Sunday, April 17, 2011

Selling Artwork

I seem to be caught in an interesting dilemma; figuring out my artistic self-worth when it comes to pricing my art.

On one hand, I'm not as well known as I would like to be - in the comic book-artistic community. But I have been gaining enough attention that I feel blessed, thanks to so many of you already who have bought artwork from me lately. And to those who have helped spread the word. Thanks to many of you, hard work is paying off in more ways than one.

So, now I have come to a difficult decision; to sell my artwork at a higher price. I do not raise my price due to inflated ego, but because I feel plenty of hard work is ahead. And for this hard work, I plan to bring people what I have been promising for years; MockTales! And a world of amazing adventures, excitement and fantasy.

If all goes well, and this year's hard work proves me worthy, then my excitement for creation and art will come into fruition as promised to you all.


A brief bit of random creative writing for the Blog:

"Caught myself looking in the mirror again. *gasp* Am I actually feeling good about myself and body? Could this be? Could positive changes and hard work be paying off? My body, is more tone. My hair, longer and thick. My confidence, grows stronger each day. A timid boy is growing into a strong man. Tell me this pleases you, and you too shall know what it is like to enjoy this growth."

Monday, April 11, 2011

Public Transportation Girls

So an interesting thought entered my brain as I was on the bus home from work yesterday. But I'll get to that in a moment...

Since my truck is essentially toast (transmission is almost ready to crash and burn), I have been getting rides from my girlfriend and using the bus to get to work. This has been a radical change for me, as I have always been used to driving myself places for the past 16 years. Since using the bus, I have felt like I have been dodging a cold almost every week. While the Sound Transit buses are fairly clean and comfortable, the Seattle Metro buses have, on occasion, smelled like pee and always have someone weird sitting up front right on your left after you pay, almost as if they want you to trip over them and purposely cause a problem. This isn't every bus ride, but seems to be frequent enough. But even still, I do enjoy the fact that public transportation is available. I have met some really nice drivers and had good conversations. And regardless of the condition of the buses, these drivers do seem to put up with a lot in order to get people places, drive through narrow streets with extra long vehicles, and do all this on a fairly decent timetable.

I love to drive. I am also an arrogant driver. While I may have seem timid about everything else in life, I honestly feel that I am very proficient in driving and that other people on the roads are idiots. What this means then, is that when other people are driving me around to places, I am uncomfortable for at least the first few drives before I can finally let my guard down. Sometimes longer. I feel that I see things that they don't, and I may scoff or jerk in my seat because I naturally feel I would have reacted faster or differently. And from what I'm told, I'm not the only one that feels this way. So now that I am without a vehicle, I do actually find myself letting my guard down a bit more and putting a lot more faith in other drivers (that I am being driven by). I still think people are idiots for not knowing how to use 4-way stops.

So back to girls on public transportation; Last night I was riding home on the bus and I sat in one of those seats that faces sideways looking towards the other side at other passengers. This was a full bus leaving Seattle for North Seattle. And right across from me were three attractive girls, roughly early 20's, two of them with really nice legs. To my right view, in an attempt to look out the window past the middle accordion-looking connection piece, was two more attractive girls, also early 20's, and then to my left view was an extremely attractive late 20's business girl with nice legs as well. While I honestly don't want to sound like I'm complaining with the over abundance of attractive women on the bus, but I actually was tired and just wanted to rest until my stop. But I couldn't find a comfortable spot to just face and look. Every angle was covered and I didn't want these girls thinking I was staring at them. I'm confident in my life right now that if I find a girl attractive, I'll smile and make conversation. But last night I was just tired. The only option, close my eyes. BUT, if I fell asleep I might miss my stop. What a situation!! But, alas I made it through without a scratch. And in the end, the three girls in front of me smiled at me as they left, which almost made me feel like they knew what I was going through.

All you girls know guys go through this don't you? Don't lie... *laughs*

Monday, April 4, 2011

April Showers?! nah...

So here I am, back again. Another attempt at keeping a Blog/Journal going. Lets do some catching up with this one.

Debt - So with the help of over 20-25 Commission orders and a Loan, I was able to get my debt issues caught up to about 80%. With this, however, I now have more artwork to do than I have ever imagined putting on my plate. Slowly, but surely I have been finishing and sending out everyone's orders. I would like to take a moment in this journal to thank those who are waiting patiently for their artwork, let alone everyone who helped me through this.

Personal Health and development - In the past few weeks I have been able to engage myself into "personal development" mode (along with help from people I love and care about of course). After not being able to make it to C2E2 in Chicago, I got really down and out about things. And one of the things I've had a hard time doing for the better part of my whole life, is working on my personal self-growth. I am reading The Road Less Traveled by Scott Peck. While this book points out the obvious things we should all know in life, it also puts things into perspective. Various topics talk about how you are raising human beings, not just children. Then there is a chapter I am entering soon talking about Love and Cathexis and how we all think Love is one thing, when it really is another. I could go on, but I really think a good chunk of people I know should read this book to gain a better perspective on life. I even bought a copy for my soon to be ex-wife, because regardless of divorce, she is the mother of my children and it means a lot to me that my kids are around a strong and supportive person as they learn to grow and develop into the people they will soon become.

MockTales - I'm syked to look at my art desk and see more development artwork for my book. The MockTales Wiki has been getting more and more information as I have free time to write. Finally getting out things in my head that have been there for years, and seeing it in print online, makes this whole project that much more exciting. And then hearing back from a lot of people who have been reading and waiting for this, and telling me how they are enjoying what they are reading so far, pumps me up even more! At this rate, an Art Book should be out by Fall/Winter of this year, 2011. I can't say it is Official yet, but things are looking more likely than ever.

Happy April, 2011 everyone. This looks to be a very productive month, let alone 2011 being a very productive year. Here is to Productivity!!