January 12, 2009
Since the new year started, I’ve been setting aside an hour each day to focus on improving one skill each month. This month it’s perspective. I’ve been using a book that Jesse Hamm recommended called Vanishing Point, and like Jesse I think it’s probably the best book written on perspective that I’ve come across. It’s very simple and direct in it’s instructions and while I was already familiar with a lot of the basics, I’ve made myself start from the beginning and do the exercises in order.
I think the biggest thing I’ve learned so far has to do with my own working methods. I am extremely impatient when I work and I tend to want to cut corners drawing. Which is fine if you’re a seasoned professional with years of drawing and understanding under your belt but for me it just ends up tripping me up. Basically, you can’t take shortcuts until you actually know where you’re going.
Think about it, if you were in a unfamiliar city and following directions to someone’s house, would you take what you suspected to be a shortcut? Probably not. If you did you might get there ok, but you’d likely get lost and the trip that was only suppsed to take ten minutes could take a lot longer. Once you know the city you’re navigating you’ll probably figure out quicker routes than your directions.
There’s actually a number of shortcuts you can take when drawing in perspective like this method for finding vanishing points way off the page, or even using a program like Google sketchup to build your backgrounds or grids. However if you don’t actually have a firm grasp on perspective I contend that it will actually take you longer using these shortcuts then if you just sat down and made yourself learn how to get there the long way first. I’m coming to believe that mastering something is just a matter of having the patience to sticking to doing it the hard way. THEN it gets easy.
Every time I’m having problems drawing something I write in the corner of my drawing “BE PATIENT” to remind me to take my time and figure it out. It saves me time in the long run. It seems self-evident but I’m a hard headed guy:)
January 7, 2009
I think I started doing this in 2001 but it may have been 2002. I picked it up from my friend Kellysue and I believe she picked it up from someone else. It works like this, every year instead of making one goal or resolution you make a todo list of things you want to accomplish in that year. My first year I did 101 and then added one for every year after that. So this year the number is 109. Think of it as shotgun goal setting. With that many you’re bound to hit some of them right?I found my success rate doing this to be roughly 30%. It’s not bad but after a few years of only hitting one in three of my goals it was no longer as rewarding to do the uberlist. In fact I didn’t bother making one for 2008. I had a good year as far as getting things done but for 2009 I’m interested in massive action and the uberlist once again seems like a good tool for doing that. Except this year one of the items on my list is “Accomplish 100% of this list.” This may seem daunting considering my previous record but I’ve put together some tools and techniques to get this done.
Bundling
First instead trying to focus on many different goals in many different aspects of my life, I’m centering my list around three main goals, Health/Fitness, Career(Making Comics), and Social/Relationship goals.(there are a few stragglers but I’d say 90% fall into one those three categories.) Also I try to bunch separate items on my list when I can so I’m getting more than one thing done a time. For instance, I might invite friends to go hiking for instance so I’m taking care of social and fitness goals at the same time. Any time I review my list I look for an opportunity to bundle.
30 Day trials
One of the issues I encountered in previous lists is when I’d set a goal to do a new task daily. I’d often find it wasn’t quite right for me or it would fall by the wayside. In Steve Pavlina’s book, Personal Development for Smart People, he talks about using 30 day trials. This entails taking on a new task for just 30 days and then deciding whether or not it works. I can convince myself to do most anything for 30 days even if it’s not comfortable or I don’t like it. The added bonus is that it will likely be a habit by then so if it’s working I won’t be as likely to stop doing it. So a lot of the goals on my list involve 30 day trials as well as a goal to convert some into permanent habits. We’ll see which ones make it.
Focus
Instead of taking on my whole list January 1st I’ve staggered a few items throughout the new. These are mostly career goals. Drawing comics pretty much entails knowing how to do many things well and trying to master everything all at once is impossible. So each month I plan to master a different aspect of my craft. So every day in January I spend an hour in the morning practicing perspective techniques and the following month I plan to practice something else. I figure 30 hours on a given subject will yield a lot of results and I’ll continue to practice what I learn each day as I work.
iGoogle and other technologies.
iGoogle is a homepage set up that allows you plug in different widgets(they call them gadgets) and view many sites on one page. I use this for my calendar as well as a todo list application called Remember the Milk. RtM allows me to schedule and prioritize tasks that recur daily/weekly/monthly so every time I open my browser everything that needs to be done is staring me in the face. you may have more willpower than I do but I need these sorts of constant reminders. iGoogle also allows me to view my rss reader and twitter on this same page (but I digress since this is supposed to be about getting things done)
Keeping score
Finally I’m just making an effort to measure things that are quantifiable. I have a daily production goal for my comics so I worked out what it would be for the year and I’m counting down to zero. I’m only a few days into the year but it feels good to see those numbers get smaller.
All of this might seem like a lot of work but I set most of this up over the Christmas break so I started the first day of the year with the plan in place. I don’t expect this to be easy but I will get this done.
January 6, 2009
I’m selling the last of my Artist proof Marvel sketchcards on Ebay:
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZyola_sueno
If you’re looking to grab some art from me on the cheap, now’s your chance to swoop in and bid.
January 5, 2009
After a fourteen year hiatus, I’ve started playing Dungeons and Dragons again. I’ve been playing mostly weekly for the last four months and I’m enjoying it much more than when I played in high school. Here’s why:
I have no shame.
Some players I’ve encountered are reluctant to tell other people that they play D&D as an adult and frankly that was how I felt about a lot of my interests as a teenager. I’m over nerd shame. Why should you feel guilty about something you enjoy? If someone laughs when I tell them I play D&D it’s their loss not mine. People that play D&D are more creative and interesting than people that poke fun at anyone not watching television for hours and hours at a time.
It’s engaging
When I play I get to flex my creative muscles in different ways than I’m used to. The game involves using strategy, acting, and rewards quick and clever thinking. It’s the perfect escape after spending all week working in my studio. The game actually surprised me because while I was looking forward to roleplaying aspect of the game, I was ambivalent about the combat side of the game. I got more excited though when I actually played the game. The 4rh edition of D&D uses miniatures or game tokens for the characters and monsters you fight. There are also very detailed rules about what you can and can’t do in a given turn and different environments can affect gameplay differently.. I really enjoy figuring out creative ways to solve combat problems. Our group has surprised the person running the game (the dungeonmaster) a few times by doing things that he did not anticipate.
You get to meet other humans.
Because I work from home it’s very easy for me to go long periods of time without seeing anyone other than Wendy and our pets. So having a weekly night to engage other people is a good way to some fresh air and not go stir crazy. My group consists of some of the coolest people you will ever meet too. I only knew a couple of them going into the game so I got to make connections with people I would have normally never encountered. Check them out:
Adam, Betty, and myself.
Justin and Rachael
Scott
That’s right our group actually has TWO females playing. Also no one lives in their parents basement. HAVE I BLOWN YOUR MIND YET?
Finally it’s just fun.
You do like to have fun right? If you have the opportunity to play Dungeons and Dragons, you should give it a shot. If you don’t know anyone who plays D&D pick up the books from your local library or bookstore and round up some friends. If you’re to shamed to let your nerd flag fly in front of people you already know, try using a site like Meetup.com. That’s how my friends and I hooked up with the rest of our group. It’s better than watching tv.
January 1, 2009
No really, you do. You totally suck. You’re not excellent, you’re not good, you’re not even competent. You suck. A lot.
You want to stop sucking? Guess what, the only way to stop sucking is to keep sucking. You MUST suck in order to know how to not suck. The suck has to be let free or it will live inside you forever. So keep sucking. If you suck every day then that means you are working every day, PRACTICING every day.
Truthfully, you suck less than you used to suck. Look at this drawing from over a year ago:
It sucks. BUT this drawing from a month ago?
It’s not as bad.
Don’t get cocky! You still suck. You need to suck MORE until there is nothing left inside. If you suck everyday this year then it means you’ll WORK everyday this year and you can’t help but improve. Do it right now. SUCK SUCK SUCK.
October 21, 2008
I have a comic coming out from Oni in January:
TRUE TALES OF THE ROLLER DERBY: DOPPELGANGER AT THE HANGAR
Written by: Lisa Titan and Nader Absood
Illustrated by: Dennis Culver
Colors by: Pamela Rambo
32 pages, standard, full color interiors
$4.99
Goodie Two-Skates is missing! And who are these new skaters–the freakishly perfect freshies that have suddenly shown up? The Wheels of Justice have to find Goodie and get to the bottom of this mystery before Nationals, or the Icy Blonde will succeed in corrupting the team forever!
September 8, 2008
Long time no blog.
I would probably update more if I didn’t need to sleep and blogging didn’t feel like doing chores. Anyway here are a few awesome things happening in Culver’s bullpen:
ITEM: My Vegan Zombie shirt was unable to penetrate the arcane selection process at Threadless despite the boing boing bump. So I made it available for sale here.
ITEM: The family that plays Dungeons and Dragons together totally buys T-shirts that I made together
Buy the shirt here.
ITEM: Speaking of Dungeons & Dragons, I am playing again for the first time since I was like 19. The circle of Nerd is complete. I made a drawing of my character at my sketchjournal.
ITEM: I’m working on a comic for the local roller derby league and it’s going to be published by Oni. Not sure if it will be distributed beyond Portland at this point but when I know more so will you!
ITEM: If you’re planning on participating in this year’s election, now’s the time to register to vote if you haven’t.
ITEM: Thriller is still a good album.
ITEM: I’ve been tutoring in cartooning for Picasso Home Art School. My student is a 16yo interested in Manga. We’ve been focusing on lessons in general drawing and storytelling. Tutoring has really helped me organize my own ideas about art and I plan to share some of that here soon.
ITEM: We’ve been gardening! And by “we” I mostly mean Wendy but I do help sometimes. We’ve been growing tomatoes, pumpkins, sage, and mint. I am amazed that we have somehow coaxed life from the earth but I’m also suprised I’ve managed to keep animals alive for so long. ALL GROWNS UP!
July 15, 2008
For the three people that read this and not my lj.
March 31, 2008
The first eight pages of my new comic Buckshot has been featured on Myspace Comics today.
Check it out here and let me know what you think.
March 3, 2008
In Marvel Comics there is a group of bad guys called the Circus of Crime. It’s basically a Circus with a ringmaster that can hypnotize people, a strong guy that is strong, a snake lady that controls snakes, and a clown that looks like pedophile(pretty much your standard clown) Somehow they run a successful circus in and around New York City and they rob their patrons. Here is a miscolored picture of them:
There is a trend in comics for opposite versions of the hero or groups like the Fantastic Four has the Frightful Four and the Justice League has the INjustice Gang so I figure the same should follow for the Circus of Crime. Except my opposite number for the CoC would be a little more modern and uh more french.
The Cirque de Justice!
They will bore the crime right out of you!
