Have A Mojo

So... You see.. I decided that I really like blogging, which lead me to realizing, maybe I should do it for a living? So, I started learning from other bloggers, and from what I found, oh my gosh! I've been doing it all wrong. First off, the writing. I don't use any power-words. I use "so", "it" and "well" too often. I also word-poop a lot. Secondly, I talk about myself all the time. Heck, the whole blog is about me. The reader is non-existent (sorry guys). Last but not least, I tried to post every single day. Huge mistake! No wonder I ran out of material. To be honest, however, I did do the right thing by taking a step backward instead creating empty/useless posts just to meet my ridiculous quota. So... (yes I used it again, hard habit to break), with this being said, this is my last post here. I'll be starting a blog for illustrators / designers, and there I'll be focusing on methods that can help us  stay motivated and pr...

Random word of the day - "Union" It's time– Time to move on from rendering basic shapes to colors. Today I'm reviewing another part of the workshop notes I took, which involve value, hue, saturation, and where they exist on basic shapes. Here's another warning If you have no interest or experience in painting from life, I suggest you skip the following notes. Don't read it or you'll get bored and confused. I don't want to lose you!!  Just go ahead and scroll down to my horrible exercise-paintings. If you are interested , however, and my notes end up confusing you in any way, go ahead and send me a message or ask a question in the comments. I'll gladly help. Joan Miro said: I try to apply colors like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music. What a beautiful comparison. And now, on with the notes! The most beautiful greys are the ones produced by mixing opposite (complementary) colors. Also if you ever want to de...

Rendering an apple - Another "comparing" exercise Last Saturday, I decided not to blog over the weekend in order to reflect about what I should be writing. That however escalated into a relapse where I started ignoring my new ways completely. I didn't paint or write until today. " The Nothing " had befallen me again, which is making me sad and anxious. I'm not really sure what happened, and I even went through the techniques I learned to figure out what I was doing and why. I did not like the answers. I'm just bored of it all. I doubt this has anything to do with depression, but I'm positive that it will be the case if this continues. I started this blog as a means to regain mojo, and I believe I found plenty— I learned a couple of life-hacks to free myself of "Nothing", I painted daily (and enjoyed it), and I was facing the demons that came along the way. So why did I relapse? Just boredom? Fear? One thing is certain, my blo...

A sketch inspired by the random word of the day - "Place" Here's the situation, I'm a sort-of off today. I don't feel like writing. I'm very agitated, and when I feel this way, I simply want to withdraw into doing easy things like watching a video or playing WoW. But instead of falling into another loop of  Nothing, I'm going to repeat the method I learned earlier — Getting to the root of the matter by questioning a 6 year old. So, what's up dear? I don't feel like writing.   Why don't you feel like writing? Everything around me is agitating— I couldn't think of something to write about, it's hot, the dogs have already been out, but every time I move they think I'm taking them out again (which is adorable under normal circumstances), there is a spot on my face that I want to scream at, I want to shower but there is wet laundry hanging in my tiny toilet, I want to change the bedsheets but all the other sheets are...

So today I googled "hate of repetition"— I've always been the type of person who can't cope with the same things happening over and over. Repeating tasks just becomes so intimidating to the point I'd do anything humanly possible to stop them, or life becomes unbearable. I don't want this happening again now that I have something to do. The only answer I found that made any sense is depression as a root cause. Yes, I know that the internet is not a healthy source of information on this matter, which is why I decided to stop the search. I would however like to share the search result that brought me to this conclusion by Haley Quinn: 22 Things From My Everyday Routine That 'Go Out the Window' When I'm Depressed  It only shares people's experiences with depression and how they've reacted. It somehow put my mind to ease (about starting to hate my routine). Now here's the thing— I'm not particularly fond of writing about t...

I didn't manage to fall asleep until 3am this morning, but in my defense, I wasn't stalling or using technology. I just failed to sleep (and that's probably a result of the endless sleep procrastination cycles I subjected myself to over the years) :-( In any case, no point dwelling on failures when I'm in the process of correcting them. I decided that today's method will be to review parts of the material and exercises I learned while attending an Imaginism workshop years ago. I'll be going over my notes about planes light & shadows how to render basic shapes and I'll be blogging in the meantime. So let's go. I've reviewed these notes a million times over the years, but for some reason, I always end up forgetting some of the most important points. Warning! If you have no interest or experience in how to paint light and shadow, I suggest you skip the following list. Don't read it or you'll get bored and confused. I don...

More face-rendering practice Re-make of the "mist" day painting .. the one that made me want to study face-rendering. Thumbnail-story inspired by today's  random word — "Blank" I googled it— "Hate going to bed", and turns out it's not an abnormality after all. In fact, there are so many guilty-as-charged, studies  have been conducted. Brenda Savoie writes about this in her blog post: How To Break Your Bedtime Procrastination Habit I'm not surprised to see mentions of mismanagement of time, as well as the inability to sleep as side-effects of chronic bedtime procrastination. Brenda also lists some pointers that might help rid us of this habit. The one I relate to the most is getting into the habit of purging any excess feelings that might still be occupying our fragile minds (I know it's not just me). This includes any type of feeling— Anger, frustration, sadness, and even happiness! ...  if you manage to exp...

I rendered the faces of more bald-men today. I've come to the conclusion that I have time-management issues— Still not waking up on time every day, and tasks take more/less time than planned. 3 PMs have been arriving without enough hours to put the work into. This must be an issue most people who work (or keep themselves busy) from home have to deal with at some point. So today I googled  "motivating yourself to stick to your schedule", and found Celestine Chua's post: 6 Proven Ways To Make New Habits Stick Sold at "Proven".  And to my surprise, Chua addresses the "wake up on time" dilemma in her very first step. I knew this issue was not to be underestimated! Chua's advice is to get to the root of the problem by questioning yourself as you would a 6 year old. I don't have any better ideas, so let's go. Why didn't you wake up on time? I feel like crap every morning.   What's making you feel that way ...

Sketches inspired by today's  random word — "Mist" I'm hitting a wall today. I mean, I'm still motivated and all, but I can't for the life of me think of something useful to look-up. This calls for a re-examination of my goal: I'm going to research and implement one strategy a day. Just one thing that will help me find my mojo, and I'm going to blog about it. So, "strategy".. entails what exactly? Nothing's holding me back from being creative and painting today. I mean, I already released my tablet from it's holding-cell and had fun drawing with it (the shitty-ness of my drawings is beside the point!). The use of the word "strategy" as the center of my goal is the problem. Finding strategies is not the only thing that will help me find that mojo of mine and chuck Sir Nothing out the window. My goal is need of refinement. Instead of finding, implementing, and blogging about strategies, I should have said ...