Didn’t realise it had been a week or so since I posted on here. The most exciting thing to happen in that time was the earthquake that shook the UK, something we aren’t used to. Scared the life out of me, I was happily sat watching Stargate SG-1 and all of a sudden the walls began to shake and all my shelves started moving. As we have a problem with the main support wall downstairs I presumed it was that which had fallen down, so in a way I’m glad it was an earthquake and not that!

On the art front I’ve been working on a skill building exercise which I have named “The Book of Jim”. Basically, every week night for the past week and a half I have spent 10-15 minutes doing a sketch of Jim Morrison. I plan on doing about a months worth and then uploading them to see how I have progressed from the first (truly terrible) sketch to the (hopefully much better) last one. Each time I pick up a pencil after a while not drawing I quickly give up as I get frustrated that I can’t draw, but this time around I’ve realised that I need to give myself a refresher course rather than diving back into the deep end. So, this is kind of like my own little art course. Once I’m happy with the way the Jim’s are going I shall start to copy other photos/drawings and get used to using a pencil again (it’s amazing how much using a mouse for years really effects drawing skills).

I picked the classic shot of Jim Morrison to draw as I wanted something iconic and easily recognisable so that I could get people to easily compare it to the original, but also see how well my friends recognise it on it’s own. The first few sketches were terrible, but I’m getting happy now around the 8th sketch. Still a few things I can’t get right, but that’s OK as it helps me practice over and over.

Listening To: Random tracks – earthtone9
Reading: Akira – Katsuhiro Otomo

Here is a quick “digital mock-up” of the cover for the other comic I’m working on.

The image of the Metro station in the crack/rip will be hand drawn, not a photo manipulation. The logo I think I shall keep though, as even though it was a quick mock-up I quite like it and think it works well. This cover is also very different to my initial design, having been influenced by the posters of the French New Wave films of the 50’s and 60’s. I was going to have a man on one side of the rip and a woman on the other, looking happy together but with the rip coming between them, as this relates to part of the story. But, I’m thinking I may leave them off the cover now as I quite like the idea that the rip is allowing us to see into something, rather than it representing something coming between two people, and I also like the mass of white space either side, allowing the logo imagery to stand out better..

Listening To: Rumours – Fleetwood Mac
Reading: Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

Inspiration comes from all kinds of places for all kinds of people.

For me it mainly comes from comics, but also films and music. I have playlists set up of certain songs to listen to while trying to write my comics, songs which remind me of events or bring out the required emotions. For two of the comics I’m trying to sort I keep going back and watching pretty much every film I have that is set in Paris.

But like I said, inspiration comes from all kinds of places.

One of my biggest influences is one of my best friends. On one trip to Paris I took him to Pere Lachaise. For no particular reason other than to do the tourist thing. I decided to take him to Jim Morrison’s grave, but for some reason got a bit lost and couldn’t find it. Something obviously clicked because from that moment on he became a bit obsessed with The Doors, a band that he had never been interested in before. He started listening to all the albums, watching all the DVDs and buying every book he could on the subject.

So, the next time we went to Paris we had to go find Jim’s grave. And find the apartment he died in. This time we succeeded.

Now, the most amazing thing about all this is that my friend, by his own admission, wasn’t the most well read person in the world, he probably hadn’t read a book since he left school. But this interest in The Doors and the life of Jim Morrison sparked something within him, and not only got him interested in reading (and not just books on The Doors) but it brought out the poet in him. I’m sure he won’t mind me linking to his Blog where he posts his poetry, it truly is great stuff. It’s not only great to see a friend become so creative, but it’s also inspiring.

So while not being a direct influence on my work, he’s certainly an influence on my creativity.  And my note book has a comic book idea involving a trip to Paris and a growing obsession with The Doors

So, after almost a year of jotting down comic ideas and starting and scrapping scripts, what do I have to show?

This:

Not much, I know, but it’s a start. This is actually the second idea I had for the cover, totally different to my original plan, but I felt the style fitted better with the name and tone of the book. This is just a first draft of the cover, I’m planning to add a few more graphics of Paris landmarks, although to be honest I’m temped to just leave the Tower on it’s own as it’s a powerful enough image as it is.

While searching the web for ideas for a comic cover based on pulp novel/film noir/French New Wave film posters I came across the following:

Strange Sisters – A collection of covers from lesbian pulp novels, some brilliant tiles and great art work (as usual for pulp novels).

25 Best Movie Posters – Pretty much does what it says on the tin. Of course, any “top 10″, “top 25″ etc is pretty subjective, but there are some great choices in here. I especially love the Polish poster for The Birds.

When I do a Google image search for ideas I always end up spending too long browsing through sites like these. Still, it works cos I have finally done a first version of a comic cover idea I had, which I shall post a bit later.

Listening To: Nude – VAST
Reading: Mind numbing Action Script to get Flash to do things that won’t work!!!

Every now and then I do this. I wipe my Blog and start again, in the hopes that it will encourage me to actually start doing something and give me reason to write on here.

Since the new year started I’ve been doing things in steps. Things to get my life sorted. And so this is the next step, actually getting one of my comic ideas written, drawn and printed.

I shall post up here what I am working on, comics I’m reading, films I’ve watched, music I like and anything else that takes my fancy. But the main reason behind it is so that I can look back and see the journey.

Listening To: Wish You Were Here – Pink Floyd
Reading: Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte