Theseus vs the Minotaur

Whenever I'm involved in a gargantuan body of work I battle with myself. Physically and psychologically it can be an intense conflict sticking with a daunting project until completion. Such was the case this evening as I finally won out and saw it through to the end. I'm preparing something special. My first character based franchise that comes entirely from me and not something I was hired or contracted to do. My own intellectual property which I'll be launching online soon. I was attempting to finish the initial content for it by the end of this month. I did so with an hour and 5 minutes left before February 2013 kicked in.

Needless to say I am happy relieved excited and very proud and looking forward to sharing it with the rest of humanity. If you like the projects I've done before I think you'll like this one. It's been a long and winding road with many setbacks traps and pitfalls but I didn't give up and saw it through in spite of the many years of obstacles I faced. There's still a lot to do but I have enough to get it going and start building a new character based franchise online!

The struggle to overcome myself and get all the artwork done was a fight between me and the monster inside. You can do it Charles against why are you trying just give up and relax and live a normal day like everyone else. While looking around for art to post on my next blog entry I happened across this. It reminded me metaphorically about this inner war. Winning out over the impossible. I came up with the original line drawing as a concept sketch in early 1985 while working with ABC TV in Hollywood. They were developing a Greek mythology special which they intended to animate. It didn't pan out but I had a chance to come up with some cool stuff at the time. This is Theseus vs the Minotaur.

At the time I intended to paint it as part of the presentation for the producers to pitch to the network executives but a change in management caused it to wrap up before it could get that far. Back then there was no such thing as Photoshop. Everything was done in traditional mediums such as acrylics. Twenty years later I got around to coloring the composition digitally when I was first learning the software. Here's the result with some Greek font text I included for a title as a cover piece in 2005.

  

There's no inner monster so great that it cannot be defeated. If you face the challenge and stick with it you'll be victorious. Don't give up no matter what you're facing. Use time effectively and make progress every day. You'll eventually experience the glory of a great accomplishment if you keep forging ahead and keep creating and never give up!