Glowing Lights of Progress

Well it's been a while but I feel like my vacation from the blog is over and it's time to get back to work in telling you what I've been up to.

Back in February I gave myself a few personal projects that I wanted to complete by the end of summer. I had the best of intentions in trying to get them all done but, with August almost over, I feel like a complete failure because nothing I wanted to get done is completed.

The four projects I gave myself to complete were:
1. An OilCan Drive music CD of four to six songs.
2. A collected Exit 6 book that would compile all the work I did on my self published Exit 6 comic as well as a biography of my life as it pertained to the creation of the comic.
3. A book of the movie style script I wrote for OilCan Drive a few years ago complete with art and a new cover.
4. Start the next OilCan Drive comic book.

But, with summer ending and the client work gearing up again, I find myself with nothing complete and, because of that, I've felt awful and felt the need to be quiet for a while. That's not to say that nothing got done but nothing got finished. But, things are much further along than they were when I started them back in February.

The OilCan Drive music CD is over halfway completed. After a bunch of false starts I finally got into the groove and recording was going along really smoothly. I did hit a snag recently when one song got me bogged down so I put the project on hold so I could recollect my thoughts. I haven't recorded or played anything in a few weeks but I can feel the itch to start recording again. The way I usually know this is that when I want to record and don't have the time I start looking at new music gear to buy. Today I was looking at amp heads and speaker simulators that, together, would run me over two grand. So, I figure it's much easier to just pick up one of my guitars and start working again than to go into debt buying gear I don't need. It's much cheaper that way.

The Exit 6 collected book has all the art scanned into the computer and is ready to be put together. The writing of my biography is almost done and, from what I can gauge, I only have a few more chapters to write before I wrap that all up. I am stuck on a spot somewhere in 2001 where I felt like my life fell apart and changed dramatically. I'm trying to figure out how I want to word this chapter in my life but it is near the end of the story. I have about eighty pages of text written so far and, from what I can estimate, with art and story, the finished book should be about 350 pages.

While the OilCan Drive script book got put way on the back burner and the OilCan Drive comic hasn't even had one page of it drawn yet, I do have a nice structure in my head for the next OilCan Drive adventure. The story is taking shape and the way the books (yes, books...this one will have multiple chapters and not be a single, short story, adventure) are going to be laid out is slowly gelling in my brain. I did sign a quick "promise to start" contract with a few fellow artists saying there is a certain date we would all start drawing our books. That day isn't here yet but it's coming soon and I will start drawing OilCan Drive then.

So, while I do feel like a failure, things are still rolling along. And, it's not like nothing is getting done. It's just taking longer than I thought.

And, over the last few weeks I've been busy as well. Since I last wrote I have done three freelance art jobs, taken on two new commissions from Europe, agreed to do the audio and video for a friends comic book trailer, signed contracts and begun working on the next kid's book, refinanced my existing mortgage, had new windows put into the condo, and had a friend (Jeff, not only is he a great artist but the guy can build a house with his own two hands, Lafferty) tear apart and build me a new deck.

So, it's been busy but my vacation from the blog is over.

Get ready for some new art, new stories, and new music and video projects soon!

Have a great day!