This is the history of the Daily Doodle. I don’t know who would want to read this. You’re here though so, I guess you must interested.
The Daily Doodle is a webcomic that I started back in 2011 as an experiment to see if I could produce a comic every day. Back then, I was working a full time job and doing freelance art on the side. This meant that I had little time for my own personal creative endeavors. I really wanted to do something but I was already so overworked. Yet, I was so creatively unfulfilled.
I always had this small pad of paper at my desk that I would use to jot down notes, if I had a note to write down. Mostly I just covered it in stream of consciousness doodles. Some of the little doodles were mini comics that were sometimes quite funny. It occurred to me that I could easily produce a single panel comic every day, in a short amount of time. I would just need to draw whatever popped in my head using only a ballpoint pen and the small pad of paper. That’s when The Daily Doodle was born. I thought it was the perfect gimmick for making comics and it would allow for me to make comics while having a busy schedule. Boy was I wrong! Sort of.
For the first couple of years I posted comics every day of the week. It was definitely easy at first. There was no worries about quality. I was only concerned about the possibility of producing a high quantity of daily comics. Some were not very good. It was going great! THEN, the dark tortured artist brain took over. After a while I found myself worrying and obsessing over the lack of quality. Soon, I changed the comic schedule to weekdays only. Instead of cheap dollar store note paper and a ballpoint pen, I started using card-stock and expensive brush pens to illustrate the comic. Eventually I started drawing the comics digitally.
My obsessiveness started taking over more and more. The comic was taking longer and longer to make. It was getting harder to post a daily strip. Sometimes I would only produce three comics in a week. Toward the end, I was obsessed with making every gag funny enough. I would drive my wife nuts as I constantly complained about my lack of ideas. Let me tell you: It was a simpler time when my biggest stress was worrying if my comic ideas were good enough. Wow! Like who cares now. Anyway, I digress.
In the middle of 2015 I stopped. During that year I was working full time as a freelance illustrator and my creative energies were being spent elsewhere. I decided it was time to stop drawing the Daily Doodle and to move on to other things. While I may have felt tormented by my perfectionism with the comic, I am very glad I did it. It was a successful experiment. It taught me to take risks with my art and helped me become a better cartoonist. I still look back on these comics fondly.
Anyway, That’s it! That’s the history of The Daily Doodle. Did you enjoy reading that? Even if you didn’t that’s okay. I enjoyed writing it because I enjoy talking about myself and my experiences. I don’t even care if they are just super mundane. It’s my website. I’ll do what I want!