Two Years of Hourly Comics

I took the end of the year off from work to spend time with my family and also, as is traditional, to play a lot of video games. I greatly enjoyed playing X-Com every morning and Fire Emblem: Awakening... pretty much all the rest of the time (except when I was playing SolForge).

But even I have my limits and after consuming media non-stop for ten days I needed to create something before returning to work. So I used the last two days of vacation to draw hourly comics. That's one comic strip, per hour, all day long. Now you can vicariously experience a day in my life.

Well, to be precise, two days. New Year's Eve 2013 and New Year's Day 2014.

Natalie kept asking me to read the strips back to her throughout the day, and Jenna grabbed my sketchbook whenever I completed a few more hours. It was a collaborative process. Natalie even illustrated one hour on her own! I'm posting it here as bonus content since I hit Flickr's image limit.

"try to catch me"

2013 Postmortem

Let's put this one to bed.

2013 was a huge year. I continued my MBA studies, our craft fair business, and working at ReconRobotics. There were opportunities to take another crack at things I love, like public speaking. It was also a year for trying new things, like getting my art into a gallery show and judging a cooking competition. I hurt my back real bad. And of course the days are just packed with little adventures like mushroom hunting, catching bugs, and spotting wild animals in our yard.

Here are the highlights:

• Buying, trading, and selling art at Craftstravaganza
• Riding ponies for Natalie's 5th birthday party
• Eating fancy food for free at the Uptown Art Fair
• My Dragonball Jay-Z comic was on the walls at Altered Esthetics
• Presenting like a boss at my Ignite talk about Passion Projects 
• Food trucks and a media blitz in our new venue for Craft'za
• Talking about the craft biz at Light Grey Art Lab

Random notes and trends: 2013 was my least-bloggingest year so far at Dad by Dawn. I only posted 50 times, down from a career high of 121 in 2011. But I also started a Tumblr (technically two, but only one is still active) so if you include that activity then I'm still sharing a lot online. 

I made a goal to pursue opportunities that came my way, especially artistically. I was already tracking on events and open calls for art via Twitter, so I had plenty to choose from. This paid off in free food, an Ignite speaking gig, and my first acceptance in a juried exhibition.

Mostly in 2014 I want to keep making connections and exploring new possibilities. Who knows what exciting opportunities the new year will bring?