Tom Ray

As we all think about the holidays and how they are becoming oversaturated, and two day Amazon shipping makes it feel disjointed…

I’d like to say this.

In my day, it seems a discount for Hi-C was all you needed to make a holiday commercial.

In the past month I’ve been moving forward on a project I’ve had in my head a while now. And the more I got into it, more things would come up.

To give you some context, it’s basically a crash course on creating something. I figured I needed some landing pages with a cart. Then I would record some instructional videos for it.

I mapped it all out. I could get the website set up pretty simple, make a logo, record video on my phone, and have it up and ready in no time.

I began by writing out the dialog for the videos. While doing that, I got an idea for how to do something else. So I would stop writing and spend the next few hours figuring that out.

Next thing you know, I spent all my time working on something else and not finishing what I was going to write.

Plus, the thing that got me sidetracked in the first place, turned out to be a great idea! So now, I want to add that to the entire mix, making more work for myself.

This has been happening all through the project, in every aspect. From making the logo, designing the webpages, you name it.

I know lots of people suggest outsourcing it to things like fiverr or something, and I looked into that.

Guess what, that turned into spending a good part of a day on that. And as I looked for people to do what I needed, I realized I was kind of just shifting from doing it myself, to explaining it to others.

I figured it wasn’t the ability I needed to fix. It was being accountable. I needed someone to keep me on task. You know who does that really well? My wife.

At her current job, my wife runs a building, manages a large staff of people, controls budgets and pricing things out. All stuff I need to do, aside from just finishing the project. So I asked her to manage me.

The benefit of this is a can’t really bullshit her. She has no problem telling me to explain things that I’m doing. And the concept of my project is to help people that are at a beginner level. With her involvement she can tell me when something doesn’t make sense, and why. It’s like instant user testing.

My thought is, why not work on things you love with the people you love.

I was talking with musician Curtis Chris Roman on the podcast this week. During the interview he told me about a thing he does on the side, making block prints.

What you do is, carve a design on a linoleum block, then roll ink on it, and make a print by pressing that on to something.

I saw some of his work he did on t-shirts and was kind of inspired by it.

The next day I went and got the materials to do one myself.

I’ve done screen printing in the past but it always seems such a pain in the ass. The emulsion, burning the image in the screen, squeegee the ink across the screen.

If you want to make another design you can set up another screen, or replace the design you have. All of that stuff always kept me from making new ones.

Print blocks, from what he told me, seemed like a way I could just make design blocks and reuse them whenever I wanted to. I liked that idea.

There still is the process of making the print, you have to carve it into the linoleum block by hand.

But now I can just keep it in a drawer or something and use it whenever I want, or make a couple more to choose from.

Ok so I have been a person that, in the past, has said “I think everything happens for a reason”.

When I say that, it was usually because something bad happened and I believe whatever it is you get through it and learn from it.

I’ve never meant it in the trivial way it’s sometimes used like – if it’s raining on the day you decide to take up jogging, you think the universe is trying to tell you something.

That being said, I do think that there is an elaborate orchestration to life. We exist and have complex circulatory systems. How? That’s crazy right!?

So, why can’t I think ghosts and parallel forces are helping us do things? Even small things. Because you never know what significance it can have later on.

An example, (all be it a stupid one); several years ago I took a trip to Texas. While we were there I was looking for a comic book store. Instead the cab driver took me to an independent book shop. I guess he thought it was a comic shop.

Anyway, he had already left so I figured I’d go inside and check it out. It was a cool place but no comics.

Then on one shelf I saw what looked like a graphic novel that was filled with several indie comic publishers stories. It was saran wrapped with a few small indie “zine” books as well.

I figured what the hell, I can read it on the plane ride home. So I got it, put it in my bag and forgot all about it. Never even opened it.

Fast forward to today, I’ve been thinking about pursuing comic book art again. I was researching ways to learn more about visual storytelling in the page panels and layout.

One artist I looked up recommends this book “Cartooning - Philosophy and Practice” by Ivan Brunetti. Says it’s a whole class course in a small paperback book.

I look at the cover and I feel like I’ve seen it before?

You guessed it. It was one of the things I thought was a zine wrapped with that book I bought years ago.

I dug out the package it came in from my closet and opened it. Turns out the book is really inspired and insightful. I don’t think I would have purchased it otherwise.

So why did I? What made me think to get it that day? Was there fate involved? Did some force really make me go to that shop, knowing I would need that book later in my life?

I can’t explain why things happen but they have to start somewhere.

Been trying to find a way for a while now to combine things I like to do – drawing, music, podcasting, promotion & web.

Thing is I kept thinking of them separately. Which, I still do.

But I had an idea as I was putting together a video tutorial for a promotional project. I was editing the video to make it not seem so involved.

So I started storyboarding what I had done so far on paper. Then as I looked at the drawings I thought why can’t I just clean those up and use them?

I tell you why. It would take too long.

So here is my goal. I am going to try and keep most of my artwork mobile. Think of a way to do what I need only using my phone. I think that way I won’t be tempted to make it more involved. Plus, I’ll be able to work on it anywhere.

I can then use those drawings as slides in a PowerPoint. Record the audio separately, and play it along with the slides, recording it to video. Like a storyboard animatic.

It’s just a way I think I can work on building my other skills while sticking with my current project. And maybe, mixing all the things I want to do together.