January 6 - Oni (Drawing a Day)
One of the things I've been rediscovering over and over again in recent years is that there are no easy paths to creating something great. While greatness is an ideal rather than a goal, the primary motivating force behind wanting to create something great is the desire to create something that you believe in so much that you put everything inside you into its creation. Some people refer to this as taking pride or taking ownership in your work. But what it simply means is that when you do a thing, do it with an intent to do it the best that it can be done, as though it is what you are meant to do. Don't be lazy, don't take short cuts. Honor the work that you perform if you are going to invest time in it.
I encountered this recently as I have been working on a new manga project. The story includes some flashbacks of the main character who is being pursued by thugs. Wanting to work as quickly as possible on what I believe will be a long story, I quickly drew the thugs as being very awkward and ugly. When I was done with their frames I thought they didn't turn out as I had envisioned, and they basically ruined the page. So I started over again, choosing to depict them as humans, but with the heads of Oni, Japanese demons. Again, I drew them quickly. And, again, they fell far short of my vision.
Today, I took my time to carefully craft my drawing, comparing it to my vision, reworking it when it wasn't correct. By giving myself permission to draw it right rather than draw it quickly, I was able to assess it every step of the way to make sure it matched how I saw it in my head. In reality, it actually didn't take much more time to draw than the last version of the thugs in the story, and it certainly didn't take as much time as the two bad versions put together.
All in all, it reaffirms my belief that the only good shortcuts are those that help you save time or gas and avoid traffic when driving.
