way to get something on the page is to give yourself a prompt or find a prompt list online. This will allow you to stop focusing on what to draw or what to write about. Make can your own list of predetermined topics or guidelines for what you want to work on. Doing this will give you the opportunity to do some prep work if you want too. You can write an outline or find reference images for inspiration.

Making Comics Daily Challenges

Character Design Challenge (Monthly Themed Challenges)

The 100 Days Project

Art Prompts

 Warm Up

Thinking of the blank page as a warm up session can help ease you into a creative flow. Think of it as an athlete warming up to play a sport, you need to loosen up your creative muscles to you can get into the flow. Also, don't worry about making your next masterpiece, something for your portfolio, or social media. Don't worry about it being polished at all. You could even start out by scribbling shapes on the page or free writing. Scribbling lines and shapes on a page used to be my favorite thing way to get started. I would connect the intersecting lines and eventually, something started to take shape. I feel like I allowed my experience studying graphic design at university to increase my perfectionist tendencies, slowly they started to take over the more whimsical side of my creativity. When that happens it's pretty easy to find yourself not experiencing the same joy that you got from doing creative activities. That's why it's important to have a side project where you can try out new things rather than only being stuck in restrictions of a brands style guide. 

 Eliminate Distractions

Another thing that could be holding you back from filling out that blank page is distractions. Maybe the approach you take to starting your work is distracting you or your cluttered desk is begging you to clean it. Or you’re trying to do too many things at the same time. I know some people are more creative when they have background noise or music. Maybe you think you're one of those people but you are actually the person that ends up binge watching a show on Netflix with your sketch pad in your lap going unused. You need to be honest with yourself and make changes to the environment you create in.  

When it comes to distractions one of the most effective things you can do is eliminate as many of them as you possibly can.

 Eliminating distractions could be scheduling a set time to work on your writing or drawing. Sometimes it means letting people know that you need time to work on something and to politely ask them to not distract you during that set time. While other times it means not letting yourself get distracted. For example, that could mean turning off your internet so that you cannot go on social media platforms. Or instead of listening to your favorite band's new album you listen to ambient music so that way you're not focusing on the new lyrics and instrumentation. Alternatively, sometimes that distraction can be exactly what you need. The distraction of new music or listening to a podcast could distract you from being too focused on what you're doing. When you’re comfortable and in a good mood you might stumble onto something unique rather than being completely focused on this one thing and trying to zero in on making a great thing. Distraction can be a tool or hindrance on your productivity. If you don’t know what works best for you, think about what has worked for you in the past. Try out those things and evaluate the results. Get to know yourself and how you create most effectively.

 Develop a Process or Routine

In addition to what the methods I've already touched on, developing a routine or a process is can help you overcome the blank page. When you have a process or routine it will guide you through the steps of overcoming the blank page more effectively a regular basis. A part of that process could be giving yourself restrictions like a deadline or time-limit or no erasing or backspacing on the first draft. When it comes to a process or routine it's important to have it written down somewhere. This will bring clarity to what you think your process is. That clarity will also help you to evaluate what's working and what isn't so that you can improve your process.  

 Make Deposits Into Your Creative Bank Account

Having a Creative Bank Account will provide you with a place to pull inspiration from when you sit down to a blank page. How do you make deposits into your creative bank account? 

Jake Parker made this awesome video, Your Creative Bank Account, that gave a name to something that I had been doing since I was in grade school drawing monsters and designing fictitious skateboard graphics.

 When you go to the store, whenever you're with family and friends or on the internet you have an opportunity be observing things around, noticing people, how they interact with one another. Pay attention to their mannerisms their clothing and the patterns in their clothes. When you're on your computer or smartphone you could be on Pinterest, deviantART or Artstation looking at art inspires you. You can take inspiration from the art itself, the line qualities an artist uses, or their use color and shapes, there are so many things that make up a composition. You could even be inspired by the way characters interact or the overall placement of elements in the composition. Study the work and try to understand why you like the things you like about it and experiment with incorporating some of those elements into your own art. The same thing goes for writing. You can find inspiration in life, art, and the writing of authors and journalist that you admire. 

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At the end of the day, it's important to have fun and remember why you’re passionate about what you’re doing because it will help you navigate through the difficult times whether you’re feeling stuck or on the cusp of a breakthrough.

Those are just some of the methods I’ve learned and found helpful when staring at a blank page too. Most days they work well, however, some days you really just need to take a break from everything and get away for a moment. It can be as simple as going for a walk, taking a power nap or even taking the whole day off to relax and recharge.

 If you have other methods you’ve found effective please share them below. I’d love to hear them.

 Thank you!

 - Blake

[blakedehart]

How To Improve At Figure Drawing

A little over a month ago I was introduced to posemaniacs.com through Clayton Barton’s online course Figure Drawing Foundations: Proportions. I’ve found it to be a great resource for practicing and studying figure drawing. 

Before I dig into Pose Maniac's more I want to list a few reason why I continually work on my figure drawing skills and you should too.

Benefits of Figure Drawing

It will improve your ability to create natural poses for your characters.

You will rely less on using visual reference.

It will expand your creative bank account.

It will allow you to quickly identify and recreate gestures. 

You will be able to draw gestures more accurately and efficiently using the least amount of lines possible.

It’s a great way to get warmed up to work on your illustration projects.

Pose Maniac: Thirty-Second Drawing

The aspect of Pose Maniac's I’ve found most useful is the 30-Second Drawing. It’s almost like a game. There are six different speed settings including the 30 seconds it’s named after (10 seconds, 15 seconds, 30 seconds, 45 seconds, and 90 seconds). 30 seconds may or may not seem like a lot of time to complete a figure drawing. However, it’s not about completing the entire illustration. The idea is to identify the gesture and draw it as accurately and efficiently using the least amount of lines possible. It’s a great way to get warmed up to work on drawing projects for the day. 

Sometimes I spend too much time on one aspect or another and don’t finish drawing the complete figure. When that happens I just take a deep breath, relax, and remind myself that I’m having fun and learning. Another result of using Pose Maniac’s 30 Second Drawing feature is that you will expand your “Creative Bank Account”. This will improve your ability to create natural poses for your characters. I’ve noticed the way I approach drawing thumbnails for illustrations feeling more natural and relying less on using visual reference. In addition to that, I’ve found it easier to expand upon my reference too. I’m in the middle of thumbnailing a La Dispute song adapted into a mini-comic that I mentioned a few blog posts ago. 

If you’re looking for a way to start or continue practicing and improving your figure drawing skills I highly recommend that you check out posemaniacs.com. They also have a great list of tips for how to improve your figure drawing. I copied a revised version below. I believe these tips can be applied to figure drawing exercises outside of Pose Maniac's too. 

Pose Maniac Tips

Try to complete your drawing in time.

If it is very tough to complete, it is best to increase the time limit.

Think without words while sketching.

Focus on the mass, the flow, and the center of mass, and work on details later.

Try to keep your eyes on the screen instead of your paper.

You will be able to draw faster if you don't lift your pen off of the paper as you draw.

 Draw lines of the backbone and the hip to make a continually balance.

Use other drawing materials such as brushes, pastels, and charcoals after you get used to pencils.

Ignore details. It's impossible to draw everything. Focused on the point of the pose.

Observe your result, and analyze the good points and bad points.

Change the style and find the way to conquer your weakness ( IT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT PART).

 Their last tip, to observe, analyze, and adapt to improve your skills is one of the biggest take aways for me. I like to record my sessions for that same reason. I look back on my sessions and observe where I wasted time or how I was able to quickly identify a figure in one perspective but not another. Then I work on determining how I can understand and overcome whatever I’m struggling with. If you don’t have a screen capturing software available to you Pose Maniac has you covered. Below the screen the figures appear on is a link that takes you to a page that displays a log of the figures from your most recent 30 Second Drawing session.

I haven’t used the last feature of Pose Maniac’s website that I'm going to mention called Random Pose, but it seems like it would be a great time saver. A random pose will be displayed for you allow to just focus on drawing at your own pace unlike the urgency of 30-Second Drawing. You can click NEXT or PREVIOUS to go forward and backward to different poses. You can even turn on a grid to help you with drawing the figures proportions properly and DRAG straight lines on top of the figure. I should have mentioned this at the beginning, but in figures display in the main Poses section allow you to DRAG a pose 360 degrees. Learning to draw a pose from any angle is a huge skill to have in your arsenal.

I hope you give Pose Maniac's a try. Improving your figure drawing skills can connect a lot of dots to help improve the fluidity of action in your drawings. This wasn’t meant to be an advertisement for Pose Maniac, but more of a checkout this cool resource out that may be helpful for you too. 

Take care,

- Blake

[blakedehart]

When Your Creative Vision is Loftier Than Your Artistic Ability

When I was working on my mini-comic I ran into what a lot of people might when creating something. I ran into this road block and I thought to myself, maybe I need to go back to the thumbnail stage. Or maybe I need to rethink the layouts and make tighter thumbnails. It’s so easy to get caught up in a cycle of recreating the same thing over and over again trying to make it better. When I found myself in this place again, I did redo a few thumbnails. However, I decided not to use any of those revised panel sketches. That’s when I had to remind myself of the Jake Parker mantra “Finished Not Perfect”.

I even watched this comic-turned-video of the Ira Glass "Taste vs. Ability" quote, for extra motivation to finish this project, rather than eagerly move onto the next and risk developing a cycle of not finishing things. 

Ultimately, I realized that the new thumbnails didn’t fit in with the rest of the story since my understanding of visual storytelling had improved since I did the other thumbnails. In the end, I finished the mini-comic before the deadline I gave myself, March 15th.

 It's easier said than done but as artists, we need we need to approach what we do with confidence and humility. There's no need to justify why your art didn't turn out the way you wanted it to. Making art isn't about showing off how talented you are. Art is about creating something that you enjoy and telling a story that will entertain and resonate with people.

If you made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you found some encouragement in reading this or watching the video linked.

Take care,

- Blake

[blakedehart]

Finished this mini-comic past week. The story is a prologue to another story I've been working on. It's meant to introduce you to the secret organization created to protect mankind from evolutionary phenomenon. I've got some smaller projects that I'm working on to find an art style that feels natural and appropriate to the story. ----- You can view the comic at fullsize on my blog if you're interested in reading it.

[blakedehart]

Web Comic Update No. 03

Ever since I was inspired to start drawing and storytelling again, I've felt like I had little to show for my it besides a deeper understanding of the craft. So I set out to make this mini-comic after having read Arclight Comics book, Create. Validate. & Build Your Fandom with Mini Issues. Judging by the title of the book you might think someone reading this is hoping to achieve fortune and fame. Anyone who understands the comic industry knows that rarely happens and that creating comics is about a deep passion for the medium. However, this book is a great resource that will help you figure out how to work smart when creating your comics. Another reason we create comics is to share stories and connect with people. If we become more effective storytellers it would be a disservice to potential readers to not take advantage of the opportunity to learn from the experience of those who've gone before us.

Here's my first mini-comic. It’s not great but it’s done and that’s the biggest thing for me.

Now that I've completed this mini-comic, I’ve been considering what project I should focus on next. Going forward, I want to put more time into character & world design to create a cohesive visual narrative.

I’ve got one story pretty well thought out and with character designs in progress. 

Another story that I’ve been doing some restructuring to because I felt the protagonists lacked a real motive for the adventure thrust upon him. This story is also the follow-up to the mini-comic above.

I also have a new idea based on making choices in the face of a potentially life threatening situation. 

The last Idea I have is to take the story-based lyrics of the band La Dispute's record Rooms of The House and turn the songs into comics.

This would allow me the opportunity to focus more on capturing the visual representation of an existing story. I'll have to translate the songs into a comic script format, but the stories are already there.

I did some research and found that someone already made a comic out of one of the songs from their previous record Wildlife. I was stuck between which record I should make into a comic. Both records would be a challenge, however, I feel like the stories of Wildlife would be more challenging than Rooms because there stories feel so complex and have more abstract imagery and just an overall darker tone.

I'm leaning towards the La Dispute comics as my next project. However, I will more than likely continue developing the other stories. I'm looking forward to the day I choose to focus on one of the first two projects, but I don't feel that I can do them justice yet. 

I love hearing about experiences and how they develop from ideas into stories. Are there any things that you do to help you form your ideas into stories?

[blakedehart]

Working on human proportions and turn arounds this morning. I've gotta start doing this everyday.

[blakedehart]

EVALUATING GOALS FOR THE YEAR

 The first month of the new year is almost over and we’ve all seen a flood of new years resolution and goal setting articles and blog posts. If you're anything like me you spent some time meditating on your from 2016 and evaluating what the next step looks like. In 2016 I saw progress in the form of artistic growth as well as mindset shift. The way I approached setting goals and making a plan to achieve those goals was redefined. Throughout 2016 I found myself working towards completing project goals and getting stuck in the process. I had a plan but was taking on too much and learning so much that I felt like I needed to go back and make this or that better. That approach resulting in not having much work to show for the progress in my skill and confidence as an artist. Something had to change and luckily it did. I started reading and listening to similar messages of being intentional, narrowing your focus/priorities, setting manageable goals towards a larger project, and being okay with things not being perfect. Getting work done has never been a struggle when it’s for an employer or client, but I somehow got to a place where personal work became a bit of a chore to complete. The process of implementing a shift in mindset to accomplish my goals took some time to grasp, but I’ve seen a difference, though I’m still working on it. 

So what were my goals in 2016?  

Start a blog

Record an EP

Create a webcomic

Continue growing as an artist/illustrator/storyteller

Be more involved in art communities

I had all these goals on my 2016 to-do-list at some point in time despite not writing them down at the beginning of the year. I finished the year completing 4 out of 5. I started a blog, however, I didn’t keep a regular schedule. I wrote and recorded several instrumental songs. I had a lot of fun writing them but didn’t share them with anyone. I continued to develop my skill as an illustrator and storyteller by writing and keeping a sketchbook regularly and taking courses on SVS Learn to help guide me through improving more quickly than I could on my own. Lastly, I got involved in some discussions and critiques in online communities and went to a comic-con. The one thing I didn’t accomplish was creating a webcomic because my focus was so split between multiple projects. Going into 2017, I’ve simplified my focus from three different stories into a one-page prologue to one of the 20-page stories.

Now that I have 2016 out of the way, I’m going to write down my specific goals for 2017 and make them public to add a level of public accountability that I've lacked in the past. 

Goals of 2017

Focus on Finishing Personal Projects, Rather Than Getting Stuck in Perfection & Over Analyzing

Consistently Keep My Blog   - Write Every Day     - Share a blog post every Thursday

- Create a Webcomic   - Focus on finishing one page at a time      - Finish One Pg Per Month - Share progress updates on the blog 

Draw Every Day  - Draw 100 Cycles  

Read at least One Factual/Historical Event Book Per Month

Stay Up-To-Date on World Events

I’m confident that I’ll be able to accomplish these goals throughout the year but will reassess them as needed, especially since I don’t know what my schedule will look like now that my wife, Analia, and I have moved back to San Diego. 

In the last blog post, I stated how I planned to use this blog to document the process of creating my webcomic. However, more than that I hope that I can use this blog to as a resource to help other people pursue their creative goals. 

If you’re reading this I’d love to hear about your creative goals and where I can tune in to see what you’re working on.  

- Blake

[blakedehart]

WebComic Update No. 01

Since I last talked about my webcomic, I mentioned using this blog to document the process of creating it. I decided to break the story down into one-page snippets rather than focusing too much on the overall story. In order to really step away from the current twenty-something pages, I wrote a one-page prologue. Below I’ll share a brief overview of the story, the log-line, and the comic’s script.

The overall story of the comic follows a man recruited by a secret organization called E.V.O., that protects the world from the life-threatening evolutionary phenomenon of mother nature's once harmless creatures.

Before diving headfirst into the story, I decided to make the one-page mini issue into a prologue to introduce you to the organization of E.V.O and the evolutionary phenomenon they protect the world from.

Log-Line: 

An arachnophobic medical entomologist, named Elliot Lee, is recruited by an organization called E.V.O. when an evolutionary phenomenon enables arachnids to silently launch a plan to enslave the human race. Elliot must overcome his fear of spiders in order to save mankind from mother nature's misunderstood creatures.

Comic Script:

Normally, I would write the script of each panel on its own page. It seems to be the standard among most comic creators to reduce confusion between the writer and artist or anyone else reading the script. However, since this comic is one page, I decided it would be okay as long as the panel didn't spread across to pages.

Creating & Evaluating the Story:

I came up with the overall idea of the story after a few incidents of killing spiders and seeing a few video about spiders covering towns in their webs like this video.  Then I thought, what if there was a malicious agenda behind this takeover? From there, I used a three-step story evaluation process that I learned from a course on SVS Learn called Visual Storytelling Techniques, to help turn it into a story.  

Below is the process I went through.

1. What is the story about? (1 sentence, no details. Focus on the BIG picture.) The story is about a guy finding the courage to overcome his fear of spiders.

2. What makes it interesting? (1-2 sentences. Focus on why this story would be worth your time and energy. How's it different from what's out there?) In order to save the world from highly evolved arachnids, one entomologist must develop a way to demobilize the eight-legged army's government infiltration plan.

3. What are the important details? (4-6 Sentences. Focus on why this story would be worth your time and energy and how it is different from what's out there.) 

A medical entomologist is sought out by a covert organization known by few as the E.V.O. Simultaneously, highly evolved arachnids around the world are rising up to take over the country, but it's up to Elliot to find a way to stop them.

After coming up with the story, I believe I've improved the original idea and will continue to iterate on the idea as I continue working on the story.

If my exercise of going through the process doesn't quite make sense I'm going to do the same process with Toy Story 1. 

1. What is the story about?  The secret life of toys when people are not around. A cowboy toy overcome with jealousy against the new toy.

2. What makes it interesting?  The jealous toy tries to get rid of the new toy, causing them to get lost. The new toy also believes he is a real spaceman on a mission. 

3. What are the important details?  The two toys are lost and their family is moving away. They must overcome their difference in order to make it home before they are left behind. They will also encounter pizza martians and have to escape the clutches of the toy-killing neighbor kid, Sid.

I hope the process is more clear in my Toy Story example.

If you're having trouble expanding on an idea for a story, I recommend using this evaluation process. It may not the best way to help flesh out your story idea, but I've found it effective and hope you do too. You can also check out the SVS Learn class I mentioned for a more in-depth look. 

For now, I'll be working on inking and coloring the mini issue and sharing my thumbnailing process next.

Take care,

- Blake

[blakedehart]

View this post on Instagram

Anyone else remember the movie Warriors of Virtue? After watching it for the first time in a long time I got inspired to create a poster and here is the first pass at it.

[blakedehart]

Web Comic Update No. 02

This post should have gone out last week, but I decided to write about the importance of a reducing the number of newsletter subscriptions vying for your time and attention. It seemed like a great idea at the moment, but I said I would be sharing the process of making this webcomic mini issue and came to the conclusion I need to stick to it.

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Coming from a graphic design background, drawing thumbnails is a familiar activity whether I’m drawing thumbnails for logos, print layouts and posters, or packaging designs. So making the transition to comic book thumbnails was relatively easy. When I’m working on comic thumbnails my goal is to focus on the overall shape of objects and space in each comic panel. A better way of explaining it might be, I don’t draw tiny details, only the foundations (like perspective, silhouettes, and overall compositional balance). 

I try to only draw as much as I need to communicate what's going on and understand a sense of dimension and action. That being said, sometimes I find myself wanting to go into detail too quickly. One remedy for that is to make sure you draw your thumbnails no larger than a couple inches (2x1 inches or 1x2 inches). When you draw that small you can’t fit heavy details in easily. I also try not to spend more than a minute on each panel sketch and to draw several different options of each panel because chances are, one layout will be more effective than the rest. And what makes an effective layout?

In my opinion an effective layout: 

Visually captures its part of the story (providing Context, presenting the Goal and the Conflict, and the Resolution of the Conflict).

Creates a dynamic sense of dimension (characters, action, foreground, middle ground, and background).

Leaves breathing room for the characters and objects in the environment to not feel cluttered when word balloons are added.

I also believe that any one of the “rules” I listed can be broken if it serves to enhance the purpose of the panel. For example, if you want to create a sense of claustrophobia in a panel you would leave little to no breathing room in the panel. You could even squish the shapes of your word balloons to make the composition feel even more congested.

Now, let's say you have all your thumbnails done. What do you do next? I prefer to scan them to my computer as high-resolution TIFF files, then save a copy as a JPEG (I’m going to assume that you already have your own file storing and naming process and skip to the next step). After scanning and saving copies of my thumbnails, I open the JPEG’s in Adobe Illustrator document where I lay them out on a page. If you are familiar with Adobe Software, you’re probably wondering why I would do that. You think I would be doing layout in Indesign or better yet Photoshop since I’m eventually going to be drawing over and under the thumbnails. The reason I don’t use Indesign is because it feels too “final draft-like”. Also, what if I want to do some light drawing? The reason I use Illustrator versus Photoshop is I want to keep the file size low by linking the images to the document, which you can also do in Indesign. In the future, I may switch to Indesign for this stage, for now, Illustrator works. I also have a document template that I keep underneath my artwork while I’m laying out the page. Once the page is laid out I lower the opacity of the artwork and save a PDF and JPEG copy. Then I print the PDF copy on bristol paper to do tight pencils and ink. I often do some additional drawing and inking digitally. I’m working towards doing everything digitally in the future. However, the process I outlined is how I get my best results at this point in time. If it would help I can record a screencast of myself going through this process. I recently started recording screencast to help document my process and see where I can improvement or can cut down on something that I'm doing too much of. I recommend you do the same. I use QuickTime to record mind. In the past I've used ScreenFlow and it worked well.

Here are the thumbnails for the mini-issue and a couple page layout options I'm working on.

Earlier on, I recommended doing thumbnails smaller and doing several for each panel, however, I didn't follow suit during this mini-issue. As a result, I actually ended up going back and doing more thumbnails sketches after drawing pencils and inks :\ It's not a huge deal for a one-page comic, but it's better to explore every angle up front, especially when you're doing something larger like a ten-page comic . It will save you from having to go back and redo earlier steps of your process. Take as long as you need, but also set a deadline and stick to it or you'll never get anything done.

Remember, Finished Not Perfect.

Anyone in the process of making their first comic have any questions or comment? If so share them below.

Take care,

- Blake