Learning some graphic novels

Visual storytelling is amazing, I always get fired up when there's narrative involved in the creation of an image. I love delving into the histories of things. I've not really been an avid reader of comics growing up, mostly due to finances and a childhood of gaming instead however I love them. With the advent of webcomics I was able to consume the media at a staggering rate. I tend to dive head first into narratives like this and binge on them, reading everything available in near to as one sitting as I can manage.

Some that I've read in the past include Demonology 101 by Faith Erin Hicks and Hanna is Not a Boy's Name by Tessa Stone. Check them out! Recently I was linked to reMind by Erik Ly, and I was hooked instantly. Beautiful visuals, and mystery to boot. I luffs mystery.

I've been reading the short speed stories 'Lust' by Will Wright, and got super pumped. The whole comic page arrived in my head all at once around midnight and in my stubbornness I wouldn't let myself sleep til I got all the foundation elements in place. 2 hours later I arrived at this -

There's a ton of things I would amend, change or redo in this but I'm so glad it exists. Get it down on paper, and then you can assess where to go from there. I get hung up on the fact that I don't know all the grammatical rules that have developed around serial artwork / graphic novels but the best way to learn them is by doing them, as I was advised by Thomas Foster recently, '... it's the only way to learm. The more resistant you are to something like that, the bigger a hole it is in your knowledge.'


learn by doing.

Neil Gaiman Illustration - February Tale

I painted the first part of this image for Neil Gaiman's Calendar of Tales collaboration last night, and then during today's working lunch, I added the sky whales. I imagine them as the the carriers of snow, drifting across the sky and shaking off the frost.

Planetfall Ship Console

A concept for the ship console of the Nozomu, in the short film Planetfall currently in production by We Are Ensemble. I felt like I built this in much the same way that the crew are building the ship interiors' set themselves - out of found materials, and remixing existing photos of components and splicing them together to create something new.

I used sound mixing boards a base since the ship is 'powered by phat beats' as a friend remarked. It was fun, and interesting to try out a new approach in order to speed up the production process. Hope you dig :3

Lord of Tears

The Owl Man Cometh, in Poster form.

You can pre-order the film and watch the trailer here.

Directed by Lawrie Brewster / Written by Sarah Daly (Metaphorest)

Art Jam

Last night I participated in an Art Jam/Skype Call with Mike Tiscareno, Florian Gosp Eybe and Joost van Kempen, with with appearances from George Acevedo and Adam Wesierski. I survived 9.5 hours of it.

First round up was to each submit a word into the mix, resulting in Evil Forest Hooker Automaton. 50 mins approx.

Afterward it quickly degenerated into Mike Tiscareno pouring rough sketch thumbnails down upon us to render to our hearts' content.

This is Jenny May.

George put Jenny May on the Farm...

This is Barbara. Barbara corrupted her PSD file.

I also updated the Artchemical Tumblr :3 There's now 5 rounds of images up to view.

It was a great experience, and for most of it I was not listening to music which is my usual pattern, in the breaks between speaking/banter I could hear the comforting sound of stylus' tapping graphics tablets in mutual creativity. I reasoned that this could be similar to working in an office, and the mindset to focusing set in.

This was the last inspiring image to be posted in the skype chat before I had to SLEEP.