📝This archived post is originally from my old comics focused Wordpress blog from 2011-2019. That site was a space to publicly commit to learning the art and craft of cartooning and self-publishing. These posts are full of a naive enthusiasm that though at times embarrassing, I'm proud of. I hope you find them useful in some way.❤️

I have a great friend, Eric, who studies design and excels at drawing. On the whole he is a muscle memory freak. Skateboarding, playing a drumkit, improvising on the guitar, woodworking, playing sonatas on the piano, given enough time, he can always get down any routine perfectly. It’s amazing. I love him for it and often envy him. At the end of the day though, I’m not him and I have to face that my motor coordination is not like his. As a kid I was obsessed with skateboarding. Nevertheless, like the piano, tennis and swimming, my muscle memory never really developed and as such I was always trying to master the basics. I still skateboard, but have not progressed past the ollie and the fakie ollie. I’ve been doing it for over 7 years casually, and occasionally make some headway with kickflips and heelflips.  After a while though, as soon as I stop skating, my body seems to become disconnected from my mind.

So what does getting massive speed wobbles while bombing hills in Pittsburgh have to do with comics and drawing? Well, in order to hone my skills and gain a genuine mastery of the craft, massive amounts of time have got to be invested. I’m a bit more gifted at drawing than I am at skateboarding, but it still requires a hell of a lot work on my part in order to effectively draw what I see. I can’t see well enough yet.

So what’s the issue? Why this post? I simply want to state having discovered my ardent passion for drawing and making comics I’m in a constant state of fear that all of my hard work will be in vain because the moment I stop practicing any competence will simply vanish. It’s happened to many of my skills, but I can’t let that happen to my drawing and sorytelling. I’ve made some drawings and comics that, for once, I’m proud of and it feels so good to pull those sort of things out of my brain and onto a sheet of paper. I’m able to genuinely make people feel emotions through my drawings and I don’t want to lose that ability.

This is a bit pessimistic, but it is a looming fear. Alas, if I wish to get anywhere with comics, I’ve got to keep hauling ass and drawing. And I will, but that fear will constantly hover over me.

On the whole though, I’m happy to have this blog and you folks here because it allows me to state goals to externally, which has in general kept me to completing them. Don’t want to look like a fool on the internet by not following through, now do I?

Here’s a song that has had strong impression on me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyXXAiEu2ps