Questing: 21st to 28th Aug 2019

Wednesday is here again! Here is the quest list from last week:

‘Quests to complete by next Wednesday:

Main Quests

Do some idea generation and media experimentation in sketchbook (refer to watercolour book)

Side Quests

Do some life drawing

Research Ix Chel

Rough out some designs for business cards

Play your darned violin’

I must admit, I got very distracted this week. With the beginning of September looming, I put extra emphasis on YeeHawgust in a last ditch effort to get it finished in time (although that’s still unlikely).

I did have fun experimenting with my watercolours though! I found an exercise called ‘Mixing Chickens’ in a book I picked up in a charity shop a while ago. I practised in my sketchbook to get the gist of the exercise and then moved onto my watercolour paper. However, the colours presented themselves much brighter in my sketchbook than on the proper paper – which was a bit of a let down. The next exercise is to mix greys in a similar way (I know that sounds boring but there’s nothing better than a really good grey).

I did manage to get my violin out. I played through some old pieces (with some difficulty since I’m a lottle rusty) and then moved onto my book of gypsy folk songs, I worked mostly on Ryabinushka. (I couldn't find a violin instrumental version)

While researching Ix Chel, I also delved into the Bacabs – the very concept of them fascinates me and the blog post will go up later this week.

I still need to do some life drawing, idea generation and business card designs. I perhaps need to work on splitting my day up into small chunks of different tasks rather than binging one (I did spend two days on YeeHawgust this week, oops). Other things I’d like to get done this coming week would be to work a little more on the Almost Lawful roughs and generate some ideas regarding the ‘Crap my dad says’ zine.

Along with all of this, I did have a few busy days where I wasn’t able to work on the quests at all: We visited Cilgerran castle and Pentre Ifan, the experiences there will also go up later this week, and I also made time to focus on nothing and play a little No Man’s Sky.

Quest list for next Wednesday:

Main Quest

Idea generation

Almost Lawful

Side Quests

Life drawing

Business cards

Crap my dad says

Look at/photocopy ‘Kings and Queens of Maya’ book

Print out and file Ix Chel and Bacabs

Here's to another productive week!

Mort

'Questing'

Last week, over on a different site, I compiled a list of things I would like to achieve over the rest of the summer.

The post:

'I would like to make this, essentially, to do list of things I'm interested in, or hobbies I'd like to get back into so that it's out there somewhere where people can see it, so it's a much more tangible goal, and so I don't waste my summer. But I'd also like to have fun in life so referring to everything as 'Quests' makes everything 10x better.

These are not in any particular order 

Main Quests

• Continue with uni summer project of sketchbook work

• Continue roughing out Almost Lawful comic (ironing out script as I go)

Side Quests

• Finish Yeehawgust

• Start UK garden bird zine (Research mostly done)

• Look back through Aztec/Maya book and research points of interest further - compile in a file?

• Get back into playing violin

• Design business cards.

Edit: 

• Plan a zine featuring all the random things my dad says'

This list of 'quests' has increased my productivity to no end and only a week in (not even a week, only a few days) I've done a lot more than I usually would while I'm twiddling my thumbs.

My favourite panel from the first section

My main achievement for this week: I finished roughing out the first section of Almost Lawful!! This project has been a blast so far, and I sincerely hope that it continues to be this much fun. I'm up to fourteen pages so far and the next section is estimated to be an additional twenty pages.

On a similar note, YeeHawgust (visible in my Insta highlights) has taken a slight nose dive. I'm not one for giving up, however, the remainder of the prompts aren't particularly compelling to me. I'm unsure what to do about that...

As well as beginning to compile sayings that my dad says (I will immortalise him in a zine), I’ve been working on a timeline of events in mesoamerica spanning from the archaic, to the post classical eras, and have started looking into deities.

And so, in order to continue this productive streak, I've made myself a 'quest list' for next week too!

Main Quest

• Do some idea generation and media experimentation in sketchbook (refer to watercolour book)

Side Quests

• Do some life drawing (this site is so cool, you can find photos of buildings, and plants too)

• Research Ix Chel

• Rough out some designs for business cards

• Play your darned violin

If you find it difficult to motivate yourself and would rather be playing games, I'd recommend making a quest list and blasting epic game music, it really helps.

Here's to another productive week!

Mort