Back in the office

Today is my first day back at Kelly's Sports. I'm not working full time, just here working off the car payment for the Acadia. It's 9 hours a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I'm not earning a paycheck, so it's a wash.

Luckily I am still able to work on my own projects in between customer calls. Unfortunately I'm not working on my own computer so I'm lacking all the software like Photoshop and Illustrator. I'm not allowed to install any additional software on this workstation, but I can access the web and if I bring my external hard drive and dock I should be able to access most of the documents I need to continue doing my web design work.

Without Dreamweaver to help guide my HTML writing I will have to work in Notepad. This should be interesting.

It will take me a few couple weeks to figure out my workflow here. Regarding my book I plan on blocking out the sketches at home and printing out the rough ideas. I can bring tracing paper and refine the concepts with pencil and ink. Then I can take those drawings home, scan them and continue the paint over process on my Cintiq at night.

All in all I am optimistic about this. The extra $600 that I don't have to pay will help out a lot with the last of the wedding expenses. I know Jamie is happy about that.

Much work ahead

Tonight I'm starting work on 2 completely new website projects care of Diamond Group Marketing.

I swear; working in web design isn't only about understanding web languages like HTML and CSS, but also becoming knowledgeable with  multiple web platforms. Understanding how to work with Wordpress and even custom built platforms has become part of the job description.

Unfortunately I can't charge for time spent "learning" a new system. I have to learn on the fly and limit exposure to funky technical issues that may arise.

And this is the main reason I prefer working my own way. From the ground up using the web authoring tools I'm familiar with.

In the next few months I'm going to invest into learning how to use Adobe Muse. Then I might be able to charge a premium price for delivering visually engaging and dynamic content without focusing so much on code.

Turning a familiar leaf

After hanging out yesterday with Justin, who is soon heading south to Los Angeles for a life changing career move, I have made a decision that I'm oddly familiar with. I will be putting forth a considerable amount of attention into managing my time and making the most of the opportunities I have throughout the day to get more work done.

I would elaborate further, but that would just take away from said time. So let's go to work!

createspace.com

Did some light research today, regarding self publishing. I'm a realist and I know it's a difficult thing to get published in this volatile economy. I, however, am not a patient person and when I feel my book is ready to be shared with the world I don't think I'll be able to bide my time for the day that a major publisher decides to pick it up.

I will definitely send some copies of the manuscript around, but once I've exhausted my list of preferred publishers I will then pull the trigger on publishing the book myself with the help of www.createspace.com

I just found out about this company and I'm excited about the possibilities. The company is technically an Amazon company. So what better way to release my book than the worlds best online book seller?

A great feature about this website is the community. One thing I've been tossing around in my head was figuring out a safe way to share excerpts of my book and get honest feedback. I've only shared the manuscript with two people so far, but I know I will need more if I am going to create something with any chance of being commercially successful.

There is still much work to be done before I cross that bridge, but at least I know I have options.

Hello Alchemy

I don't recall exactly how I stumbled onto this video (http://youtu.be/y4OwR1Pj_DU), but watching it inspired me to finally look into the open drawing project called Alchemy.

For the uninitiated. I encourage to try it once and see if you like it. I know after the first time just tinkering with it I was hooked.

For more info on Alchemy and instructions to download and install it, visit: http://al.chemy.org/

I created this tonight after 5 minutes with Alchemy. I had trouble with the face, but that's because I'm not used to the fill shape tool. Give me a few weeks and I'll have a better handle on it.