Anyone who’s been on the internet as long as I have has tried blogging in earnest at least once or twice. I’ve kept my thoughts on all sorts of sites, from LiveJournal to Tumblr. Getting the thoughts out was easy, but referencing the key information when I needed it later was impossible. I needed some organization, clarity, and most of all: stability.
When I launched this site in 2017 I was fueled by ambition (and perhaps too many Monster Energies). The interface was overwhelming, and there was too much to do when I had other priorities. The site never made it out of the gate, and languished so long that I simply forgot it existed.
Artist’s rendition of myself after attempting to create a comic, keep a blog, work 70 hours a week, hit the gym 5 days a week, and maintain a semblance of sanity.
Now six years later I’ve found some sense of balance, so why not give it another try?
Actually, WHY?
I’m not one to start a project when there’s only one reason to do so. The six years of struggle at least taught me how to prioritize. When measured against all other priorities: If there’s only one benefit to a task, there’s no benefit at all.
Writing out each and every reason would turn this into a chapter book, so I’ll stick to my top 4.
Memory & Inspiration
I’m the sort of person who always has ten or so projects in action at once. While this is not inherently cause for concern (see: prolific DIY-ers) , I also have a terrible memory! The thing I tend to forget first is why I’m creating what I’m creating.
Once the why is forgotten, getting back into the swing of things becomes an insurmountable hurdle. How insurmountable?
I’ve had artist’s block for six years. Long enough to have lost all of the momentum and about half of the capabilities that I’d built up for over thirteen years.
I’m not sure yet and I won’t be sure until I’ve tried, but talking myself through my art journey in a way that I can return and reference will hopefully give me the confidence needed to keep pushing.
(And a little part of me hopes that this little blip in the great infinity of the internet will hope someone else before they crash)
Practice
I’m not just an illustrator. This blog will remain solely a collection of projects under the scope of Illustration just to keep it from being too overwhelming. I still have big dreams and plans that aren’t limited to just drawing. With a head full of ambition I believe that in the relatively near future I’ll be putting lots of energy into artist statements, blurbs, interviews and Q&A’s-the whole nine yards.
More realistically, I feel that blogging is the practice I need to reawaken my original creative tic-creative writing.
Organization
As my projects continue to grow towards completion I want to have an organized way to show them to friends new and old. Social-media platforms are great for immediate gratification with platform users but are limited when talking to normal people. Or as I call them: The Offline.
Escaping the big two (three?) platforms is not just a matter of wanting to communicate with my real-life acquaintances, which brings me to my biggest reason:
IP Protection
The future of online art is uncertain to say the least. I doubt it will disappear entirely, but there’s no arguing that the landscape is drastically changing. Very few of those changes are beneficial to artists, creativity, or the basics of social connection.
To put it simply, there are bulls in the china shop right now. With only a limited selection of active networking platforms, the fall of Twitter is threatening the networks and livelihoods artists have built up over the two decades since. This is not the first time such a thing has happened (see: The Great LiveJournal Purge, DeviantArt Eclipse Exodus, Tumblr NSFW Ban, ArtStation no-AI censorship) , and it definitely won’t be the last.
It is because it is not the last that I am building my life raft here, independently and under my complete control. Looking at the timeline, I had that same idea in 2018. This time I hope it sticks.
Come along for the ride!
For now this blog will be rather fast and loose. I am still in the process of rebuilding my art confidence. Hopefully I will soon reach the point in my healing journey where I am able to post snippets of my development work to this unvisited website, but not yet.
Until then, I plan to do check-ins for my current ongoing projects. Even without the art there is still much to share about the research process, visual development, and most fun of all-writing!
I’m looking forward to it. It’s a good feeling.
Thanks for reading!
fatcr0w is a hobbyist artist with a passion for comics and illustration. They take on too many projects and don’t know when to shut up. It is with great optimism that they believe one day this blurb will be more interesting.
fatcr0w 