When I started working for myself, I decided I’m going to work only four days a week: Monday through Thursday. It hasn’t actually panned out that way; I’ve been working Monday through Thursday, of course, and any other time during the weekend when I feel like it. I don’t obligate myself to work on Fridays, but I do if I feel like it or if there’s a fire I need to tend to.

What I’ve found is that I’m just as productive in my 4-day week as in my 5-day week. By keeping Fridays optional, it also makes the Fridays I do work much more productive.

With Santa Barbara’s summer here in full force now, I’m going to make sure I take my Fridays off so I can spend my days running about town or at the beach, days like the Friday in May above. I’ll be drawing, sailing, reading, and enjoying life.

As promised, I did a repurposing of the Andymism design. Since all I really did was move around a few elements and add a sidebar, I guess I wouldn’t call what I did a redesign. But, call it what you want.

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It’s funny, as soon as I have this site up and running, I’m itching for a redesign. I’m learning more about what I want out of my blog, what I think it should do, and how I want it to do those things.

So surprise, surprise. A redesign is on the way–although maybe it’s not so much a redesign, but a retooling. Or a re-featuring. Feature is an ugly word.

Anyway, hold on tight.

Just a few of the books I use as a reference when doing graphic or interactive design work. View the drawing on Flickr to see labels for each book in the stack.

I’ve never used any of these colors in a drawing before. I’ve been trying to challenge myself, as far as color work is concerned, by making monochrome drawings with terra cotta colors–which, though I’m getting better, turns out to be pretty difficult. This was a nice break from that.

I’m starting to get a bit better at seeing people, especially after I warm up a bit. I find that it takes a good amount of focus before I can get my hand to start drawing what I see—I especially need that warm up when it comes to drawing people.

I’m still having a tough time with color. Granted, I haven’t been producing as much work lately. I guess I need to keep grinding away in order to get any better. I wonder if there’s a good book out there about how to use color. Not color theory, but how to see and draw with color.

I’m sure there is, and it’s probably worth looking into.