Momentum
A new comic page and thoughts on working on creative projects.
It’s been a bit of a bumpy ride, but I’ve been working my way back making more progress on The Atlantean. Here’s a new inked page…
Working on creative projects is all about momentum. This book has had a frustrating run of hot and cold momentum thanks to a bunch of different shifts in my priorities.
It’s my own doing, don’t get me wrong.
It’s probably not the most productive thing to decide one day to create a whole new comic/newsletter based on a drawing in your sketchbook.
There were some things outside of my control that definitely contributed to the momentum shifts, but that’s just life.
I’ve recently started reading *Extreme Ownership* by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin (those are a couple really impressive men). If you know anything about Jocko you know this already, but the biggest theme of the book is the mindset shift of taking responsibility when bad stuff happens… because it will happen. And when it does happen, don’t make excuses. Don’t complain about it. Whether it’s in your control or not, just say “Good”. And then figure out how you’ll learn from it and be better for it.
This is a lesson that I needed.
We live in a time that makes it easy to give in to the victim mindset. In a collective sense, we live in the easiest time in human history. So when something really challenges us, the easy way out is to find someone or something else to blame it on.
I’ll admit, I’ve fallen into that trap multiple times.
But it’s a lie we tell ourselves to make us feel better about our failures.
One of the biggest lies is “I’ve had a stressful day… I’ll start tomorrow”.
No you won’t.
If that’s your go-to excuse for not doing whatever creative project you’ve been putting off, stop saying it. You’re just giving yourself permission to procrastinate and be lazy.
I know this because I struggle with it a lot.
I also know that the only way to beat it is to just start. Start small, it can really be anything… one drawing, one paragraph, one idea.
But when you do it, and then you do another small thing, then another. The momentum builds and then all of a sudden you start seeing the progress.
Just getting started is the hardest part.
Anyway, that’s the only way I know how to stop spinning my wheels on a project. Let me know if you know of others or have any tips. I could definitely use some.
By the way, if you haven’t figured this yet, I’m really writing all of this for myself for the next time I start to lose momentum and my jerk brain tells me “you had a rough day, just do it tomorrow”.
I’ll leave you with another character design for Jake the Minotaur (from my comic The Atlantean)…
Thanks for reading! If you want to see more of my artwork/sketches/ramblings, follow me on X and here on Substack Notes. And if you really want to support me, I have a store!
Also, if you’re into political cartoons, I have another newsletter called Political Nomad with a new comic every Thursday.
Have a great week!
-Brad