I gave a piece of advice on Twitter the other day that went something like this, “If you are afraid to draw something, write that thing into your comic and soon it’ll be no problem.” Harley’s damn scarf is going to wind up being that thing before this story line is all said and done. I mean, scarves don’t really “scare” me to draw, but I can already see the scarf getting longer and more fluid each time I draw it. So, unwittingly, I’ll be a master scarf drawer before this is over

Of course today carries on the Valentine story line for this month. Another thing that happens this month is the annual bill for web hosting is due. Normally I have the cash to pay this thing, but this time around things are a bit lean. I don’t want to ask for donations from anyone, but I would ask that you consider buying a digital or print book from the various stores set up for that very thing. Robot Friday books 1 and 2 are available digitally and book 1 (for the time being) is available in print as well. So, it would go a long way in helping me pay for hosting this year if you’d buy a book from me. Thank you guys for reading and thank you all for spreading the word as well. Have a great weekend

The spy is revealed! Or is it? Don’t get too settled into what you think may or may not be going on here because this crazy bitch has just begun for the month! An origin story is told, love is in the air and it’s going to be all around Valentine’s mayhem for February! Of course with an emotion as volatile as love how can you not have an explosive month!

Ok, cliches aside, I’m really excited about this story line. The art is pushing me to do some things I don’t normally do with the comic and it’s helping me grow as well. I’m really digging where my color style is going, I just need to set up some rules as to why I do some of the things that I do so that I’ll keep myself consistent and on track.

I’m pushing myself a lot this month. It’s been very fun so far and it’s gonna be a great ride so keep spreading the word and thanks for reading

Today begins the Valentine’s story line that I’ve been writing in January. I wanted to revisit Crankus this year because, due to my illness, I wasn’t able to do as much with Crankus last year as I wanted to. I have finally managed to build up a small buffer of finished comics that I hope to grow in the coming months. I am currently writing a month ahead so I just need to pick up that pace with the art. There are a lot of good things in store this year and it all begins with today’s comic. Thanks for reading and spreading the word

Productivity this month is beginning to wane just a little bit. It’s probably because I’ve gotten to the harder or more lazy stuff on my lists that I’ve made to make sure “shit gets done”. Because I either hate doing what is now on my list or it requires more time than I want to devote to it, I tend to procrastinate. Throw SWTOR into the mix and you’ve got a pile of stuff needing done and not getting there. This weekend, though, I intend to remedy this and get back on track (and play more SWTOR).

Today’s strip has been kicking around in my head from the very beginning of Robot Friday – almost three years. Of course in my head it was much more complicated and grand than what it needed to be, but maybe one day I’ll revisit that version of this. At any rate, enjoy the comic and your weekend and keep spreading the word

What I wish I had done in WoW was create more artwork featuring my many characters that I have in that game. Creating artwork, for me, is sort of like keeping a diary of sorts. When I look back on much of my artwork I can recall events and people that were in my life during that time. Capturing a little bit of that timeline nostalgia is what I hope to do in this MMO this time around.

Below is, for the most part, what my character in SWTOR looks like as of right now. He’s pretty low level and he has a “companion” that helps him out a lot. The companion is a cat-like guy so I thought Hugo fit the bill very well.

I plan on drawing my character more often as he progresses in the game and his look changes. I won’t document every little change, only when he drastically changes and probably at the highest level of the game. I know there are some of you that read the comic or come to the site that do not play MMO’s or care about them. If you are one of those people, thank you for indulging me my geek-time so that I can have fun in the SWTOR world and share a little bit of it with you. If you are one of those people who like MMO’s and are possibly playing SWTOR as well then you can look me up on the Vrook Lamar server under the name Taunteric. May the Force be with you

Focus is a very powerful thing if you can harness it. There have been scientific studies that say that the human brain cannot, in fact, multi-task. What the brain does is switch from one event to the other rapidly that gives the impression of multi-tasking. This may not sound like a bad thing, after all if we can do more than one thing at a time shouldn’t we? But the problem is that we are doing more, but doing it poorly. You’re splitting your focus over multiple tasks thereby stretching your capacity to do each of those tasks well. Eventually your mind can’t keep up and you will begin to perform exponentially poorly.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not always important that we give all of our focus to each individual task that we do. I think most of us do a pretty good job of talking on the phone, writing an email and searching the internet all at the same time if we have to, and in our busy lives today, a lot of us have to.

When it comes to art and design, though, creatives really need to make a concerted effort to focus on one important task at a time. Last week on Artzen Podcast we discussed list making and planning. I am a HUGE believer in lists because they serve to organize the jumbled mess of ideas in my head so that I can clear them out and start generating more. Lists also help you focus more. The problem with focus is that it takes a large amount of effort to make it work. Hence the reason a pill that helps you focus would be pretty cool.

I’ve found merely making lists of all of your goals and plans isn’t going to get things done. Listing things is just helping you figure out which things to focus on first and for how long. The trick in focusing is to have the will power to start a task and see it through. I’m obviously no efficiency guru but I’ve stumbled onto things that help me focus better that I’ll pass on to you.

I include things at the top of my lists that are one time things to get done (car inspection, gift portrait, pay doctor bill, get print and digital comics online, etc.) I know that once these things are done I won’t have to worry about them again – or for at least another year. Next are simple repetitive things that need to be done right now (write a weeks worth of comics, take out the trash, answer some emails, draw a comic, etc.) I know that these things are going to continue to reoccur, but if I can go ahead and do them now I won’t have to worry about them again for another week or so.

I continue in this fashion until my lists are full of things that are important and can get done and out of the way now all the way down to hard things that are going to really require me to shut myself off from the world and work. When I get down to the real work part of my list – these things are the hard stuff – I find it easier to get myself moving and focusing if I just shut everything else out of my mind except for the task at hand. Remember, by this point in your list – which could take months to get to – you should have all the other important and urgent tasks out of the way so that the thought of, “Oh, I need to take the car to the shop for an oil change” shouldn’t creep into your mind. When I am ready to really get the hard things done I continue to focus only on that ONE hard thing until it’s done. It helps not to be a perfectionist too. You need to set a deadline to have that thing done and do it and move on.

So, to sum all this up. Focus requires planning and will power. But if you plan well enough and start from easy and urgent working your way to hard and important you should be able to find that will power to muster the focus you need to be productive. Just remember, perfection is the enemy of production. Do the best work you can in the timeline you set for yourself and move on. Mulling over a task too long, no matter how focused you are on it, will begin to eat your efficiency and production too. But that’s a whole other blog post

I really hate not getting a new comic up the morning of the update, but at least the evening is better than nothing I guess. I had most of the comic done last night, but late nights all weekend and early this week coupled with the fact that I got SWTOR installed on my fiancee’s computer sort of ate up my night. In my defense, I did not play SWTOR all night, I worked on the comic and laid down on the bed for a minute to stretch my back and then that was the end of that. I fell asleep and then there was this morning!

At any rate, the comic is up and I hope you guys like it. Cats in Space and other such nonsense is currently being printed so expect it on the site very soon for ordering. I am also awaiting the word from the store on the digital version of that comic too so things are going pretty well.

Comic scripts for February are coming along well too. I’m gonna really enjoy working on the strips for Valentines Thank you all for all the support this year so far and over the long haul. Keep spreading the word

We are also designing our own wedding invitations – which we will be getting completed in the next couple of weeks – as well as a few other things. We are planning our own honeymoon and pretty much the wedding too. So, by the time June rolls around, we’re gonna both be nervous wrecks!

Honestly, though, these are the things I’ll probably remember the most about the months up to the wedding. Yes, we’re gonna be stressed. Yes, things are gonna be hard. But being married to the person I’ve waited my whole life to find is worth any trial. I’ll keep all of my readers in the loop as the big day approaches and I’ll be showing off more of our artwork and what not as we get things completed. And hit the wish list or I can email you the registry address if you feel the need to buy us wedding gifts (hint, hint)

I don’t care what sort of man or woman that you think you are, a kidney stone – or any abdominal pain or injury – will reduce even the most hardened he/she-person to a crying fetus in a matter of minutes. On that day, before I was finally given some pain medication, about six hours or so into the ordeal, I was a crying and vomiting mess. A person doesn’t truly understand how good they feel until they have chronic pain.

Kidney stones block urine that, in turn, feels like it wants to burst out of your side. Imagine having to have to pee REALLY bad and you’re in a car that is running over parking blocks forever! Then, imagine that pain isn’t in your bladder but in your side just below your ribs. That is how a kidney stone feels.

A person that is in chronic pain can concentrate on nothing but the pain and if medication is masking the pain all you can concentrate on is when is the pain going to return. But once the stone did pass and I was out of pain it felt amazing. Just the act of not feeling pain made me feel like a brand new person. It was very weird.

So, if I can get through the night to the afternoon of January 8th, 2012 it will officially be a much better start to this year than that of last year! Of course there have already been a ton of better things in this year than the start of last year. But the thing that will stick with me the most is that kidney stone experience. If I never have that happen again in my life then the rest of my life is gonna be a cake walk

With all the resolutions that I’ve heard being thrown around this week I thought a strip like this was more than appropriate. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t make resolutions. I make goals, and I never make any promises about fitness!

So far this year has gone pretty well. I’ve got my goals listed out for the first six months of the year – up to my honeymoon – and I am gearing up to get the scripts written for February’s Crankus story line. I have the overall synopsis written, I just need to break everything out into individual strips and dialog now. But everything is coming along great!

I plan to create a lot of art for the comic this year. Not only strips but other things that I’ll keep under my hat. Book 2, Cats in Space and other such nonsense, should go on the site later this month. So, again, everything is going very well. Let’s hope it stays that way and good luck on your resolutions if you made them