Wander my Friends

Yesterday I was reading Bunny, saw Alice in Wonderland for the first time and read a bit of Maus. Wanted to try something simpler.

Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain

This is largely a response to a conversation my dad and I had this morning. Actually, that was mostly on psychoanalysis of writers and critics, but in short, WRITING IS HARD.


I'm a fan of stories. Films, games, comics, tv, its more to me than just pretty pictures. Story is the key- and everything else is subservient to that in my opinion.

In that, I think being a professional writer is quite probably the most harrowing job I can imagine. Firstly, you're an IDEAS MACHINE. To constantly have to generate new concepts from the ethereal mist is harrowing, to walk a line between being absurd/incomprehensible and doing the exact same thing that's been done a million times before is a tricky one. Moving from project to project you also have to compete with yourself; what you've done before and what you hope to do differently/better/as well as. That's not even getting to the actual writing part.

Drawing from personal experience is always heavily on my mind when it comes to writing. Essentially, taking things that make me tick and putting a veiled version of it out there for the world to prod and poke. DO NOT WANT. But heck, that's part of all art forms, and if I had THAT big a deal I'd be off working in Starbucks.

Writing good characters is something that makes my brain go wobbly like trying to visualise a tesseract in my head (which led to a process of stop-thinking-like-a-human in that sort of scenario, but that's a whole different post). Keeping track of characters' conscious, subconscious and feigned thoughts is a delicate balancing act, and finding how much and how to tell it another parallel minefield of scary. They bear the weight of their imaginary worlds on their shoulders. Did I mention that I'm a tad dramatic at times?

That whole sort of thing is scary but enjoyable for me. I've been hacking away at Darklight, re-writing and tweaking bits over and over again for years. I'm not on a deadline.

Flow is the hardest thing for me to fathom in terms of writing. Visually, in static images and in comics to an extent its all laid out in front of you. You can, in one look, see how things flow and match your beats accordingly. Scrolling through documents...something I struggle with.

Getting that all within your word and pagelimit, something I haven't had to wrestle with before. I don't know if that makes it easier or harder, but with cramped space virtual and temporally, I don't envy professional writers one bit. I have had the pleasure of talking to/working with Tony Lee, and the sheer intensity of his schedule puts me in small panic attacks and makes me want to not bother him unless the world is coming to an end.

So yeah, much love for the writers.

(I hope to come back and do a piece on pencillers,inkers,letterers,and editors later. Probably colourists too, but that seems a little self indulgent)

Illusion of Movement

I did this a while back for the craic.



and this is nothing short of silliness.

...and this is an oldie, but I still love it.

Merry Christmas

Crikey, best intentions and all that. Been cleaning all day, and had a power failure earlier, so found the day over with literally NO drawing or painting done. So here's a couple of quick Santa themed doodles.

Merry Christmas everyone :D

It's not Christmas yet

I seem to be rallying against the changing of the years with some vehemence, as if magically I'll conjure something amazing before Christmas takes over my everything. Even now I'm receiving texts demanding I take part in the festivities.

But I ain't quitting. I think I'm back on the make-something-every-day bandwagon, although the landscape up above- whilst trying new techniques- doesn't seem like anything new.

The ship is close to older designs, but I'm happier with it than previous attempts.

I could rant and wax lyrical with all the moany emo crap, but its cold and depressing enough already. I've just over a week to sort my head out for 2011, and I'm gonna do my absolute best not to waste it.

But in case I DON'T make it back tomorrow, a very merry holiday to you all.

Been having a bit of an artblock lately, and the only thing that seems to be going right is that darklight's coming on mby leaps and bounds. Here's a shot of the DaRT, from left to right Engel, Max, Pete, Meatball, Melissa,Davis...all out for a bevvie, apparently.

I was gonna say 'stay frosty' but that doesn't seem to tricky right now, so STAY WARM.

-C

Its been pretty much the coldest week on record here in Ireland this week, so I'm staying firmly indoors barring wanderings off for hot chocolate or the construction of phallic objects out of snow. IN THAT TIME, I've been writing and learning some more 3d. I had forgotten how utterly time sapping 3d is- I can stop painting at any time, but setting up renders/modelling can hold me for hours on end. If I had a maid bringing me tea I'm not sure I could stop.

After the advice of a good friend I took to using Maya with my wacom, which overcame my earlier problem of hand pains from the mouse. WIN.

The results so far haven't been good enough, but have been a marked improvement. This is why the attached picture is a speedpaint rather than a render.

ALSO, as part of my silly attempts at writing, I've started doing page tests for the big bad Darklight Book. Last time took way too long, and I'm looking to make the next book (and by that I mean an actual book and not a glorified pamphlet) in a reasonable timeframe. Currently thinking pencilled A4 loosely and then inked in manga studio. Bristol board is good and all, but not having an A3 scanner really blows.