Adventures in internet geekery

Four characters from the internet Planescape D&D game I play in (not run; I had to drop that one just because I've been trying to focus more on drawing and less time on the internet, which is an aspiration that isn't going so great right now...). There are like, seven to nine of us, though, so I haven't gotten everyone yet. There are a few characters that are unique enough (like a harpy and a cat-woman) that they would likely be good candidates for larger and more fleshed out things. Ideally, I wanted to do a height comparison but that kind of fell apart. I'm thinking that if I wanted to get really elaborate and do some sort of concept art thing, I could do a 360 degree drawing of a few characters and things like that. I really need to get more reference and get back to figure drawing.

I'm the guy with the spear on the left. He's a half-elf, named Isaac.

The thing I noticed recently is that when I play as a character (and it's usually over the internet, since I'm always the DM in real life) I tend to play as a certain type. If I'm not way over the top, my gut character, the archetype I'm associating with, is usually a confident leader-type (because I'm not confident and I don't like to talk) that tends to focus on fighting (maybe because I'm not athletic?). Armchair psychology is silly, though, so I'm going to say that it means absolutely nothing. Nothing to see here, move along.

There's always a trade-off as a young artist, fresh (okay, two years) out of school or wherever one's education came from. If you don't get a day job, you can put all of your focus on your work and develop your skills and ideas. But you'll also barely scrape by as far as money goes. With a day job, you don't worry so much about money (and in my case, I get an inside look at the publishing business) but your time and energy are limited by that. You have to be pretty disciplined to keep that constant balance and it's difficult to maintain it. Sometimes you're good and you're on it, with lots of momentum. Other times it's extremely frustrating, which is often where I find myself. I make stuff all day for someone else; when I go home, I usually don't feel like making more stuff. Sometimes I can make myself do it, other times I can't. I've never been great with patience, either, so it's very easy to get frustrated. There's no real way to "solve" the situation beyond figuring out a good middle path that leaves me producing work but also finding enough downtime so that I'm not pulling my hair out. It's always a balancing act, is what I'm saying.

Coming down the pike:
- Want to get back to doing comics.
- More work from Jonathan Jacobs and his partners in the RPG blog community under their new small-press publisher.
- COLOR
- PERSPECTIVE
- EXPLOSIVE FUCKING ACTION
- HUMMUS
- Start selling finished pieces on the internet.
- Develop my own setting for, you know, nerd stuff.