It’s 1:11 AM, Saturday morning. I did my rehab time on Friday morning like I was supposed to, but didn’t have time to post about it all day.

For my last day of rehab, I started sketching out panels for my graphic novel project. A couple years ago, I played around with the idea of not scripting the story but instead sketching in a sketch book key panels I knew I wanted to include with the intent of filling in the rest when I went to go pencil. I thought I’d try the process again since I’m working from a condensed plot.

I don’t really like doing thumbnail layouts. I’ve found they don’t really help me all that much in the writing process, partly because I try to incorporate the dialogue and their respective balloons as integral parts of the artwork, and I need to know how the lettering will fit, what people will be saying, and how the characters will act. I like to do my layouts on 11 x 17 paper, left and right pages at the same time. Often, this just leads to penciling the pages. I’m always willing to experiment with the process, but generally I would rather avoid doing thumbnails.

From this point on, I’m going to maintain my morning schedule but I’ll be posting updates about my progress on Fridays, unless I have something I’d like to share during the week. I’m also going to make it a point to draw in the mornings on the weekends (can I give up sleeping in?).

I’m glad I decided to undergo rehab. It really helped me get back into creating comics again. Hopefully my output will increase, and someday I’ll be able to draw as well as I’d like to as long as I don’t slack off. Right now, I just want to create comics again and tell the stories I want to tell in the medium I love. I know that, as a result, I’ll be extremely busy. But if I can accomplish the things I want to accomplish in comics while still being able to make a living as a musician and a person-in-need-of-a-better-day-job, then I’ll be happy.

(I’m very, very tired. I hope this post makes sense)