Back from the dead!Creator's Diary: Monday, February 27 2012
The Century Page

This week I finished page 100 of Outsider, and just recently I finally started Chapter 2, both of which are significant milestones for me. However, considering how long it took to reach these milestones (the comic also just quietly celebrated its 10th anniversary), I won't dwell on these "achievements."

Except to say that despite the many delays and disappointments of the past decade, and the delays and setbacks no doubt still to come in the future, I believe that Outsider is definitely moving forward and in the right direction. Since the return from the long hiatus a few years ago, page output has improved every year (despite some very rocky goings-on in the real-life department, 2011 was the most productive year ever for Outsider and for my art output in general), and things are off to a good start in 2012. So there is yet cause for optimism.

My last journal entry was almost four years and 50 pages ago, so a lot has happened since then. My art process is now all-digital, which saves some time and effort in contrast to scanning and cleaning up pencil drawings (and constantly washing graphite off my hands), as well as improving the quality and consistency of the artwork. My chief resolution from my last entry was to rely less on 3D rendered elements and be more willing to draw mechanical things by hand when necessary, and I think that's worked pretty well. I think I've improved a lot in the last few years, and I'm certainly more confident in terms of being able to make something come out the way I imagined it. It was strangely thrilling for me to get into actual pages what had for so long only been notes or essays. It made things feel almost as if they had become "real." There is a lot yet to do and I still have a lot to learn, but I'm pleased with the way things are progressing.

When I said "Long Live Chapter One" in 2002, I hadn't meant it to be quite so literal. So instead I'll wish Chapter 2 "God speed."

- Arioch

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