jack_fractal Wrote:About the art.

When I initially started this adventure four and a half months ago, it was at the end of a long period of psyching myself up to do something like this.

How long you might ask?

Since I was sixteen.

I've wanted to do a comic, or something like it, on the internet, since I was in grade ten.

I'm twenty eight. It took me twelve years.

Initially, this adventure was going to be done in 3D, but 3D modelling takes a fantastic amount of time up front, and I spent a VERY long time mostly not-working on those models.

You know, that thing where you trick yourself into thinking that you're working on something but you're really just -thinking- about working on it, and you spend very little time doing the work?

I was doing that.

Twelve years of that.

And also that thing where you say to yourself, "I really like this idea, I want to save it until I'm better at art so I don't ruin it."

I did a lot of that too.

So one day, I was talking to my friend over skype, and I realized that I was never going to do this. Ever. Unless I started that day. Right then. So I decided to ditch the 3D idea decided to do it with drawings. It would be slower overall, but it would let me start now, which is what I needed to do.

So what did I do? I did not start that day. Of course I didn't.

Instead, I went out for a nice dinner with another one of my friends, came home, and had a panic attack.

The next day I was able, finally, to start it. I was only able to do it by tricking myself into it. I laid down a set of rules. I'm good at rules.

I would not spend more then three minutes drawing a character, I would not spend more then ten minutes drawing a background, and I would post daily. No exceptions. Not even if I was really tired, or sick, or if what I was posting was terrible.

I would post, daily, until I was finished the story.

And it has worked, so far.

It didn't look very good, but I didn't care. I was working under ridiculous time constraints. What did I -think- it was going to look like?

And that was how I tricked myself into doing this, and why the first chapter looks the way it does.

I spend more then three minutes on a character now, and more then ten minutes on a background. To be honest, I always did, I always cheated, but having the clock helped.

The clock said, "You are doing this, and it's only going to take three minutes, and at the end of those three minutes you're going to have something finished that you're going to show people and it won't be perfect but it will be good, and that is enough. You're allowed to not care."

"And maybe it won't take three minutes, maybe it will take eight minutes, or twelve minutes, or 45 minutes, but I can promise you one thing."

"It will not take you twelve years."

Perfection has always been the enemy of done. For me, it has often, also, been the enemy of started.

I liked that clock. Some days I miss it.