Getting kicked out of Wu-Tang Clan for trying to use the entire Eric Adams gun safety video as a skit on the album
[sketch of a woman i dated a long, long time ago]
Good morning, it’s rainy as heck. It’s September of 2023 and I am on a dating hiatus. Not for any philosophical reason, just because y’all are so annoying.
Here is a screenshot of an article I saw on social media that criticized New York City Mayor Eric Adams for his inability to run the most complex city during a weather crisis
Has anybody noticed that formatting on tumblr posts is just insane
Whisper four words to make them fall in love
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
The way to a girl’s heart is through the rib cage. But this should only be attempted by a trained surgeon.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
All I do is listen to rap music for old people. The 90s created a lot of rappers but not all of those rappers made the jump into being lifelong artists. Some people spend their lives chasing the vibe of their first album. Other people move into spaces of growth—not difference, but deepening and maturity—based on the culmination of their youthful efforts.
These are the kinds of artists who most inspire me.
It’s not about reinventing the wheel nor is it about jumping from style to style for the sake of doing so. If an artist chooses to continue working the soil where they put down their roots, they’ll eventually develop something more refined than their initial attempts.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Perhaps the most important thing that an artist can do for themselves is keep a journal. And a sketchbook, scrapbook, notebook, something of that nature. When an artist’s entire creative body of work is also their entire output, the artist is not giving themselves any privacy or space to nurture themselves, practice, train themselves, frustrate themselves.
Whenever an artist says “I don’t have time to have a sketchbook,” I think “you’re working too hard, that’s the problem.”
i haven’t checked but I’m pretty sure that I’m the cutest person still using tumblr. Unless Gillian Anderson is still posting. Good morning, Tuesday is Tuesday. My name is Ayo, Darryl Ayo, aka, Killjoy McCoy.
I’m not reading superhero comics anymore. No big deal, just acknowledging that my attention is shifted. When I want to really get serious about comics as an art form, I need to look at classic newspaper comic strips. Captain Easy, Little Orphan Annie, Gasoline Alley. Things of that nature.
It’s not just that they’re so deeply earnest; it’s also that they were meant for everyday people. And while we read these in book for today, the comics were absolutely not “books” in their day; they were part of the culture and atmosphere.
Anyway you don’t want to hear me moaning about the sainted past.
Good morning, tumblrinas
The best thing about waking up early in the morning in New York is that it’s high morning for European illustrators when I wake up. My sleepy self, looking at everybody’s best professionalism
[ =_=]-b
Last night, I was in the group chat, doodling on this sketch. In my estimation, I figured that I would work on my iPad a little bit just to warm up and then switch to my more “serious”/“proper” artwork on my drafting table. But you know what, I just didn’t have it in me. And it’s frustrating/demoralizing to sit at the drafting table, pencil in hand, with the full intention of scribbling up a new comic page…when I don’t even have an idea set to go. And so I accepted that I was making good progress and momentum with this digital sketch and plus, why move my entire setup to the drafting table just so that I can +try+ to think of a comic?
Anyway the sketch above is nothing serious, just a digital drawing that I began a while ago and kind of liked the look of. It isn’t a very serious drawing—there’s no background, no deeper story—but it will soon be a completed drawing and a lot of times, that’s all that matters.
If you’re wondering why I’m talking up a half-finished sketch, it’s because I’m presently riding the train to my day job and musing about my own thought process. Finishing a drawing used to be no big deal at all. But when you burn out—as I did—the things that used to be easy and natural take on the weight of a burden. Additionally, there’s a sort of physiological tension reaction that the brain signals when the source of the distress returns. The source of the distress is making art. So you can see the dilemma.
That’s why—after all this time—I am learning that I need to take these small steps. A sketch that once would have been no big deal is now a noticeable hill to climb. Also my physical feet are always tired due to years of bad shoes and flat feet. Not a metaphor. But the common thread is that easy things can get harder and even debilitating with age.
In any case, maybe I’ll finish the above sketch when I get home from work.
~Ayo2023
Good evening, my friends. I keep forgetting to post on tumblr. It’s one of the best social media platforms of all time. You know, except for their foolish censorship. Don’t you think it’s odd that Hive, BlueSky and others have no problem with adult content? Even though they came after Tumblr??
Anyway,
I’m not a Barbie or Oppenheimer type of person. I’m more interested in watching various nature documentaries, such as Planet Earth II (and presumably Planet Earth I)
Animals are cool. You should look at them. Watch their behaviors.
ALT
ALTdoodling every now and then on my computer (iPad Pro + Apple Pencil, with Procreate)
One of the best aspects of drawing digitally is that I can finally get the little fiddly bits drawn the way I like them. All of the fingers, placed where I like, not just where my pen can fit (like when I draw on regular paper). That alone is a major factor for digging deeper into digital drawing. But make no mistake; I still love/crave/desire the tactile process of drawing on paper with pens. Sometimes I wonder if I won’t split the difference by keeping a nice paper sketchbook while moving my “professional” work to the digital realm. These are just musings.
The drawing above is a sketch of a warrior who has some kind of superhuman power. Maybe I’ll get into it, maybe it’s just a doodle. Time will reveal all.
ALTBefore I close this post, my strong belief is that comics should be drawn at a slow and steady rate of one page per week and comics artists should be paid an absolute bare minimum page rate of one thousand dollars (USD) per page. The quantity of comic books produced is supported by the torturous conditions by which comics are produced. And I truly believe that the audience does not even want that many comic books; they’re simply trying to keep up with their stories.
If the comic book publishers released one forty-eight page graphic novel of each character, each year, I believe that they would be more accessible, easier to sell to people outside of the fan community, and most importantly, they would be produced in a manner that allows the artists to live well.
Thanks for listening,
Darryl Ayo