The next stage has begun

Chapter Three: The Caverns of Knowledge has begun. I draw when my wife is at work, and I work from home twice a week. Page three of the chapter is the next one on my plate, and I am glad to be going again! I still work as a graphic designer in elearning, and I also do development and audio creating.
I expanded the beginning of Chapter Three, so the first several pages didn't exist until recently. I felt that a huge bird in the sky deserved more attention and story, and it is HUGE. People would be tired of my clouds, if many people saw these. I'll have to research how to draw different, less expected ones.

From July to December

A lot has happened. I changed jobs, to one that takes over an hour to drive to. Now I have little time for anything extra, so my couple months break has become a forced split with my story. I hope that I can get some lifestyle changes happening, so I can pickup my book again, but I haven't landed on my feet yet. I have been doing less graphic design, and added audio editing to my skills, among other varied skills, and I went with people at my new work to Las Vegas for an eLearning convention.

I have sketched several new pages for the book on my ipad  . . . I just haven't had time for inking. Hoping to show real progress soon, but I like where the story is improving, anyway.

Latest Chapter of Uendyr, the Creativity Machine

I completed the second chapter of my graphic novel, and it is double the length of the first chapter. I can see development in my skills since the first chapter, and feel that it is closer to what I have dreamt for it. Still a long way to go, to complete 8 chapters for the final book. I stopped putting it on Tumblr, because it has to be reviewed backwards, like Deviantart. It is completely on Deviantart, but very few people have seen it and even fewer have made any comments.
I am taking a couple months off from it to read some good books and plan improvements for the format of Chapter Three.

Expressing good things in an unexpected way

I love discovery, of the world, of interesting people, and of myself. I love the way a great book can take me somewhere believable that I have never been, and introduce me to new feelings and ideas. I especially love when the world around me looks deeper, as I find something good and valuable in the commonplace and mundane, like it was hidden there waiting for me. I wish I knew how to hold onto those things, to soak myself in them. I don't . I am not a great writer, and I don't know how to express all of my deep feelings. I try, through my graphic novel, and it gets as close I can to expressing my experience of those wonderful things, but in the end, it is just the memory of the experience itself that I have left.
With my book, I am trying to express the good that I find, the meaningful and worthwhile and loving things, and I try to wrap it up like a surprise, so it can stand out. At the center of the creative process, there is that moment when you twist something, and it becomes your own. That is a magical place, a moment of completeness, warm and exciting.
I know that those wonders are surrounded by problems, struggles, boredom and mind numbing business. They stand out all the more by comparison. But as I finish a page, and focus on the story of a strange robot boy and his weird, magical friends, I feel some of that worth, in myself, and in the expression of the story.
It is wonderful!
If it doesn't come across in my awkward pages, rotten writing and unskilled art, at least I get that feeling, that I am expressing it the best I know how.

Multiple Posting the novel

I have put the entire first chapter of my story on Tumblr, and much of it on DeviantArt. No one has looked at it yet, on either site. Good thing I am patient. See how long they can go unseen.

An insert on Destruction

Originally blogged on March 6, 2014 at 6:13 pm on the bus.

An insert on destruction

A little philosophy, straight from the author, Some things that I feel so strongly about, I illustrate them in the experiences of Uendyr . . . 

Destruction is easy, and mostly useless.  There is a lie going around in my society. The youth are especially susceptible to it. It is that explosions are cool, hurting things is powerful, and war is glamorous. The action movie tries to sell it, under the premise that the good guy is showing courage, and altruism. Or not. 

I subscribe to a different point of view. Creation is harder, more full of interesting challenges, and ends up with something of worth to show for itself. It's not about hate, or greed or competition, and it's not mean. Besides that, it is a load of fun, and I learn from the process constantly. It is progressive, enlightening, and it makes a great framework for my story. 

Now I must admit, my little knight errant will encounter destruction, in order to learn this power of creativity. Opposites lead to understanding. His reactions may appear wimpy or wise to you, depending on your point of view, since he doesn't carry a weapon, attack people or throw bombs. But as the plot progresses, I hope you will see the wisdom in creativity and kindness. That takes courage too.  The one value I see to destruction is the same purpose as the eraser. Make room for practice to be replaced by refinements. Make room for good solutions to be replaced by great ones. With good use of recycling.  

What do you choose? Creation or Destruction? 

Creativity cannot be a machine

Originally posted on my graphic novel site in November 2013.

Creativity cannot be a machine

You may have noticed the subtitle to this book: The Creativity Machine. You may already know a lot about the process, and you may have said, “Creativity can’t be made in a machine!”

But you continue reading, so you must have been snagged by the idea. Can creativity be easier than you think?

There are many myths about creativity. One is that it is exclusive, that some have it and some don’t. This is one of the things I am making this book to reject. Uendyr doesn’t even seem to be acting creatively in the beginning, and a robot is certainly not a new idea. Neither is virtual reality, or an island of dreams, or crabs, ships, ghosts or cats. The point isn’t that every detail is new, it is the way you mix it. Creativity is a lifestyle, a way of thinking, including gathering what you already have and know, then deliberately changing it.

So, it’s not that the machine is creative, it is that within the mind of the operator processing details with the machine, there is a determination to find new things in the mix. Take out that part of the activity, and you have a simple production process, used to take raw materials and follow a process to make it into something. Any robot can strictly follow a process. This robot isn’t just a robot though.

To use the art and wonder of choice in a process is the heart of creativity. Sometimes we humans act like robots, stick in a box. There is an opportunity to break out, and be more.

So pick up the Robot’s gauntlet, as it were, take up a project and put it through the machine of your human mind, eyes, hands, and any tool that suits it! Then make choices to deliberately make something new and uniquely your own.