Life in Numbers Life in numbers: January '23 The On The Side community has been pretty active this month with lots of blog posts and links to pages on personal sites which cover off ongoing stats for things like health and fitness, films and podcasts. While I debate whether to set up my own dedicated stats page, I
Comics Beorn colour test Back in October '22, I was scrolling through Twitter when an artist I follow posted that he was looking for a colourist: Alright, Monday morning folks! I'm looking for a colorist for Beorn! If you, or anyone you know, might be interested, please DM me with details (samples, page rates)
Comics Why do I make comics? I've been fortunate to appear as a guest on some of my favourite comics podcasts and the question of why I make comics came up. At the time of recording, the question kind of took me by surprise and my answer was kind of rubbish. Thinking back it makes me
Personal Bound to books A discussion in the OnTheSide Slack community was prompted by a post by Sam King about getting rid (or keeping hold) of physical media like CDs and DVDs. The discussion also turned to books with some members getting rid of books after reading them but I really struggle to do
Music Reclaiming my Likes playlist It was a number of years ago now and I can't quite recall the exact circumstances but there was a period of time when Spotify limited the number of artists/albums I could save to my Library. Maybe I was on a free account at the time? I dunno... Anyway,
Comics Barnacles: "Sea Sick" I wrote and drew this comic in waves as I tried to battle a self-inflicted creative crisis in the second half of last year. While it wasn't the cause of the crisis, it helped pull me back out. Colouring comics is something I've always struggled with but I managed to
Personal 2023 Goals Today I recorded an episode of Make Life Work with Si and Mike and the focus of the episode was a bit of reflection on 2022 and looking ahead to 2023. I've already set out my reading goal for 2023 (which, I forgot to mention on the podcast!) and the
Personal Reading goal for 2023 I didn't do too badly in 2022 for reading, at least when it comes to comics. I had a steady flow of reading material throughout the year but I wasn't really paying any attention to logging what I'd read and when so aside from a few notable reads, I can't
Ugh... New Year I love the run up to Christmas. I like seeing the decorations up, lights everywhere brightening up the dark Winter evenings, the tunes, the films! All this fun stuff that sort of takes your mind off the fact that it's cold and miserable outside. I think this is why I'm
Crisis averted (for now) Over the last few months, I’ve been in a bit of a chasm of almost crippling self-criticism when it comes to making comics. I’m one panel away from finishing art for issue 2 of my comic which I managed to rewrite and draw in the space of a
What do I do with you? Sometimes I forget this blog is even here. I sometimes refer back to previous posts but these days I rarely have a thought that I think "I should write this as a blog post". I generally stick to posting thoughts on Twitter but maybe I should make more of an
Returning to bullet journal A few years ago I came across Bullet Journal [https://bulletjournal.com/], a framework for organising your days using just a note book. I've used it on-and-off for years. I took a break last year trying to opt for a more collaborative approach using the systems at work but I've
Art O brother fan art process Last week, I got a hankering to watch O Brother, Where Art Thou? and after I'd watched it, I got a hankering to draw some of the characters. As I did most of the work digitally, it was fairly easy for me to export the various steps as I went
Solo: Saving the cat A while ago, I was chatting to some friends about Solo: A Star Wars Story, along with more Star Wars nerdery. What we liked, what we didn't like etc. Overall, I didn't hate Solo, but there are a few things that didn't quite sit right and one thing occurred to
Reading 20 in 2020 In the years prior to 2020, my reading habit had taken a bit of a nose-dive. I'd pick up a book every so often and work through it, but I wasn't reading nearly as much as I wanted to. With 2020 being a nice round number, I decided to aim
Week notes Week notes #25 I've done 25 of these week notes now so I think it's a good opportunity to reflect. If I'm honest, I'm struggling to keep up with them. Those who've been following along may have noticed I've gone from a fairly regular Sunday/Monday posting schedule to maaaybe by Wednesday (or
podcasts Make it then tell everybody with Dan Berry It's not me just chatting crap when I say this podcast is my favourite podcast. I've been listening for years since I was introduced to it back in 2014, I've even been back through pre-2014 episodes so I can honestly say I've listened to every single one. Many I've returned
Drawing with Tom Sparke Last Wednesday night, I put aside my comic project for one night to do some silly drawings and chat comics with my pal, Tom. I'm not an eloquent person and still don't feel too comfortable being recorded for the internet but I'm caring less and less as I get older.
Week notes Week notes #24 Another week gone by. Well, sort of. I wrote my last week note 5 days ago but let's round up for the fun of it, eh? Well, I guess the first thing to say is our youngest took his first steps this week. He's been crawling since he was about
Week notes Week notes #23 These week notes are getting later and later each week! I guess the next one will be slightly shorter, since there's only 5 days left this week. I guess the biggest news of all doesn't directly affect me, but like many others, I've been following the US election results closely
Week notes Week notes #22 It's been a while since I last did a weekly update! A few things have happened, not all great so I'd let the updates get pushed to one side for a little while. A few weeks ago, my Aunt passed away after battling cancer for the last year or so,
Sad day for comics... Today it's been announced the publisher I've been working with, Fair Spark Books, is closing its doors. This year has been rough for many and the knock-on effect has been an affect on sales since the beginning of lockdown which means it's no longer feasible to keep the business going.
Week notes Week notes #21 Another week and another year older! It was my 35th birthday last week which I kinda forgot about in the last post. I guess I'm at the age now where birthdays aren't really noteworthy events until I start hitting landmark ages. 5 years to the big four-oh, but that'll go
Week notes Week notes #20 I think this will be another short and sweet one today as there's not a great deal to report. It's been a week since my aunt passed away and now local lockdown restrictions prevent us from visiting any of our relatives which is a bit shit but I think everyone
Week notes Week notes #19 I'm a couple of days late with this one but I'm struggling to find time to slot this in so it's gonna be a short and sweet one today. We've had a rough week. My aunt was diagnosed with cancer last year and while she fought a good fight, sadly
