Behavioral Modification Part 3 : The End of Week One

 I am feeling pretty proud of myself at the moment. I am writing this post as a part of the hour requirement that I will spend writing today. Writing is the last thing I need to accomplish to cap off a full week of this behavioral modification experiment. Overall it was not as painful a task as I expected it to be. 

On the Exercise front I think I have done very well. I exercised seven hours and six minutes in the last seven days. Looking back that does not feel like a lot of time. I do actually feel a bit different. My pace has picked up a bit when I walk. I feel like I have lost a little weight though I have yet to invest in a scale to be sure of that. While working out in my office on the treadmill and the exercise bike I have covered 60.51 miles. That feels pretty neat. 

I have to admit that the idea of covering that sort of ground makes me want to get to the point that I am on an actual bike in the near future. I would love to spend some Saturdays circling Cades Cove again. Now I could do it with my GoPro filming the entire experience which would make for some excellent footage to go along with the exercise. I also suspect I will abandon the treadmill for hiking trails again in the near future. Covering distance is wonderful for the muscles. Seeing the leaves falling and breathing in fresh air is even better.  The time change and my work schedule work against me on this one currently, but wanting the mountain probably means that I will visit it soon. 

According to Samsung Health I burned 7674 calories this week. That feels pretty great. I cannot say that my diet is currently putting me at a calorie deficit for the day which would amplify my weight loss. I have done better. I have avoided sugar with the exception of one complete slip. After Teagan was out of school on Thursday I had an unexpected opening in my schedule. I took advantage of the free time to make a quick run to the bank to deposit a surprise cash windfall. 

Teagan did not really want to make the trip. She really prefers coming straight home after school and unwinding from her day. Since I was forcing her into a non preferred activity I decided to counter her objections with a bribe. I took her to Sonic and got her a chicken strip meal and a chocolate shake. That would have been fine, but I also got myself an Oreo Blast. I was 4 or 5 spoonfuls of that delicious frozen treat before I remembered I am supposed to be kicking sugar. I shrugged, finished my blast, and enjoyed every bite with zero shame. 

I met all my deadlines for blog posts this week. Writing about what I am doing is probably cheating, but my blog is accurately titles as David's Boring Blog. I feel no shame about getting the words on the page this way. I have also added significantly to the outline for the novel I am working on. My outlines are probably too detailed. I tell the whole story several times before actually completing a manuscript. 

The outlines is the first place the story is told. I can read it and see the entire shape of my narrative with details enough that extrapolating it into an actual story is pretty easy. The next step is challenging which is drawing out the outline into a story without deviating too much from the outline. When major developments do occur in story I update or notate my outline in hopes of making sure I don't butcher my own continuity. 

Finally when all the chapters are written I go back through the work and edit. This may not seem like a retelling of the story, but I have caught plenty of mistakes this way. It is enough that the editorial process really is the final draft writing for me. I do the same process with my blog posts only skipping the formal outline. Blog outlines are done in my head and are more a thumbnail sketch of the overall shape of the post. The only writing I do that does not follow this is when I write in my journal. 

This week saw few enough posts in the journal. I cannot decide if that is a good or a bad thing. Blogging and working on my outline feels more productive. Journaling does a lot more for my head and clarity of thought. When life gets complicated my journal posts pick up significantly. I will take the win that I haven't had too much to journal as my life being happily boring and bereft of conflict. 

Drawing has been going well. I started out the week feeling rather uninspired and finished in the same place. That may not sound like a good thing, but depending on inspiration to push yourself to be creative is a fools game. I want to building my technical proficiency not only put things on the page when I have a great idea. I started the week off by coloring in the tiger sketch I had drawn some years before. It turned out much better than I expected. 

After reading the first volume of Something is Killing the Children, I was inspired to sketch out Erica Slaughter in my own style. My own style is extremely rudimentary. I struggle with hands. I struggle with feet. I struggle with proportions and perspective. That is the reason I revisit doing sketches out of my head so frequently. I want to improve of those things. Also, when you make a mistake there is absolutely nothing wrong with fixing it with tons of dark colors. 

I am still working my way through Christopher Hart's Modern Cartooning.  It is a fun book. My goal is to draw every image that I see inside. I am savoring the experience a little bit and not trying to rush through. I cannot say that any of the pictures have necessarily pushed my abilities but I am developing a bit of my own hand at a cartoon like style. 

Speaking of a cartoon style I particularly enjoy, how about these Castle Crasher renders? I have been occupying myself while pedaling on the exercise bike by playing through Castle Crashers. I decided to grab a few screenshots for reference. The results were kind of fun. Yes, I played through as the Red Knight first. I completed the game this morning after I finished my exercise but before starting my sketches.

I suspect I will use Castle Crashers for quite a few more drawings since I do enjoy the artist's style. I enjoy the story that you can tell with simple figures, and it gives me a pretty good excuse to color in my sketches. In theory, I could do what I did with Link and create 5 variants of each Knight just changing their armor color. I may do that on a night when I need to finish a fast sketch to get in my daily quota. 

I enjoyed Christopher Hart's cartooning book enough that I picked up his guide to drawing Manga/ Anime girls/ women. I was torn between that book and something that demonstrates the methods of chibi style. 

I did the above sketch three separate times (technically six) until I was finally pretty satisfied with it. Though looking at it now I wouldn't mind doing it again. I wanted to get the hair to look somewhat close to the picture from the book. I missed, but not by a wide margin. I wouldn't mind repeating this simple sketch again and turning her into a redhead or even changing her ethnicity and hair style. 

Oddly enough the only reward I plan on buying myself from this week's behavioral modification incentive earnings are a set of Arteza markers with different flesh tones. Apparently, I could spend a small fortune on alcohol based markers and never have everything I would want. I could solve this by coloring my art digitally again, but I am really enjoying practicing freehand. Also, the color wheel tool in Sketch Book intimidates the hell out of me and I never get exactly the color I want. I am probably not patient enough to try a color out and change my settings until I get it right. 

I am still shying away from my real strength in drawing. I was not embarrassed to draw the entirely innocent above headshot, but Erica Slaughter (thankfully one of the least sexualized female comic book characters I have ever seen) got me a bit uncomfortable around the boobs. In reflex I kept the sketch super simple and finished it up with tons less detail than I normally do. 

I need to face the fact that the hours and hours of practice I have put into drawing the female form is nothing to be ashamed of. I could crank out a Bettie Page without too much effort if I could overcome this strange reticence to do so. I also wouldn't mind drawing Vampirella, She Hulk, and Power Girl. 

I have tons of ideas in my head all the time. Some of them like my mirror image Miles Morales/ Peter Parker Spider-man sketch are going to have to live in my head until I get my skills up where they need to be. Same for my Boba Fett and Luke Skywalker ideas. I am just not there yet. 

That is the fun part of modifying my behavior is that all of this will get better with time and practice. I will slowly improve as a writer. I will slowly improve as an artist. I will get more physically fit along the way. 

For the first time in quite a long time I did not spend any money on unnecessary internet spends. The kid ran me out of AA batteries and I had to order those along with some Christmas Cards. I put in a preorder for the new HeroQuest (which I have had budgeted for ever since I missed the kickstarter so it doesn't count) but even now that I have earned some rewards and my Christmas shopping is almost completed I don't have anything other than one pack of markers that I am anxious to spend on. 

That indicates to me that this all is working pretty darn well. I am proud of myself and my progress. I am also excited to see what I can accomplish over this next week.