Oh man, I tell ya, the more I use these colored pencils on this paper the more I fall in love. I’m really starting to feel comfortable using these tools, and even though I’m still pretty early on in this drawing, everything looks marvelous so far! I still have to meld the colors a bit better on that tree though, because I’m noticing that the lightest color stands out a bit too much. It’s really nice to feel confident enough to know how I can easily fix that issue if I just apply myself.

That disgusting “water” there looks pretty good. I was attempting a ripple effect with those lines there, but I’ll work on that more tomorrow to hopefully get it looking even better. I’ll probably also begin coloring the large fallen tree in the center of the image tomorrow as well. So, doing the math, this should take me just two or three more days to complete.

I watched a movie last night called “Birdman”, I’m sure you’ve heard of it as I’ve been hearing a lot about it lately. I believe it’s up for several awards. It stars Michael Keaton and a whole other group of well-known actors and actresses. This movie was extremely impressive. This has got to be the most immersed I’ve ever felt in a movie’s story. I’m not going to talk about the actual story or spoil anything, as none of that is really what I want to talk about here. What I want to say though, is that I’m not really much of a movie fan in general. I’m in my early 30’s and I feel that I’ve seen it all. What I’m saying is that it’s very rare that I find a story that isn’t predictable. And predictable often means boring. Well, I don’t really watch movies expecting to be impressed, when I do watch them I hope to be surprised. Show me things that I would never have thought of on my own.

Birdman really got my brain going. It’s definitely one of the best movies I’ve ever seen, and I’ll likely watch it a second time sooner than later. Which is quite rare for me. I know I said I wasn’t going to talk about the story, and I’m not… technically, but I just want to say what I liked best about it. This movie reminded me of why I don’t usually enjoy movies. It has a fantastic moment where Michael Keaton’s character talks about (and vividly displays) how the art of telling stories has changed. We see the epic blockbuster, the theater, and the independent film. In contrast they’re, of course, very different. But they’re still just telling stories in the end. It’s like comparing a novel to a comic book. I find it rare that a movie like Birdman can successfully mix all my favorite elements together.

Anyways, Birdman surprised me. I heard that it was good, but I thought that was solely because of the unique directing style. However, this wasn’t the case. The directing was what immersed me in the story, but the characters are what wanted me to stay there. If you saw the movie, what did you think? If you haven’t, do you have any interest in seeing it? Why or why not?

Alright, well this is turning out to be one of those “epic” pieces I was talking about. For a couple days now I’ve been wanting to draw some type of bog or swamp, and I stumbled upon a picture depicting a scene from Star Wars. Or at least a location from the Star Wars universe. It’s the planet Dagobah! You know, where Yoda lives. The entire planet is a swamp! I’ve included the reference drawing at the bottom. I believe it’s a digital painting, probably drawn with Photoshop or a similar application.

I’ve kind of begun to realize that the pictures I’m making, all the physical drawings and such, are all made with very basic supplies. You know, a bunch of random colored pencils left over from my highschool days 100 years ago, dollar store paper, whatever pens and markers I can find at Walmart or under/inside living room furniture. Those sort of things are what I’m used to drawing with. You scrounge up whatever you can find and do your best to make something awesome, or at the very least, something moderately interesting. Because of the money I’ve received from my super fans lately ($81 sitting in my Paypal account), I’ve decided to find a place online and order some proper supplies.

After a bit of research, I found what I think to be the right combination of pens, pencils, and paper, that should fit what I’m trying to do. All from this website here: www.Currys.com. I haven’t sent away the order as of this moment, because I’m still going through the completion process. I’m also hoping (assuming really) that they use Paypal. I mean, who doesn’t use Paypal as far as online retailers go?

I’m hoping that when I receive my new supplies that I really notice a massive difference in the quality of my physical work. I mean, I’m even thinking of buying the $50 colored pencil set rather than the $30 on I currently ordered. Might as well spend all of the donated money, right? It’s going into something that will definitely help me in the long run. If I decide to go ahead and upgrade the pencils then I’ll probably need to remove something from the order so it doesn’t exceed $81. I’ll have to figure out what I’m going to do. If there are any artists out there with any suggestions at all, please let me know in the comments! I really appreciate all the Facebook likes I’ve received lately and I’m hoping there are some artists in there somewhere.

Today’s picture is a little dull, but hopefully you can see the potential for color. Though some of it will inevitably stay white, there will be plenty of blue when it’s finished! I’ve been finding all kinds of wonderful Japanese style water pictures using Google, and I want to draw them all! I’m not sure why I’m sticking with this style lately, but originally I was just going to make one, but then somebody recognized the style and they seemed to like it, so I thought, “Maybe others will too. I might keep it up for awhile.” I’m also learning lots of new stuff and probably once I’m finished with the current drawing I’m working on, I’ll start to make my own completely from scratch. While also adding in my own style more and more as I go along.

So, I hit a pretty big milestone on my Facebook fan page last night. I hit 100 page likes! Currently it’s sitting at 108. Pretty crazy, right? Seems the advertising money Facebook credited me with is really paying off. I mean, it’s a smart business decision on their part because advertising on Facebook obviously works. Once I’m out of that free credit, Facebook assumes that I’ll want to continue paying in order to get even more likes and post views. Clever there, Facebook. However, I was never interested in officially advertising with Facebook in order to gain followers. I was really hoping my fans would like, comment, and share my content instead, and that would be enough. There are a few dedicated fans that do it pretty regularly, but I’ve noticed that the number of viewers I get for each post steadily drops off. When I started out I had anywhere between 50-150 eyes on my posts, where now I’m lucky to hit 20 per post. I spent $6 of that credit money (Facebook gave me $40, I think it was) on a single post and it’s already hit 1,214 people! Ridiculous. The “post boost” hasn’t even ran it’s course yet! Though I understand what Facebook is doing, it certainly makes starting a business tough, eh? Apparently you gotta spend money to make money.

I’m so thankful for the support I get from my fans, friends, and family though. As far as art and creativity in general, without other people finding value in your work, there really isn’t a solid purpose to making it. It may sound crazy to say that, and it does seem so for me, at least. But, of course, when I build something creatively, it’s exciting and often challenging. I do find value in my own work, but the actual “artwork” (you can find excitement and challenges in many other non creative exercises) is only made for other people to consume. I want to make people feel something. So, in a round about way, I’m trying to say thanks to everyone that’s ever shared, commented on, or liked any of my posts! Getting those eyes on my content, I feel, is impossible without you.

Gift Exchange Progress:

Brad Thornhill’s drawing *mailed*

Meggz Fuller’s drawing *finished*

Rene (Assassin) Moran’s drawing *unfinished*