Style

I've noticed a lot more interest in my newest work than I have in awhile. I think styles come and go, but some styles last longer than others and I see this new style I'm working with will be here for awhile. Eric Canete wrote on his blog, that he steals other artists styles, with the underlining meaning that all artists look for inspiration and steal from those inspirations to create what they call their style. I thought that was a really cool way of describing the learning process of any artist.

We're all trying to improve and when someone comes along that you connect with you take what you can from them. Whether it's as simple as how they draw feet or trying to mimic the style completely, which intern shapes the style of your work. Naturally, copying isn't what Eric was talking about. I think when we artists go so far as to copy another artist completely, we're simply losing site of the goal, which is to create art of their own. If it's not the goal, then why draw in the first place. Just collect art, which would save time too.

The reason for bringing this up is that I've gone through some major changes in my art over the past 2 to 3 years. I had a Middleton faze, Travis Charest, Chris Bachalo and before them the list was even large, which includes Jim Lee and Bart Sears. My point, as an artist I'm always going to be making changes in my style and art, but for now I'm sticking as is for awhile.

Publishing with Ronin Studios

I have been given the green light from Ronin Studios to publish my short story I call Transfer. Diana, a great editor and good person all around, is having me touch things up a little. One part of the story is questionable. My friend Mike is offered to help me touch it up, so I asked him to jump on board as co-writer. Once the story is approved he'll write up the script. I'll draw the pages as soon as possible, as I'm scheduled for a con next month, NDK. I'd like to show the art off there and even possibly have something printed to hand out at the show.

The sketch I posted here is the other main character for the Transfer story. I'm only doing the story in grayscale, because Ronin Studios had two stories that had similar plots for their Hope books, so they want to put it in their Ronin Illustrated, which I'm fine with because I'd just like to finally get one of my own stories published.

HOPE: The HERO Initiative

I thought of a pretty interesting story for the HOPE: The HERO Initiative anthology at Ronin Studios. I sent it to them and they wrote me back asking me for an example of a page that the art would be in. I didn't have one, so I sent them a few things and told them this is all I have for now. I'm doing up a page today to send to them.

I got the web comic job I was hoping to get. There was a few times while we were negotiating that I felt it wouldn't work out, but we came up with some good compromises and I signed the contract this morning. She says the comic will last for 18 months and I’ll be doing 10 pages a month. I'll start drawings tomorrow and by the end of the week I should have three pages to show everyone. I'm not sure if they'll start posting the art on their website right away or if they want to wait a few weeks.

I'll ask if I can post up some of the characters to give you something to look at. For now, I've posted the lead character for the Hope story I came up with. If they don't end up publishing it, I'll just post the story in here and maybe put it in a sketch book to bring to cons.

Speaking of cons, I'm scheduled to be at the NDK this year in Denver. This is my first con with a table and I'll be doing some programs with some other artists. The programs will be on pitching to publishers, making web comics, drawing a comic in 24 hours (which I've done twice and plan to do again this year), and I'll be doing sketches and whatnot when I have time.

I'll post more about NDK when it's closer to Sept.