John Martz and I would be good friends, I think. In fact, today he posted a birthday present for me in the form of two awesome Chris Ware links. Thanks, John– I didn’t know you cared!

I know I’ve been quiet for a while, but I have an excuse: I’m busy. Hah, you thought it was going to be more interesting than that. Well, it sort of is, but mostly just to me. I’ll post again soon and explain.

Well, goodbye 2004, and hello 2005. I have to say I will probably remember 2004 for a long time as the year I started making art again. And as my new splash screen hints, in this new year I am planning to try to focus that trend towards books again. The next questions are the whats and whens, but I am happy to let those questions percolate for a while.

In the meantime, I continue to experiment. I am loving this new brush pen my little brother got me for Christmas, and I used it on six drawings yesterday. I am a little scared to use it up, because the packaging is all in Chinese or Japanese, and I can’t read one character on there. I don’t have any idea how I’d replace it (unless Teddy gives me some clues, or perhaps birthday presents *hint-hint*).

Over the weekend I tried to spend some time thinking about the past year, and some of the trajectories I have launched. By extension, of course, that means I was thinking about the coming year, and what goals I might set for myself. I have learned that, in general, saying things out loud makes them more likely to happen; but by way of caveat: saying things “out loud” on this weblog does not always have the same effect. Be that as it may, here is my biggest goal for the year:

I plan to have a book submitted to a publisher before the end of 2005.

Those who have known me long enough know that I made children’s picture books when I was an undergraduate at Carleton. Two of those were of publishable length, but looking back at that work, there is a significant amount of polish missing from both of those projects. The writing especially needs work. At this point, with the progress I’ve made with my drawings in the last year, I am not as worried about improving the art as much as I once was. The biggest challenge I face with the art is deciding on a style and medium, but my theory is that the tone of the story I write will influence the art, and vice-versa. I figure I can relax and let the two evolve together.

And finally, the monkey-wrench in the mix: I really like drawing comics. I don’t know if I am any good at it yet, but I am really enjoying experimenting. I am so used to drawing with pencils that it feels like a palatable baby-step to use ink instead of graphite for a while. Using ink has made me much more confident about my lines, and the richness of the black ink is really exciting, especially compared to the gray of the pencil marks. Perhaps the book I make this year (if it is only one) will be a comic book. Who knows?

Welcome, 2005!