Tuesday, July 13, 2021

Update on the Past Eleven Years

Hello. Eleven years ago I started the Armstrong Comics blog with the idea of doing an online comic strip, but was only able to make a couple of posts before other things came up that caused me to put the blog on hold—things such as the death of my mother, settling the estate, going back to work as a test examiner, and other such matters.

Meanwhile, my eyesight deteriorated. By 2015 I was functionally blind in one eye. And with the other eye, the “good” eye, it was like seeing the world from the bottom of a pond. Everything had a yellow-green tint and looked dim and fuzzy.

I developed double vision, then triple vision, then more. When I would look at a line I would see a “ghost” line above it, another ghost line below it, and another ghost line to the side. Hard to draw when all the lines are made fuzzy by the extra lines layered around them.

Both my father, and my grandmother on my mother’s side, had macular degeneration, which is not treatable. I figured that was what I probably had and resigned myself to never doing artwork again. Came close to giving away all my art equipment, supplies, and related materials.

However, I had cataract surgery done to both eyes in 2019 and the results were amazing. With one eye I now see well enough to drive without glasses. With the other eye I now see well enough to read, write, and draw without glasses. And with the right sort of glasses, I can use both eyes at the same time and see in stereo.

So lately I’ve been toying with the idea of returning to doing artwork. This inked Spider-Ham drawing is from about two weeks ago.


 


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