A Pause in Things

Being Honest With Myself

First, apologies for the late post, but (maybe justifiable?) it's somewhat thematic to the topic at hand.  Let's put things bluntly - I was initially going to put this blog on pause and come back to it later.  However, it makes much more sense to loosen the straps on this blog.  I will not adhere to a weekly schedule, but I won't stop posting altogether.  But, let me describe why I've decided to do this.

There are two major reasons why I wanted to temporarily stop the weekly blog post.  The first is, I'm not an illustrator (yet).  While I'd love to talk about myself (somewhat can't stop once I've started), I'm only 23.  I can't imagine having epiphanies every week about my life concerning illustration.  Basically, I'm running out of things to say about my blog.  The first change I'm going to make to my blog is a title change. 

As I may have mentioned before, I want to become a writer.  Due to my kind of thinking as a wannabe-writer, words and labels are important to me.  More and more, I'm considering myself more of an illustrator, rather than an aspiring illustrator.  An important distinction.  When I come back to the blog, I will make a title change.  Currently I'm switching between "A Boy and His Process" or "An Illustrator and His Process".  We'll see.  

The other reason why I'm no longer committing myself to a weekly post is that I've become very, very busy.  And it's great.  Here's a list of the things I'm currently doing. 

- kickstarter video project for a nonprofit

- (possibly) directing and performing in a production/performance of a few short plays (one of them is mine!)

- twice-monthly meeting of writer's

- I'm part-owner of a startup media brand

- might manage another new start-up, heading the design

- writing (screenplay/short story etc)

- and most importantly, MY ART!

And, I'd like to have a social life, free time etc.  I felt it was okay to put the blog on hold because I'm actually drawing a lot more, not only for myself, but for others as well.  My blog is going to move in a different direction and not have the same format as before. Where I before had the whole, 'life lesson first, art second', it will primarily focus on the art and I'll try to add a little bit about me if not, about art by that point. 

This blog has been great, I've gotten some great feedback and it's felt really nice knowing people have been reading what I wrote and actually taken away from it.  However, I hate doing things half-assedly (a lovely word) and that's how I felt I've been doing it lately or would have been if I was strict to myself about posting on Wednesday.  The past couple of posts have been coming later and later in the week (this one's going up soooo late) and I started to feel dishonest.  

Lastly, I really want to be able to show more work, and I was honestly running out.  Looking ahead, if I want to make Illustration a real career, a shorter schedule for completing work (as I've just heard from an artist's Q&A) is two weeks for sketches and two weeks for final.  A longer schedule extends that for 1-2 additional months.  To commit myself weekly to show different pieces of art I've created makes a rapidly dissipating schedule where I'd feel forced to make some sketch so I can try to talk about it, and that helps no one.  I'm much rather show work I'm proud of and have much to say rather than "this is a sketch I did," and end on that.

There are two big takeaways here.  First, I'm not done with art or illustration.  In no way is illustration a flavor of the month phase for me.  This feels real and grows for me with everyday.  I'm drawing more, I'm feeling confident and I'm creating things much quicker.  My second takeaway is 'don't do what you don't want to do', and that's how I was beginning to feel about this blog.  A constant quote that I tell myself is "if you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong."  This blog was fun but it was beginning to feel like work (not fun) and I didn't like it.  I'm changing it so it does feel fun and I'd feel excited to show more things

Before I take up too much time saying the same thing in a different way, I don't want to leave without showing any art.  Here are a two pieces, one is finished and I'll show its process from sketch to mid, to final.  This one is titled "Create-a-World", shown in stage one (pencil), stage two (mid-digital) and stage 3 (final)

 

 

 

 Another is a kind of cover page for my graphic novel.  Something I thought about in my head.  It's not done, but from sketch to computer to where I have it now - this took about four days, which is incredibly fast for me.  No title (yet), but there's stage 1 (digital sketch), and stage 2 (near completion)

 

I'll come back soon enough.  


In the meantime you can find me on these different sites

Twitter:  @JL_Illustration
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/josue.ledesma.7
Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jl_illustration





I hope to be much more active on these sites, not only sharing my work and my thoughts, but other resources related to art, writing, creativity, etc.


Thanks for reading,


Josue