Intermission, Recap

No new art for this post, but hopefully something good later today.

I started this blog as a diary. A way to display my progress as an artist since I decided to pick it up after an absence of many years. It was painful getting started again, having an appreciation of art through a mature eye and understanding that I'd let myself fall off for so long that I was no longer relevant as an artist. I had vision, but no skill and as any artist can tell you, the longer away from the game you stay the worse your chops get. It's not just a lack of growth, it's the same as staying in shape as an athlete. 

I made the decision to get back into the game a couple years ago when my everyday life was coming apart. The whole time this was happening, I couldn't help but feel that I'd been missing something for the previous 9 or 10 years while I wasn't drawing. 

It started simple, drawing characters and the like from the old RPG's I used to run and play as a younger man. The problem was that I was falling back into the same bad old habits I had when I was said younger man. I quickly began to regret not staying in school for art. The following year, I made a great friend in Sam Liu, who is  a terribly talented artist and has been in commercial art business for many years now. I moved to LA from NY and began to learn storyboard art through him. Truth be told, it was a difficult process. I had the aforementioned bad habits and unfortunately, the economy just happened to be headed into recession which made the whole situation super stressful for me and probably gimped me up quite a bit. Sam was great through all of this. He taught me the importance of mastering the fundamentals before pushing the boundaries. He taught me the value of hard work as an artist. You see, for me, art had always been a thing I'd done when there was nothing else for me to do. It hadn't been serious for me since I was a teenager. Having the mentor in my life made all the difference and though I still have a long way to go, I see growth in my work in ways that I'm not sure I would have found without a little guidance.

I'm back in New York now. The economy took it's toll on my situation and quite honestly, I wasn't progressing fast enough to forecast when I'd be able to get into the industry. I came back to stabilize my life and it's turning out to be a great decision. I've picked up a pen tablet and my boundaries are really expanding as an artist. I'm painfully addicted to this thing. For anyone out there who frowns on these things because they think it gives just anyone the ability to make great pictures, I have some news for you. You still need talent. You still have to work. This thing makes it much easier, no doubt, but the tool doesn't make people artists. 

Anyway, I just wanted to sum up what this blog is about for those who weren't sure. If you look at everything I've done from the beginning, I hope you can see some progress from me. The goal is to post, good or bad, to take the mistakes and talk about them. It's as much a diary as it is a journal, so that I can go back, look and learn from my mistakes.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and view the blog. Any input from anyone is welcome. Though no one comments here, I still get phone calls or IM's from friends asking me about stuff I wrote here. Thanks again =)

Matt