Adam Ming

August 25, 2021

An unproductive blogpost, and why that’s a good thing.

I was going to get productive about blogging. My plan was to draft the next 4 blogposts in one sitting, then I would flash them out in a different sitting but my broccoli told me that, that, was not a good idea. I don’t think the point of blogging is productivity, I think the point of blogging is building this relationship we have post...
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August 24, 2021

Backlog

One of the good outcomes of my Startup experience, was that I read a whole number of books that I would probably never have otherwise read. In the book ‘Scrum’ I learned the idea of a ‘Backlog’. At first glance a backlog looks like a todo list, it’s all the things you need to do prioritised in a single sequence. What makes the backlog ...
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August 22, 2021

Thinking about time. Malcom Gladwell popularised the idea of 10 000 hours of practice to gain mastery. It’s really hard to fathom what 10 000 hours of practice feels like. Unless we break it down. 20 hours a week every week for 10 years roughly gives you 10000 hours. That’s almost 3 hours a day of focused practice, the equivalent of ha...
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August 22, 2021

Instruction and practice

Two out of every 10 books I own is a comic or a picture book. The other 10 are what I call instructional books. Books about how to write, or how to draw, how to sell, how to manage time and so on. Two of my favourites are; “How to pray” and “How to read a book”. I read these books to be better at things. But at some point each new book...
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August 8, 2021

How do you know if you have the chops?

When you watch a talent show, you will eventually come upon the trope of the person who thought they were really talented and only at this most public of stages realize that they were not as competent as they thought they were. How do you know, you are not that person? I think at least one of two things must have gone wrong for the tal...
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July 22, 2021

Jerry Seinfeld on the brain, my failed livestream and a drawing of a hand

Hi everyone. I’ve recently started a daily livestream. Each is short; 15 minutes each and there is a bit of a recipe to it. I start by sharing a gem. What is a gem? A gem is a hard won piece of knowledge normally a result of overcoming some obstacle in life. These gems come in the form of quotes from people I have read about, often it’...
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July 9, 2021

Owen Davey talks to Adam Ming about Football, Illustration and writing Non-Fiction.

Illustration: Owen Davey www.owendavey.com There are 2 ways to meet your heros. The first is at the journey’s end. At the peak of any endeavour or journey you get to meet the few others who have reached that point. A world leader gets to meet other world leaders. An elite athlete will get to meet other elite athletes. This kind of meet...
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July 4, 2021

For the record there are amateurs and there are professionals. The one where Adam Ming chooses a path.

In March 2020, I started drawing comics again. The Quarantine was in full swing, I was living on savings and I had a single regular illustration gig which tied me over. There I was, the world stopped, and I still was getting paid to draw. I was essentially, accidentally a full time illustrator. I wondered if I could build a career out ...
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June 26, 2021

For the record: The one where Adam Ming almost stops drawing forever

29 April 2019 (26 months before I was rep’d by an illustration agency) I had been doing my daily drawings in the 365 days of drawings book for 3 months. Then one day, I just drew this diary comic. I remember it was a Sunday. I drew and posted a comic everyday for about a month. I felt so alive waking up at 5 am most days and drawing th...
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June 25, 2021

For the record: The one where Adam Ming started using time-blocks

This notebook page is dated 30 March 2019. 25 months later I would welcome my baby girl into the world and I still use a version of this to fit it family time, work time, and creative development time. I was reading Ben Franklins Autobiography, in it it showed a version of his time blocks and how he would spend his days. Around the sam...
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June 24, 2021

For the record: The one where Adam Ming starts a drawing habit

“After a decade as an entrepreneur, I started transitioning into a full-time illustrator, people often ask how it’s done, I was 37 when I started transitioning. ‘For the record’ is a series of posts where I reflect on the past 36 months of this journey, even as I continue to take steps forward. ” I found this on instagram. It was dated...
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June 22, 2021

For the record: The one where Adam Ming announces he is now a working with an agent.

For the record. I’m now represented by Lydia Silver at the Darley Anderson Illustration Agency. It is a milestone as I aim to develop an illustration career. I am thrilled to be working with Lydia because we share a vision of what that career could look like. And that shared vision helps create a greater level focus in the work. In the...
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June 15, 2021

Vinny

Hello world. I’m starting out illustrating children’s books. But one day I hope to be writing them as well. I love how images and words interact, taking turns to do the work. Like in this piece, since we write the word mouse, just a drawing of two eyes let’s you know that you are looking at a careful mouse. And the picture of Vinny tel...
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June 12, 2021

Illustrating Browns

Browns especially darker shades of brown are hard to print. This is because it requires all four colors to mix a brown. This could : 1. screw up the look of the other colors on a page. 2. Be inconsistent because inks and paper color vary Pro tips from friends; 1. Always make a brown have a dominant color. 2. work in lighter shades of b...
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June 6, 2021

Creative Downtime.

Hey World, it’s Adam! I’m trying to become a fulltime illustrator at 40. I write about the journey. I have some creative downtime. It’s 4 hours to my bedtime so I don’t want to take a nap. But time is so precious to an independent creative. So I got started thinking how can I use this downtime, or low energy time. Here’s a 7 things I t...
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June 2, 2021

Technical illustration word of the day: “Feels”

If you’re looking to inject more ‘feels’ into your illustration. Maybe this will help you. I’ve been sending my work out to illustrator agents to get representation. One agent in particular offered curt feedback to the effect of; “I don’t feel it”. And I though to myself, that is really good feedback. Of all the jobs an illustration mu...
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May 17, 2021

What I think about when I think about illustration.

A drawing is not an illustration. The difference is intent. An illustration implies that there is a message that needs to be transferred using only visuals. The illustrator is paid for his ability to deliver that message crisply and cleanly. The way an illustrator delivers a message is called style. To work out a style an illustrator n...
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April 2, 2021

CRUX

It's been a long and exciting day, after an interesting 9 months. Early in lockdown my wife got pregnant. (No correlation) And so this entire season of lockdown has been one of pregnancy... And today marks the next season in our lives. It is also Good Friday. A day that helps us focus on sacrifice made out of love. A most appropriate w...
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March 19, 2021

How to spend a life? (That unspecified length to precious time)

I don’t know how long I’ll live. I’m not dying or anything. I’m just saying that I have an unknown quantity of life to spend. How can I act today, so that at the end, I can know that I have spent that one precious life on the things that I wanted to? When we are young, the future seems like an infinite number of “One Days”. And we get ...
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