Happy PI day 2022
I basically missed my new year's post by 3 months and 14 days (or if you count COVID, missed by 2 years, 3 months and 14 days...). Well here I am, happy PI day instead!
In my last journal, I listed a bunch of ideas on what I was thinking of working on in 2019. I decided to work on Transformers fanart and I began posting almost daily in 2019 on Instagram. I've since cooled off but not after growing my social media following there to 8K around the end of 2021.
I usually talk about new year's resolutions in this journal. So what do I hope to achieve in 2022? Well my art interests took a big shift at the end of 2021 because of the whole NFT scene. It really sparked my imagination and rekindled my dreams of reaching a bigger audience with my original ideas, instead of fanart. So far in the beginning of 2022, I've even expanded into AI art, which is all the rage now. I hope you all get to explore the new frontier of NFTs and AI art as well.
I've also been pleasantly surprised at a recent spike in my followers on Instagram so far in 2022 (almost 10K now) and subscribers on Youtube (1.2K) thanks to "Reels" and "Shorts", which are short form videos (15 to 60 seconds). I've really enjoyed brainstorming and creating motion content rather than just static art. I hope to continue discovering new ways to create motion content in 2022.
Through it all, I always come back to dA. I was recently gifted some dA perks by nicedayJules , and it reminded me of my early days on dA where I grinded a contest to win a 3 month membership! dA will always be special to me and that feeling will never change.
Take care everyone, let me know how you're doing and what you're doing different in 2022!
Happy New Year 2019
So 2018 came and is 11 hours from completion. Compared to 2017, I posted a lot less to social media in 2018. I think I was rediscovering myself (again). I think also it was because I started working full time (for the most part) around May.
The biggest highlight of 2018 was finally producing my own story (art and writing) called Mind Transfer, which is broken down into 2 volumes, Saving Amelia and Amelia Starsaden. View the story here:
www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/…
In all, I posted 28 chapters (with some tangential posts and update posts). Armed with this experience, not only writing and drawing, but also making comics for mobile, I feel very excited about what I will produce next.
It's a fun feeling because I feel there are lots of options for what I will do in 2019:
1. Volume 3 of Mind Transfer on webtoon?
2. A new story on webtoon?
3. A traditional comic? I was doing a lot of horror and scifi before.
4. More transformers and star wars fanart?
5. More female cyborg artwork?
6. Clip Studio Paint tutorials on youtube? Live drawing on twitch?
7. I'm excited about Blender. Maybe some 3d?
I feel a sense of moving forward, and I hope you do too for 2019!
To Conquer a Lie
July 30, 2012 is a day that forever changed my entire life, but more specific to this blog, it changed my life as an artist.
That day I joined my first Meetup via meetup.com. It was a local NYC meetup called “Unblocking Creativity”, run by Ben Henderson, who based his meetup on the teachings of Byron Katie. I sat down in his apartment along with about 10 other creatives, surrounded by his abstract paintings. Below is a chronological recount of my notes, thoughts and quotes from Ben that day. I hope that by presenting my notes in this fashion that you will get a feeling of the “journey of discovery of the self” that I felt.
“Have you ever said these things about yourself?” Ben asked. “My creativity is all drained out of me. I’m not good enough.” I thought, yes and yes.
Where are you going to find the answer to solving these inner conflicts? Have your attempts to solve these conflicts worked? In some cases, no attempted solution will suffice because you are fighting a battle against a foe with infinite power. “Your foe is a human lie — your lie — and this lie has consequences,” Ben said.
To conquer a lie, you need truth. To find the truth, we must know what truth is. Ben said the following:
- Truth is loving.
- Truth is supportive.
- Truth is free.
- Truth is light.
- Truth is not harsh.
- Truth is gentle.
- Truth is childlike.
Listen to yourself. Do you tell your life as if it was a story? We all know and love stories, but probably one of the most damaging things we can do to ourselves is start to tell a story about ourselves that breathes and rebreathes life into our negative thoughts.
“Stories rob you of your creativity,” Ben said. He is referring to the stories we tell about ourselves that put us in an endless loop of negativity.
I thought a moment. What was my “story”?
I’ve always loved comics since I was a kid. In my elementary school years, I made one page comics, but I never made one in middle/high school, never made one in college, never made one after entering the workforce, never never never. In some versions of my story, I wasted time. I played too many games, I watched too many movies, I read too many comics, I played too much basketball, I stared off into space too many nights (no, not telescopes!). In yet another version of my story, I was a quitter because I never finished any comics I started.
“Between you and what you want is words,” Ben said. “Negate the negative thoughts and the truth will present itself.” We are masters of words, aren’t we? Or…are we victims of words? Are we caught in the magical spell of our own words?
“You’re not going to water the plant when you listen to the negative thoughts,” Ben said. So to discover the truth, we are filtering away our meddling with the truth. Now we just need to focus on reality. Discover the truth of your reality. Question your negative thoughts. Question the lie. Question question question.
Negative thought #1: “My creativity is all drained out of me.”
Focus on reality: You honestly haven’t done anything creative? For how long? You’re honestly telling yourself you’re 100% drained?
Negative thought #2: “I’m not good enough.”
Focus on reality: Who told you that? Is that person the 100% authority on who’s good? Good enough for what?
Negative thought #3: “I should have already done some awesome comics already.”
Focus on reality: But you did! What guideline says a comic is not a comic unless it is 22 pages? And what guideline says people should have made X comics by a certain age?
I think humans have a fascination with trying to change reality through brute force. When we don’t get what we want, we get obsessed with our reality that did not turn out the way we wanted it to. We get stuck in a pattern of living and reliving the pain of that reality. We get stuck in a pattern of telling and retelling the story of that pain.
By questioning my negative thoughts and using the voice of gentle truth, I finally was able to accept how I was beating myself up over a foregone fact. The unchangeable truth is that I did not create any awesome comics before that meeting. At that moment, I stopped thinking about that reality.
It took several months and a whole life rearrangement to put all the other pieces in place to start my career in art, but this was the beginning of my journey, and I hope it can help you or someone you know. Thanks for listening.
Visit Ben Henderson’s site at www.benhendersonpainting.com/
Unfortunately, Ben Henderson’s Unblocking Creativity meetup does not exist anymore. For something similar, you can visit Byron Katie’s site at thework.com.
2 years later
- To improve your rapport with the person you are talking to, synch your body language to that person for 30 seconds.
How I feel now: Rapport is not something you *will* into existence by some mechanical movements.
- Look in the mirror and say "Great!" in as many different ways as you can until you laugh. (I tried this, I really did laugh and it didn't take long.)
How I feel now: Still agree.
- "Mastery" is not genius. It is a function of concentration and time. (This great quote is corroborated by Malcolm Gladwell in one of his books, where he says that "world class talent" is the accumulation of 10,000 hours of practice in one skill, and he goes on to show why Mozart, Bill Gates (euch, sorry to put those two together but the author did that), The Beatles and others achieved 10,000 hours in a time when no one else did.
How I feel now: I actually never quote Malcolm Gladwell anymore, ha. He is a kind of supposed "thought leader" who says interesting things but they are just musings of a philosopher rather than things to live by or "parrot" in random conversation. The word "mastery" has so many meanings that whether it is genius or not, whether it is concentration or not, whether it is time or not...I don't dwell on it, strive for it, or question it. I just live.
- Focus on 5 to 10 years down the line, when benefits are reaped.
How I feel now: NO. N. O. NO. Focus on today. That is all.
- Start copying the greats in your field of interest. You'll get a better sense of how they think and create.
How I feel now: No, don't copy anyone. Greats? What makes them great? Greatness is a social construct. Just live your life, make choices, see the results, continue to live. Put "greats" less and less in your mind until you are free of them. They may be crutches for a time in your life, sure, but there comes a time to come into your own.
- Start an "interesting people" fund. Pay for lunch and coffee with people you find interesting.
How I feel now: Still agree.
- Think -- who are 10 people you'd reach out to if you got laid off? Reach out to them now, when you don't need anything.
How I feel now: This presupposes that you will get laid off. This presupposes that getting laid off is a bad thing. This presupposes a lot of things, and it is all built on fear! Reach out to them not because of fear of getting laid off and needing them for a buck or a sofa to sleep on. Reach out because your hand moved to the phone to call them without questioning your motive or thoughts about a future that hasn't even come yet. Again, live for today and your feelings today. "I want to call him/her to hang out." Bam. That's it. Laid off?!?! Wha...?!?!
- Say yes to everything for one day.
How I feel now: No way. What the heck?! HAHA!
- Appeal to people from the angle of their own self interest.
How I feel now: NO, what is this? This is awful. Who wrote these quotes and why did I post them here only 2 years ago?? Shame on myself.
- Be suspicious of "free" or "cheap", but use it to your advantage.
How I feel now: WHAT?! "Use it to your advantage?!" Was this written by some cold heartless marketing "guru" who has no friends and a "kick me" stuck on his back?!
- Concentrate on a single outlet of power -- don't dilute your strength!
How I feel now: NO. It's not diluting your strength, it's diversifying your strengths. The corporations of the world have us specializing in typing the letter "E" but who can type all 26 letters anymore? The more you can do yourself, the more you are a unique creature that creates your own kind of beauty. Yes, stop diversifying at the point where you need to defer to another expert, but learn what your limits are, diversify until it hurts, and then diversify a bit more before scaling back a bit. No pain no gain. Are you a one-outlet wall socket or a power strip with surge protection?! Ha!
That's all for today, stay sharp lads and ladies.
Once a home, always a home
I have expanded to other forms of social media (ack that phrase sounds so gross). Twitter is fun (find me at twitter.com/artiststan). I'm finally starting up on Tumblr (artiststanchou.tumblr.com) but why is it so dreadfully slow?
For those of you who have noted or messaged me over the past few days, I have read every one of them. I cannot reply to everyone but thank you for the note or message.
Happy 2015 everyone, I want to empower everyone to use your freedom and willpower to the maximum effect. Find your true voice from the inner quiet of your mind. That can only be found by "fasting" from your addictions. I'm not saying give up your addictions -- we all have them and I am no saint. But by letting your mind be "bored" (that is a modern term for "the quiet of mind"), you will discover SO much.