Yesterday I posted an update about where I stand with respect to the “Contest for Creative Types,” only most of you probably didn’t see it because I removed it. Why? It was overly lengthy navel-gazing drivel. Frankly, where I stand can be summed up very succinctly: I’m crapping the bed.

See, I started by trying to re-write the script for the first issue of a comic-book entitled The Victory Streak. But I kept falling prey to the temptation to re-write as I went along. So I began losing ground in a big hurry.

Then I found a copy of the first draft of the script, and decided to draw the first four pages. Then I dug up the pencils for page one — which I did about a year or two ago — and inked them with a brush. Badly. Very badly. An untrained monkey could’ve done better.

So when I said I’d finished one page, that was factually correct but functionally incomplete. The complete picture: we’re 19 days into this contest and I have little to show for it.

So last night I taped a piece of artboard to my art table and said, “OK, in two hours I should be able to lay out this page.” But I couldn’t, because I kept erasing, and redrawing, and erasing, and redrawing… oh, and also, swearing and breaking pencils and pissing off my girlfriend who was sitting about five feet away using her PC.

Then I had an epiphany: I realized whatever I drew was going to suck… and that’s OK. Unless you’re a f—ing prodigy, you don’t get good until you get your bad drawings out of the way. May as well do that sooner rather than later.

I don’t know if I’m going to make the Nov. 30 deadline but I am going to complete four pages of this comic, like I said I would. I’m even going to post them in this blog and discuss them a bit for anyone who is interested.

And, hey, if I study and practice hard enough and consistently enough, after a few years people may look back at these drawings and say, “Man, that Bill Myers used to suck.” As in, y’know, past tense.

It’s time for our second contest update! You can check out the contest rules here if you missed them.

Here’s where we stand as of last week’s update:

Jeremy_A: Project = Novel (Forum Everyone); goal = 10,000 words per week; word count as of last week = ?

Colleen Doran: Project = Novel; goal = 50,000 words by end-of-month; word count as of last week = approx. 14,988

Sarah Beach: Project = Novel (Godiva); goal = 50,000 words by end-of-month; word count as of last week = approx. 6,654

Bill Mulligan: Project = Screenplay; goal = ?; word count as of last week = ?

Sean Scullion: Project = Screenplay (Triangle); goal = ?; word count as of last week = ?

Laurie Sutton: Project = Short Stories; goal = five 10,000-word stories by end-of-month; word count as of last week = ?

Me: Project = Comic-Book; goal = four finished pages by end-of-month; page count as of last week = 1

It looks like Colleen Doran is owning us, hands down. Also, we’re missing some updates! That’s right, I’m talkin’ to you, Laurie Sutton, Sean Scullion, and Jeremy_A. (I’m not picking on Bill Mulligan because he told me he has walking pneumonia and I don’t want to be responsible for driving him into an early grave. He’d never let me hear the end of it.)

My update will be forthcoming in a separate post on Saturday or Sunday. Why? First, I’d like to post some of what I’ve completed, and as I write this I’m at work (on my lunch break, before anyone asks!) and don’t have access to my artwork or my personal scanner. Second, Laurie Sutton convinced me that some of my thoughts around what I’m doing, the obstacles in my way and how I’m overcoming them would be of value to others. It didn’t take a lot of convincing, mind you. Getting me to talk is easy. Getting me to shut up is the tough part.

I look forward to updates from my fellow contestants.

Edited to remove a lot of unnecessary blather on my part.

It’s time for our first contest update! For those of you who missed it, last week I announced an unofficial Contest for Creative Types to coincide with National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). The rules are pretty simple: at the beginning of the month, I asked the ”contestants” to commit to a creative project and work toward a quantifiable goal.

Our contestants:

Jeremy_A: Project = Novel (Forum Everyone), goal = 10,000 words per week

Colleen Doran: Project = Novel, goal = 50,000 words by end-of-month

Sarah Beach: Project = Novel (Godiva), goal = 50,000 words by end-of-month

Bill Mulligan: Project = Screenplay, goal = ?

Sean Scullion: Project = Screenplay (Triangle), goal = ?

Laurie Sutton: Project = Short Stories, goal = five 10,000-word stories by end-of-month

Me: Project = Comic-Book, goal = four finished pages by end-of-month

(By the way, Sean and Bill Mulligan, I believe you’ll get the most out of this contest if you select a quantifiable goal to work toward and announce it here.)

OK, now that we know who’s playing, it’s time for everyone to report their progress. Since I’m the “ringleader,” I guess I’ll start. I’ve got one page penciled and inked. I’m going to do the lettering digitally and I’ll probably post it over the weekend.

I look forward to updates from the rest of the contestants.

David Tennant is quitting Doctor Who. Jerry Chandler forwarded to me the link with the news earlier tonight, ruining what otherwise would have been a fine evening. I realize everyone has their favorite Doctor Who; Tennant was mine.

Bummer.

Writer and illustrator Colleen Doran, whose credits include her creator-owned comic-book series entitled A Distant Soil, is participating in National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. The goal is to write a 50,000-word novel in one month. You can sponsor her by hopping over to her blog; donations will go to the Office of Letters and Light, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity. Your donations to the Office of Letters and Light pay for NaNoWriMo’s youth and adult novel-writing programs, as well as the Office of Letters and Light’s operating expenses.

Someone named Laurie Sutton posted a suggestion in one of Colleen’s threads: maybe a few of us could do our own little mini-contest. A light-bulb appeared over my head (yes, an actual light-bulb — very odd, but also useful: I used it to replace one of the light-bulbs in my kitchen). I thought, “Why don’t I offer to host this informal mini-contest and throw my own hat into the ring?”

Colleen kindly let me use her blog to announce this, and I’ve already had a few takers. Colleen herself then said she would join us. I am told she did this because she thought it would be funny to see a grown man wet his pants. Well, I showed her, you know — I didn’t wet my pants. I had an anxiety-induced vomit instead. In your face, Colleen!

OK, seriously, here’s what I propose: if you’re working on a creative project that involves storytelling, set a quantifiable goal for what you’re going to accomplish between Nov. 1 and Nov. 30 and announce it in this thread. If you’re doing NaNoWriMo, you already know what to do: write a 50,000-word novel by the end of November. If you’re doing something else, set a goal that is challenging but attainable, and again: QUANTIFIABLE. I will then post weekly “checkpoints” asking all comers to leave comments letting us know how much progress they’ve made against their goal. Those “checkpoint” threads will also serve as an opportunity for us to motivate and support each other.

As the unofficial ringleader (read: jackass who has no idea what he’s gotten himself into), I should have some real skin in the game. I’m going to work on my comic-book. Moreover, I am going to ask Colleen herself to set my goal for me. Ms. Doran, bearing in mind that I have a day-job and can probably set aside 15 – 20 hours a week if I’m really good with my time, please tell me how many pages I should complete by the end of November.

I ask that the rest of you leave a comment in this thread announcing your project and your measurable goal for the month of November. Then come back every Friday to provide an update about your progress. At the end of the month I’ll post a wrap-up where we can all share how far we got and compare notes.

Also: don’t forget to sponsor the awesome Colleen Doran for NaNoWriMo!!!

Now if you will excuse me, I believe I am due for another anxiety-induced vomit.

North Carolina Democrat Kay Hagan, who running against Republican Libby Dole for a seat in the U.S. Senate, recently filed a defamation lawsuit in response to a campaign advertisement from Dole questioning Hagan’s faith in God. Hagan is also running an ad of her own to assure people that she is a God-fearing person.

Why should it matter whether Hagan believes in God? We may swear our politicians in using a Bible, but the laws they swear to uphold are those of the United States. The last time I checked, the highest law of our land, the U.S. Constitution, explicitly states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

The idea that calling someone an atheist is “defamatory” just shows how much religious bigotry still exists in this country. Prejudice against atheists is still prejudice, folks.

Bill Mulligan recently posted a comment in the previous thread in which he told me, “I always envy people like yourself with genuine artistic talent. I wish I could do what you do. I suppose not being able to has forced me to develop skills in other areas but I’d gladly trade those growing experiences for the ability to be able to draw something remotely like what I can see in my head.”

Regardless of how much or how little talent I possess, drawing is a skill which must be learned. There is very little about drawing that comes naturally to me. It is a skill I am forced to develop through practice.

Me, I envy people with genuine musical talent, and athletes. But I don’t have what they’ve got, so I have to develop skills in other areas.

In other words, Bill Mulligan and I aren’t as different as he may believe.

This blog has been collecting dust to say the least. In addition to posting only once in a blue moon, I’ve been lax in the upgrade department. Until this weekend, I was still running WordPress 2.0, and the latest version is 2.6.3!

I’d been procrastinating because the last time I upgraded this blog it was a tremendous amount of work, fraught with all sorts of problems and resultant heartache. So imagine my relief when I discovered that my Web host, GoDaddy, makes it as easy as the click of a single button in my hosting admin panel! A lot of people hate on GoDaddy but as long as they provide me with tools like that I’m stickin’ with ‘em.

I also upgraded the plug-in that enables my readers to subscribe to e-mail updates. The plug-in hadn’t been working for God knows how long, but I hope the upgrade will resolve the problem. Anyone who signed up for e-mail updates should receive one shortly. If you changed your mind and want to be removed, you should be able to do that using the blog’s admin panel. If you have problems, e-mail me at bill dot myers at billmyerscreations dot com and I’ll remove your e-mail address from the subscriber list myself.

Of course, I haven’t the foggiest clue why you would do such a thing. Over the next few days I’m going to post some new sketches, some political commentary, and some other cool stuff.

Every Sunday, acclaimed illustrator Colleen Doran — whose credits include her creator-owned comic-book series, “A Distant Soil” – posts a piece of fan art in her blog. This week, she posted a sketch I did of The Victory Streak. You can see it here.

The timing was uncannily appropriate, as just two days prior I had resolved to stop screwing around and commit to pursuing a career as a professional writer and illustrator.  I had all but given up on the idea and was feeling increasingly miserable as a result. I didn’t make the connection until my girlfriend, the lovely Jeannie, did a one-woman intervention and helped me connect the dots.

I’m going to be taking the first step come Monday of next week, when I begin taking advantage of a weekly figure drawing “open studio” offered by the Steve Carpenter Studio in Rochester, N.Y. I discovered this resource last Friday when two of my friends — one of whom posts here under the nom de plume “Keef Yourick” — took Jeannie and I to see a gallery showing/open house. For just four bucks an hour — less if you pay ahead — you get to spend four hours drawing from live figure models and having your work critiqued.

Steve Carpenter is also one of the officers of the New York Figure Study Guild. It’s a wonderful organization that provides weekly critiques, gallery showings of members’ work, and more. Come my next paycheck, I’ll be joining the guild as well.

I feel like a college student again, compiling a shopping list of art supplies as I get ready to pack my little art bin and head off to class once a week. 

I am also embarking on what I anticipate will be a very lengthy period of self-study in all phases of illustration. I expect it will take a long period of really hard work to get my skills up to a professional level. But to paraphrase JFK, we do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.

A couple of months ago my girlfriend bought a Nintendo Wii and a widescreen T.V. to go along with it. What were supposed to be merely additions to our entertainment center have turned out to be a profound learning experience for me. Read the rest of this entry →