johncomic: (Frank)
managing to keep this year's New Year's quasi-resolution so far and draw something every day, even if it's only a circle -- although, to be fair, so far it has always been more than that... anything to maintain my drawing muscle memory, that was my goal for this year after letting last year slide so much

a wizard randomly popped up one day


johncomic: (Frank)
Expandlooking back on my obsessions )
johncomic: (Frank)
Someone on Instagram recently asked us to name our current inspirations. I decided to share my own list as it occurred to me, just to show you where my head is at these days. So go nuts with it:




Tonči Zonjić
Alice Munro
Maeve Binchy
Alex Toth
Randy Reynaldo
Anthony Auffret
Jean-Claude Mézières
Tomas Kubowicz
Charlie Dowd
Delvon Lamarr
Hank Mobley
Mary Oliver
Pema Chödrön
johncomic: (Frank)
I dunno if I can say that Secret Story is The Mighty Pat's best album, but it's one of his most approachable and appealing, and it's the one I find myself listening to most often. And, a while back, a moment on that album helped me crystallize some of my own thoughts about myself.

The Longest Summer is one of many stellar tracks on the album. This one in particular stands out because it prominently features Pat on piano as well as guitar. I love his piano playing on this track, I find it gorgeous.

It occurred to me that there might be people who wondered why he didn't get a Real Pianist to play this. He knows many of them. His buddy Lyle Mays, pianist for the Pat Metheny Group and one of the finest pianists in the world, was available -- and in fact Lyle appears on several other tracks on the album. There might be people who listen to Pat's piano here and think that they know of "better players" -- more technically proficient, more dazzling. And, granted, it's clear from this song that Pat is much more adept on guitar, which is his "real" instrument.

But, for one, I figure he must've wanted to do this one himself, because he did. And he could. And, for another, he did fine. What he plays fits what the song needs, it's attractive and satisfying, and it completely works. Would the song sound more gorgeous or more touching if the piano were flashier? I would argue no. Pat's piano playing on this song is not just good enough, it's Plenty Good Enough®. This was the moment where I stumbled upon this concept.

I realized that, if I try to evaluate my own work as a cartoonist as objectively as I can, I would say that I am Plenty Good Enough®. You can easily find lots of cartoonists who are technically better than I am, whose work is more dazzling and impressive and arresting than mine. But my goal in my comics is to tell a story, and my work tells that story with clarity and with some appeal. The story wouldn't be better if my work were more "eye candy" than it is. My drawing works for what I do, more often than not.

While Pat is not the most amazing pianist you ever heard, he is still a better pianist than most people you know, primarily because most people you know aren't trying to play piano at all. Similarly, I am a better cartoonist than most of the people you know. (Even though you know, or know of, quite a few who are much better than I am.) And this doesn't mean I'm not trying to be better -- but I do that for me, because I find pleasure in becoming a better cartoonist. But as I stand now, I feel like I am Plenty Good Enough®.

johncomic: (Uncle Old Guy)
quiet moments to draw and to rest
johncomic: (SK BW)
I remember it was in 1985 that I started attending school in Toronto to work on my Ph.D. (which I never got, but that's another story). And it was around this same time that I was corresponding via snail mail with Scott McCloud and he got me into manga. Besides having him tell me about it and what he was getting out of it, I would at times mail him some cash and he would mail me back manga (untranslated in those days) from the bigger bookstores in NYC. No place around here carried them then.

But the bigger comic book shops in Toronto were starting to carry anime-related materials, including "anime manga" -- books created using stills from anime instead of B&W manga drawings, and then provided with word balloons (again, untranslated -- I wasn't the only geek willing to buy comics he couldn't read). It was these anime materials in Toronto that introduced me to Captain Harlock.

Not only was I fascinated by Reiji Matsumoto's unique drawing style, but the anachronistic mishmash of his visuals expanded my mind and helped wean me away from strict literal-mindedness in my enjoyment of things. Harlock struck me as so cool, he was the first time I was ever really attracted to the pulp trope of space pirates. Not long after, I got the first bee in my bonnet about creating my own space pirate comic.

My initial designs were heavily influenced by anime and manga, of course, but I deliberately drew upon other influential artists of those years to try and craft what I hoped would be a distinctive look. I settled on the name Vant for him, primarily so that its possessive -- Vant's -- would be a tribute to Jack Vance, one of my very fave SF writers.

Vant 1986

Over the next few years, I found myself doing reams of research for the sake of world-building for this series. I learned so much about the planetologies of the solar system, the mechanics of space flight and space living... but never actually wrote my story.

I had my pirate but had no idea what he was gonna do. A few half-baked notions came and went and got discarded. One story made it to twenty pages of script before I lost faith in it. And then life circumstances intervened and derailed the whole project for years. But I never lost this urge to create a rollicking adventure space-pirate comic.

And then, several years ago, I stumbled across a couple of volumes of Valerian I had picked up in Toronto back in the 80s, and finally actually read them. And something clicked, and I wanted to make my space pirate again. Since then, I have completely re-done my world-building, this time more directly influenced by Vance -- the only thing that survived was Vant's name. (I still dunno if I love the name, but have yet to think of anything I like better...) And I have spent the time sketching and tweaking, trying to nail down the visuals of my cast and incidentals of their lives, re-thinking my entire approach to the tone and theme of the series...

VV20171024

....but I still don't have a story! I have my pirate but I dunno what he is gonna do! A couple years ago I got as far as a new twenty-page fragment of a whole new script before I lost faith. Really hoping that writing this down will shake my brain out of this time loop and get me actually creating an actual story that I can actually draw and actually get people to read!

VV20181008
johncomic: (SK star)
coming up with a new character design during my recent doodles -- I find this one interesting and kinda exciting, I can see story possibilities in it

alien design
johncomic: (SK BW)
a doodle that I am fairly happy with - I dig how it turned out stripped-down but expressive



VV doodle
johncomic: (SK BW)
doing some brush inking and getting a few good lines down -- not consistently perfect by any means, but enough good stuff to encourage me to keep trying

drawing

Dec. 25th, 2018 02:52 pm
johncomic: (SK BW)
I recently posted about people saying that my drawings are "fluid and alive", and how I am learning to see that in my own work. Much more recently I drew a Xmas card for Sharon -- this is the front of it:

Xmas card front

and I am fairly happy with the linework** in it -- because, to me, this figure is also fluid and alive, even with minimal lines. I haven't drawn an awful lot over the last couple months, so for me it's reassuring that I don't feel all that rusty.



** the colouring, not so much...
johncomic: (SK BW)
drawing some Christmas-present toons and being fairly happy with how they turned out



Xmas 2018
johncomic: (Default)
Not much to report for this last leg of the journey, just involving getting from Gatwick back to Canada. Here's me girding my mental loins before checking out of the hotel in the morning:

just before checkoutExpandlast few pics )

johncomic: (roundhead cartoon self-portrait)
Yay all done!  [This one was intended primarily as an exercise in brush control -- every line in it was, for a change, made with a brush.]

InkTober2018 Day 31 of 31 - "slice"
[wait okay, not the signature, I forgot...]
johncomic: (roundhead cartoon self-portrait)
almost done!

InkTober2018 Day 30 of 31 - "jolt"

johncomic: (roundhead cartoon self-portrait)
I enjoy the gentle layers in the concept of this one, but won't describe them -- it's like explaining your own joke before people have a chance to get it on their own...

InkTober2018 Day 29 of 31 - "double"

johncomic: (roundhead cartoon self-portrait)
InkTober2018 Day 28 of 31 - "gift"
johncomic: (roundhead cartoon self-portrait)

InkTober2018 Day 27 of 31 - "thunder"
johncomic: (Uncle Old Guy)
learning to see and say good things about my work

A frequent topic of conversation with Barbara is how I feel about my drawing. For years she has insisted that I am far too self-critical and don't have an objective view of its merits. So I have been making an effort to pay more attention to feedback I get from others, to see if I can find out some of what they see that I don't.

It has occurred to me that, in this past year, more than once someone has said that the characters I draw are "fluid and alive". The same was said about my animal drawings a while ago, even though I see them as beginner student pieces. Today I find that I can look at what I draw... and agree that, yes, I often see fluidity and life in them. And those are good things, things which I am trying to capture. There may be are other technical shortcomings in them, but most of the time I also manage to capture the spark of life, if nothing else. And it makes me feel good to be able to see that, and to acknowledge it to myself.

I hope this is the most braggy I will ever get, I don't wanna become insufferable...
johncomic: (roundhead cartoon self-portrait)

InkTober2018 Day 26 of 31 - "stretch"
johncomic: (roundhead cartoon self-portrait)

InkTober2018 Day 25 of 31 - "prickly"

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