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20100829.1913 #blog
I draw 90% of all of my artwork on the computer. That means over the years, I’ve accumulated a fair amount of computer related stuff. I even have a junk drawer for all the surplus computer gadgets and cables that I don’t need. Needless to say, this doesn’t sit well with my desire for a clutter-free minimalist lifestyle.
It’s been said before, but I think it bears repeating: Minimalism isn’t about doing without, it’s about having only what you need and making the absolute most out of that. Let me give you a brief rundown of the essential gear I use to draw a comic…
Macbook Pro – This is absolutely essential. I love the form factor of the laptop, and I love the ease of use of the Mac platform. Portability is also a must.
Power Brick – I debated even listing this, but I actually plug in my laptop quite often. Without this, I would be dead in the water. Typically a laptop battery lasts only about three hours at best. Plug a power-thirsty Wacom tablet in and that time drops even more. Plus, given that it usually takes much longer than three hours to do any sort of illustration, a laptop battery alone just isn’t going to cut it.
Wacom Tablet 6″ x 8” – Again, absolutely essential. The first time I ever used a digital tablet, it completely changed the way I interface with computers. It’s a fantastic thing to be able to hold a pen to a pad and draw something virtually on a computer.
Wacom Pen – Like jelly to peanut butter, the Wacom tablet is pretty much completely useless without this little gadget.
External Mouse – As awesome as the Wacom tablet is, sometimes it’s necessary to use a mouse for things. It can either be a fancy Bluetooth mouse, a wired mouse, or even the Wacom 4D mouse that comes with the tablet.
That’s what I need to draw a comic, just those five simple things. Now my computer is old and busted, so I have to have a few additional peripherals in order to make my laptop do what it’s supposed to do out of the box…
External Hard Drive – I actually have two of these. One stores music and movies and other silliness, and the other I use as my dedicated backup drive. Only a fool goes without a backup drive. (I was a fool for a really long time.)
External DVD Burner – Sometimes I need to burn optical media, and for one reason or another the internal burner in my Macbook stopped working properly a long time ago. Even after a replacement when my graphics chip exploded it still refuses to work correctly or consistently. So I gave up and got an external optical media drive. It’s a pain in the ass, but there’s not a lot I can do about it until I get a new laptop.
External Webcam – The onboard Apple webcam crapped out a long time ago. Strictly speaking, I don’t actually need a webcam. However, it is nice to have if ever I need to take a quick and dirty photo of some non-digital art I’ve been working on. It’s also quite handy for webcam chats and live streaming.
External Speakers – While the onboard speakers on the Macbook Pro are better than laptop speakers in the past, they’re still total crap. I like to listen to music when I draw, and headphones give me a massive headache after a few hours of wearing them. So while I can, I’ll revel in the luxury of external speakers.
So that’s pretty much the rundown of all the equipment I use to draw a comic or illustration. Yet it seems just a bit on the excessive side. If there was a way to combine and/or eliminate some of this stuff (and all the USB and power cables that go with it) that would be fantastic.
The Axiotron ModBook Pro could resolve some of these issues. Not only would I be getting a new laptop, I’d also be getting a functioning DVD burner and webcam, a bigger hard drive, and (this is the kicker) an internal Wacom tablet, making the whole shebang into a portable Cintiq tablet. How fucking badass is that?! This is the computer I hope to have when I go on my world travels.
I don’t have the money to purchase one of these bad boys right now, which is just as well. The system won’t actually be available until sometime in 2011. In the meantime, I’ll have to simply do what I can with what I’ve got, even if it is a horrific clutterbomb.
20100724.0922 #blog
“It is natural to [primitive man], something innate, as it were, to project his existence outwards into the world and to regard every event which he observes as the manifestation of beings who at bottom are like himself. It is his only method of comprehension. And it is by no means self-evident, on the contrary it is a remarkable coincidence if by thus indulging his natural disposition he succeeds in satisfying one of his greatest needs.”
Sigmund Freud wrote these words in his treatise on religion, “The Future of an Illusion”. While most of Freud’s theories on psychology have been pretty much thoroughly debunked, his ideas on where religion comes from (the mind), and how it developed in early man and early civilization, is what got me interested in understanding the genesis of religious thought in human beings.
I was in the bathroom when I read that passage, and its similarity to one branch of Pascal Boyer’s theory of religion—agency hyper detection—absolutely floored me. It made me think two things: the first, I’m not a very meticulous reader. I read “The Future of an Illusion” two years ago, yet somehow I completely overlooked this passage, and the second, Freud’s evidence to support the idea of humans looking for human agency in the non-human natural world was extremely shoddy, but the idea was nonetheless there. It would be another century before Pascal Boyer came along and reexamined Freud’s hypothesis with some much more solid evidence coming from twentieth and twenty-first century cognitive science.
The idea that human beings have a tendency to anthropomorphize non-human things has been around since well before the ancient Greeks, whose language we use to derive the concept of humanizing non-human objects. But the question lingered: Why do humans do this? Boyer claims that the cognitive mechanisms that create this behavior are an evolutionary trait humans acquired over time which boils right down to Darwin’s “survival of the fittest”.
Human beings in the wild, untamed, natural world were no doubt prey to a lot of critters out there. (Remember in the film 2001 when one of the monkey-humans gets attacked and eaten by a big cat? Yeah, like that.) So, a cognitive mechanism which Boyer calls agency hyper detection emerged in early humans which gave us the power to imagine that the rustling of leaves in the bushes was not simply happenstance, but instead caused by another living, breathing, thinking critter. And as evolutionary theory goes, the humans who thrived are the ones who got the hell out of the big cat’s way after hearing the rustle of leaves in the bushes.
Agency hyper detection is the modern interpretation of Freud’s idea that primitive man projects his existence outward. It’s not because of some ludicrous idea infantile sexuality or Oedipal complex. No. It’s based on something way more solid than that: The idea that cognitive functions in the brain are a product of evolution, and have a direct influence on human social behavior.
Anyway, yeah. That’s what I was thinking about in the bathroom this morning.
20100705.1351 #blog
I'm not Ancaluvion. But I've slept with a few.
I woke up this morning and found this waiting for me on Twitter. I was thrilled! Many thanks to Jimmy Misanthrope for the artwork. The comic in question where you can see Madeline in her stripey skull shirt can be found here.
20100703.2038 #blog
I’ve been obsessing, more so recently than I have in past years. I think it’s because I’m getting greyer. By “greyer” I mean “wiser” as well as literally grey. (Although my grey is actually silver, but this is beside the point.) I would have to say the source of my recent obsessing was my college education.
Below the Fold »
20100627.2139 #blog
Three weeks ago on June 9 was the official Day 100 of my 100 Thing Challenge. While I’m happy to say that I succeeded in reducing my stuff to 100 things*, I’ve learned that it still isn’t quite enough. (* If you recall, the rules for my personal 100 Thing Challenge were pretty liberal, allowing me to keep my books and CDs. So technically, I’m nowhere near 100 individual items. More like 500-700. Oy.) What I’ve realized is that I have an attachment to some of my stuff, notably books and music. A prime example would be my Ancient Greek textbooks. While I really want to know Ancient Greek, I spend zero time on actually learning it. So I asked myself, “What is the purpose of holding on to a thing if I’m never going to actually use that thing?”
I’ve made a new rule for books which should make getting rid of them a little bit easier. (I love books!) In addition to a one in, two out rule, and a ‘Read the books I have’ rule, I’m also instituting a rule for my language books. If I don’t use at least one of my language reference books for at least thirty minutes a day, then I must get rid of them. As for music, I should rip my CDs to my hard drive and get rid of the discs. I’m not a purist, so I don’t need to keep the discs or the liner notes when it’s the music itself that I want. I’ve been doing the same with some of my DVDs that I watch often. I also have a Netflix account, so any discs I don’t rip I’ll still be able to rent at a moment’s notice.
So those rules will help me take care of the book and music issue, and maybe shave a couple hundred Things off of my personal inventory of stuff. Other stuff issues I’ve been having revolve around office stuff. As an illustrator of comics and art, I have a lot of paper with bits and bobs of sketches and art. I have been consolidating a lot of it into sketch portfolios, but this is a good example of how I can get really attached to my stuff. I have drawings dating back to the Twentieth Century, and it’s near impossible for me to part with them. Why? Because these are things that I have created myself, and it is a major challenge to separate myself from my artwork. That’s really the primary reason why I prefer doing digital work rather than original pieces. At least I can part with a digital work because I’ll always have the original file in my hard drive.
I’ll table the art dilemma for now and work on decluttering my bookshelf and CD case. In the meantime, I should praise myself for the major amount of decluttering I’ve managed to accomplish in the first 100 days. Remember that a minimalist lifestyle isn’t something to do in a weekend like a trip to Mount Rushmore. It’s an ongoing process that can always be honed.
A proper Singapore Sling uses many ingredients that I don’t often have. So I fake it a bit and call my variation a Singapore Fling. It pales in comparison, but at least it has gin and cherry brandy in it. And sometimes it even uses pineapple juice!
In an old fashioned glass, throw in some ice and combine:
1 1/2 oz. gin
1 1/2 oz. sloe gin
1 oz. Kirschwasser
1/2 oz. Campari
splash lemon juice
top with orange juice (pineapple juice if you want to be more traditional)
You’ll wind up with a deliciously red drink that will really mess with your taste buds. (I think it’s the Campari what does it.)
!في صحتك
el jo
20100523.1609 #blog
I thought I might make a list of all the creative stuff I’ve got on my plate and all my back burners. Maybe by putting it down here, I’ll be able to focus my creativity on long overdue projects.
Absolutely True Tales of Lesbian Drama – Ongoing webcomic. Don’t fuck this up by slacking off.
The Prophets – Illustration. Try to sketch one prophet each day through the end of the month.
Page 100 Project – Mini comic of page 100 in Lamb.
A comic book version of the vampire short story I wrote back in January.
Judith and Holofernes illustration.
Lesbian pulp sci-fi illustration.
Script for fantasy comic featuring my klepto monk girl.
I’m sure there’s a lot more (my novel for example), but this is a nice list to start. What would you like to see in the near future?
20100428.1204 #blog
While at Stumptown Comics Fest, I had the pleasure of meeting Chris and Kyle Bolton. They are the writer/artist brothers behind the wonderful, kid-friendly comic Smash! I did a drawing of their title character, and you can see it now at this link.
It had been a while since I had drawn anything on paper, but I really like the way it turned out. I think Kyle and Chris enjoyed it as well. It was great hanging out with them at Stumptown, and many thanks for the donut and the table space so that I could draw!
Kyle, in exchange, drew a sketch for me of one of my characters. It happened to be Jo, the character based on me, so I also got a portrait! The snarky face is because it’s from the first comic of “Absolutely True Tales of Lesbian Drama” when Jo’s computer crashes and she’s rather nonplussed about it.
She hates computers more than I do.
20100426.1841 #blog
I spent this weekend up in Portland as a volunteer for the Stumptown Comics Fest. I kicked off the Fest with an evening at Drink and Draw Like a Lady West, at the Secret Society lounge. That was an excellent time of Vespers and Gin and Tonics, as well as hobnobbing with other women in comics. I met a woman from San Francisco, Amelia Altavena, and we connected over comics about rock climbing. We even have tentative plans to table together this fall at Alternative Press Expo.
The Fest kicked off for me at 9:00 am helping to set things up and get everything situated. For a while, I sat at the front and sold tickets to guests, but it wasn’t long before I wound up helping out with audio/video equipment for some of the presenters. I got to meet Aaron Diaz of Dresden Codak fame, and I also got to meet Matthew Southworth the artist of “Stumptown” written by Greg Rucka. Both of them were very friendly and jovial in their presentations, and I learned some excellent tricks for drawing comics from them.
I got to spend the rest of day one, and all of day two, meandering around the Fest and meeting and chatting with various comic creators. I got to meet Wes and Tony of “Amazing Super Powers”, and they drew in my sketchbook. I also gave them my business card to check out my own site and comics. (Which reminds me, I need to add their comic to my links on my own comic page!) I handed out many many business cards this weekend and did some self-promotion as best as I could without actually having my own table.
Next year, I will totally be tabling at Stumptown. So that means I’m going to need to get some stuff to sell and give away. Do any of you have any requests?
Carpe Diem,
Astrid
20100419.1331 #blog
Some of you might remember that on March 1, I began a decluttering process for my own 100-Thing Challenge. After fifty days of organizing and removing stuff from my room and my life, I’m happy to report that my inventory list (with caveats) is finally below 150 things. Progress! Excelsior!
I say “with caveats” because if I were to count individual books, CDs, DVDs, and items of clothing, I’m sure the number of things that I own would skyrocket to beyond 500. (I have a lot of books and music!) But since I defined my rules to count several things contained within one thing as one item (such as several books on a bookshelf counts as one bookshelf, Rule #9), I was able to lower my inventory list dramatically. I still plan on assessing these items to see if there is anything I can get rid of, but for now, I really want to keep my books and music.
Which leads me to the question: Why do I feel the need to keep these things? A couple of weeks ago I saw a show on hoarders. These are people who have an unhealthy compulsion to hold on to stuff and never let it go. These homes terrified me! It was physically impossible to move from one side of a single room to another without stepping over, around, or through heaping piles of stuff. If living room floors could tan, these would be the palest carpets you have ever seen. I am nowhere near as bad as the people in these shows, but I did see elements of their hoarding behaviors within me, and it made me nervous.
The primary motivation for holding on to stuff that I recognized within myself stemmed from a desire to be creative. These people held on to bits and bobs of crafting materials, bought organizing trays, bookshelves, containers, and so forth which they would eventually use to organize all the other crap they’ve been collecting over the years. One woman admitted that the buying of craft supplies was no longer about making the crafts, but for the joy of buying the stuff in the first place. Now I’m certainly no shopaholic, but I admit there is a bit of a thrill in buying stuff for the purposes of creative projects. The problem is, the creative projects never get done. They sit on the back burner along with all the other creative projects still back there which haven’t gotten done or even started yet. This is where I find myself. I have so many back burner projects that all I’m doing is adding to the pile of art supplies, but never getting around to actually using them. And this brings me to my second behavioral point for hoarding: perfectionism.
I admit that I am a horrible perfectionist. I spent all day yesterday trying to draw, and the only thing I managed to accomplish was this:
Last of the Brunnen-G
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great little drawing however it should not have taken me two and a half hours to draw, and it shouldn’t have been the only thing I drew. In ideal circumstances, I should be able to crank out a sketch like this in three to five minutes flat. Why did it take me so long, and why was it the only thing I drew?
When I draw, I like to be able to draw the finished product perfectly the first time. This awful habit is only true for drawing on paper. When I draw digitally, with a Wacom tablet and Photoshop or Illustrator, I don’t suffer from this crippling perfectionism that dogs me when I draw on paper. However, I’m never as satisfied with my digital work as I am with my analog work, because I can’t put the lines exactly where they’re supposed to go using the tablet. So whether I’m doing work digitally or on paper, there’s always something making me hyper critical of my work to the point at which I can no longer be creative for fear of making a horrible mistake.
It’s this fear of mistakes or being “not good enough” that keeps me from following through with finishing my own creative projects. And without being able to finish, the only thing I’m left able to do is collect stuff and accumulate more projects for the back burner. How this translates into the accumulation of other stuff then is fairly obvious.
I’ve always wanted to try music, photography, language acquisition, rock climbing, skiing, and so on. I buy the gear, maybe use it once or twice, and then leave it in the dust because I’m somehow “not good enough” to keep up the activity. This is really unhealthy behavior, and it has to stop. The question is: How do I stop it?
