Long John

There’s not much to say about this fast digital drawing this week aside from the fact that it was inspired by a person I saw on a drive the other day, and this person was rad. However, details have been changed to protect the innocent (or to make a better black and white drawing).

I’m a sucker for earnestness, even if it’s over things I don’t necessarily enjoy. I think I’m fairly earnest with aspects of my life, though critical skepticism is slowly creeping into my variety of hobbies. I now kind of have to watch movies twice to enjoy them since I spend much of the first watch gathering details and trying to craft analyses. Video games I still enjoy on a visceral level, though, every now and then, the critical hat comes on and I dissect them to the foundation.

The earnestness of people that blatantly and constantly define their identities through visual appearance is always bold and always impressive. The heavy metal dad, for instance, is inspiring. No matter how domestic his life becomes, no matter where he is or who he’s with, he’s metal to the core. \m/ ALWAYS \m/

That sense of pride and unabashed shedding of social norms is something I don’t have and will never have. Such things manifest, instead, through things like my writing or stories or teaching, in all honesty. But I can’t extend that to my visual appearance. I see myself as too nebulous, too self-aware, and too self-conscious to be able to commit to anything like that. And, for me at least, it wouldn’t be accurate. It would just be a facet of who I actually am and what I actually believe that trying to wear who I am on my sleeve, literally, would be as false as wearing a costume.

But I admire those who can and do.

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As an update, I’m drawing Chapter 3 of Long John as we speak and am eager to start sharing some of those details with you.

I have been diving back into streaming drawing again, but mostly as a test of Facebook’s “Facebook Live” feature. And while it’s fun, I think I prefer the sped-up inking videos I made during Chapter 2. But here are the streams done of Chapter 3 pages so far:

 

So, I’m busy working on getting Chapter 3 done over the summer, anticipating the release of Chapter 3 at Crocker Con in September.

Also, just a reminder that my sketch collection, BackMatter, is for sale in the store. It’s $5 + $3 shipping, but you’ll get it signed with a sketch and a bookmark with the purchase. Check it out!