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 them till the sun came up. We don’t choose our interest, it chooses us. I wasn’t doing it for money. I didn’t know why I was doing it. But it felt better to do it than not.
After 30 days or so I stopped. I think it was because I was trying to turn it into something more than an automatic spontaneous act of love. I was trying to plan it, and reach for something more than what I was capable of in the moment.
It became too big for the few hours I could afford each morning, and because I could not afford it anymore, I had to stop.
This was the second time I started a comic only to stop a few weeks later.
What I realize in hindsight was that you need to pick a creative challenge that’s the right size.
The right size for your ability and the right size for the time you’re able to allocate to it.
A daily drawing in a 365 book had become too small. But a daily comic was still too big.
Unfortunately in the 30days that I was doing a comic, I had stopped drawing in my 365 day guided sketchbook.
So altogether I fell out of the creative habit. It would be 8 months before I made another drawing. This was that last over ambitious comic
If this was a video game, my artist character would be down to his last heart.
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TRY IT:
Pick a creative challenge that is either the right size or a little smaller, and try to do it for a year. Consistency trumps grand gestures.
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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. If you find it useful or entertaining I would be grateful if you consider sharing it with someone.
Follow me online: https://bio.site/AdamMing