Welcome to another flip through. This is tired and tired young online. Now, this little beauty I picked up in a bookshop in Dubai, I think on my way to Afghanistan. I worked over there for a few years, three years and some change. I use this one to gather some ideas, but and a lot of the kind of redacted stuff was notes I took for work.
I carried this with me to all my meetings, made notes, did doodles. It kept me occupied a lot of notes, a lot of story ideas, too, that I had come up with and journaling. Journaling is a big part of my sketchbooks. Usually project ideas. I sat in an airport and the snarky part of me was looking around and and coming up with book titles for people.
So I ended up Judgment Day is is an incarnation of that went through and fleshed out that idea thumbnail some of those. And here I’d sit in meetings and also like doodle people doodle ideas try and come up with ways to get me through some of those meetings Sometimes it was a great opera, I don’t get me wrong.
But, you know, despite being that far away from home and in a war zone, it was a careerwise a great opportunity. I got to do a lot of things. I got to work my way up kind of from the bottom. It was a lot of stress, but I got to prove to myself that my ideas were valid and valuable.
I’m one of those people that I can be critical of, of leadership around me and play the, you know, if I were in charge game, you know, I do this differently, I do that differently. And when the opportunity came, I got to step up into a leadership role and prove that, you know, what I thought would make things better did indeed make things better, learn the value of, you know, building and keeping a good team and how to, you know, do your best to help people, do their best at their jobs and keep them happy.
You know, looking through these sketchbooks and, you know, doing this archive and going back through them, you know, and being at a point now that I’ve really kind of dug back in to trying to create and make more, I find myself a much more intentional artist, you know, when I sit down and realize I want to, I have a focus on what I want to work on next and what I want to accomplish with that in my hand.
Whereas before it was, I didn’t understand necessarily what I was doing, I was just doing. And it may not have been the most productive way forward for me. Not that it wasn’t at least a place to start, and realizing that starting and doing something is better than not doing anything at all. You know, it’s like you can lay there and have the best ideas in the world, but if you don’t act on them, then they’re, you know, they’re kind of pointless, almost.
I’ve got other project ideas that I haven’t fleshed out yet. I started working on sequels to some of my ideas while I was over there, but lost the files. So it’s kind of a whole start over for me again. But here are, you know, notes for a bunch of projects that I was able to produce while I was over there.
I was lucky that, you know, we we worked a lot. We were, you know, like 12 hour days. But in the time that we did have that was downtime, I was able to you know, I was I had a very limited amount of space for myself and was able to, you know, decompress. And I had my laptop and my software and everything that I needed and very few distractions usually.
So I was able to finish a bunch of projects and get a bunch of stuff done. I’d sit and I doodle the people that were in the meetings with me just for some practice and for something to do, try and flesh things out a lot more, a lot better. Just to also be kind of comedic, I guess to myself, keep myself amused.
So and sometimes that’s all it takes, you know, it’s like if the I try and pay attention, but if it doesn’t really involve me that much, then trying to look like I’m involved. Yeah, I looking at, you know, I had planned out a bunch of things making lists, making sure I didn’t forget things. I tend to do that.
It’s like, you know, it’s like, I want to do this. I want to do that. And then if I don’t write it down and to make sure that it’s somewhere that I can see it, then I forget about it And or, you know, some days it’s one of those things where I’ve got an idea. But in order for me to get that idea to paper, I have to find something to write down.
And if I lose focus on that idea for a second, it has gone. I’ve done that so many times and I can just kick myself because I know I’ve got billion dollar ideas in there somewhere. Anyway. Yeah, more journaling, more just rough doodles. Something that I’ve kind of redone more recently, you know, just simple shapes, trying to redo, you know, do new faces, working on projects for other people, working on little logos, ideas.
Sorry I get lost watching this myself, just remembering kind of, you know, sitting where I was and what I was doing and what I was doodling and what I was trying to do while I was there. I worked on some animation pieces which are up on the website. I worked on some character design stuff intentionally. I did some stop motion.
I did a lot of like initial projects, I call them initial projects because, you know, I got them done, I got to finished project and now there’s something to build on that I’ve got that finish thing and can move on. This wasn’t a very long sketchbook or a very a very big sketchbook. It was, you know, kind of a nice little faux, even leather, but kind of vinyl cover and thin paper.
It wasn’t a it wasn’t a you know, it wasn’t like Good moleskin, but it was a decent little sketchbook while I was over there, you know, taking notes for, you know, the workouts I did did a lot of, you know, kept checking my finances in here. It’s probably some of what’s blacked out. Did that just anyway, I think I’m almost at the end of this.
I filled this whole thing up. I was very pleased. Whenever I finish the sketchbook, there is no greater feeling than of accomplishment. And, you know, having a full completed document and I still go back to this one every once in a while to look at some of the projects. This was another idea of trying to create a simple shape and then mirror that almost like a playing card or like the tarot cards or something, an animation idea that I had.
I actually did that one. It’s kind of simple, but I got I had never done and I’m studying animation a little bit more, especially traditional animation and, you know, drawing frame by frame while I also learn how to do the, you know, the the proper so animation, you know, traditional animation ways I’ve got the what is a Richard Williams Yeah Richard Williams the animator survival kit I bought the book and I’ve been going through that but also on the iPad and it maybe on Android I haven’t checked, but there’s an app which has been really cool.
It’s, you know, not only is it the text that you can, you know, that’s broken down, but also animated bits, video bits that help you digest the the material a lot a lot more easily. when I was working on my logo trying to figure out how I wanted to do it. Inspiration logo for Todd Young Online. Other little ideas trying to make myself a learning plan.
The Afghanistan was was a productive time for me artistically. You’ve seen some of my other some of the other flip through and projects I’ve done. I was able to sit down and really focus. You know, I you know, my time over there was spent, you know, work, eat, sleep, work was pretty much it. And in my downtime, figure out ways to create.
So I didn’t go too crazy. Anyway, there’s another one. Thank you very much for taking the time and thank you for your comments and support. You guys have really been great and I appreciate you watching these and interacting with them. I’m tired. Young online Until next time. Thank you very much.