Full Confession Time

(Where I explain just why this blog has been so infrequent, and lay out a plan for the coming year)

The last few years have been rough for me, real rough. I switched careers, dropping something I had been mostly successful at, yet hated, to follow my passion (a passion for art, design & comics was really all I had, and the first lesson was how much I would have to learn).

Switching Careers wasn’t really the hard part though, and it’s hard to say which was the straw that broke the camels back, but I suspect it was because I took on the responsibility of being sole care-giver for my grandmother. It’s a long complex story, but to simplify, I took it on because my mother wouldn’t. You see, my mum’s a useless junkie. There’s no easier way to put it. She made many, many bad choices when she was young. But it was me (along with my brother and sister) who would suffer the consequences of those choices. So yeah, my childhood was traumatic.

For some reason part of me needs to justify just how traumatic this period was. How every time Grandma had an “incident” (for instance, she’d forget where she was and wander off while flashing back to the war when she’d been a slave in a german labour camp. Or she’d just “forget” how to use her keys in the locks, and would spend literal hours trying to remember, fidgeting with the doors, jingle-jangle, click-clack, repeat. It was a house with internal locks on every door, and we had to hide most of the keys after the 3rd time she locked herself in her room and couldn’t get out) thather “incident” would also unsettle the little traumas from my childhood, things I’d spent a long time running from and never faced up to (the countless little abuses of my childhood is much harder to talk about).

So, short Story, this all came to a head with me going through a "battle with depression", And it is a battle. It leaves you battered, bruised and bleeding. Or more succinctly, aware that you have been battered, bruised and bleeding for some time and simply unable to go in that way. My ability to function in the day to day world was limited, my confidence was shattered. But, bit by bit, I picked up the pieces, slowly I put the hurt behind me, began the healing and eventually I got back up on my feet?

And that is where I have been.

Today is a new day.

And Today I’m going to keep following my passion, Art, Comics and Graphic Design.

Art can be described as a lot of things. Art is a journey. A journey of discovery, of discovering yourself, and it is driven by passion.
Over the last few years I’ve started to build some serious skills as a designer and illustrator. And it’s time to share some of that knowledge, and those resources. I’ve learnt most of what I know of photoshop from online tutorials, and I’ve gotten very good, so it’s time to pay it forward. Next year this site will be transformed into more of a design blog where I can share tips, and tricks I've learnt along with design resources such as custom photoshop brush sets and texture packs and the occasional tutorial along with all kinds of other stuff. (and yes, still the occasional cartoon).

So come along with me on a magic carpet ride, I’m going to be a rockstar designer, and I want to share the journey with you.

Cheers,
-K