Showing the side-by-side images below you can see that I zoomed in to crop out the title and covered most of the bottom scroll-text with two panels from later in the story. The reasons I do things are both intuitive and intentional.

The intuitive  part of the process exists at the start when I start layering things, cropping things, adding filters, using the airbrush tool, masking things, adding text, etc. For the most part during this stage, I trust gut feelings to stumble upon “happy accidents” that guide me to a path I want to take.

The intentional part is when I start applying basic elements and principles of art to re-affirm the aspects of the piece I want to highlight. I use colour to unify the piece and guide the eye around. I use patterns to both flatten layered elements on the same plane (the grunge artifacts) as well as add texture (the comic dots and shirt). I added two simple things to this piece to help frame the Cross-Draw Kid better (the dead tree and birds). I cropped and repeated the title “Cross-Draw Justice” and placed it on a highlight coming from the sun in order to re-enforce the vertical framing created with the lower scroll and panels and the original “Cross-Draw Kid” title bar.

The best thing about making these is discovering things as I go. Layers are my friend. Textures are my friend. Filters are my friend. Moving layers around, or changing filters, or duplicating elements after I get something I like sometimes create whole new opportunities for the piece. Some examples are below.

 

This series was fun to work with although it does ends with a pretty morbid conclusion, but alas, that is the story of Lorelei of Lone Lake! It comes from a golden age comic called “Web of Mystery #2″ published in 1951 by Ace Books. It was a series that collected short pulpy strange tales of suspense and mystery.

A man, named Roy, hears an urban legend about the hauntings from Loon Lake. Fearless of such rumors he goes for a night swim (stupid Roy). During a dive he knocks himself unconscious and meets Lola. They talk and she shows Roy her home in a submerged cave. Lola pleads for his help so that she can rest because she is so very tired. Roy gains consciousness and submerges, but becomes restless himself. The next day he sets out with diving gear to search the lake, determined to find the submerged cave home of Lola. He discovers only bones with an ankle trapped under a root… and flowing, flowing red hair.

This series will very soon be printed on canvas and I can’t wait to see what it all looks like! Pics to come!

“She Came From the Lake”, XEI, September 2011

“Beautiful Stranger”, XEI, September 2011

“Quiet and Peaceful”, XEI, September 2011

“Drowning Dream Fantasy”, XEI, September 2011

“Deep Breathe”, XEI, September 2011

“Twisted Roots”, XEI, September 2011

Here’s an awesome commission done by Deviant artist Inkling. This is a fun redesign of Boston Crab from the League of Aquatic Heroes. He’s shown here making some modest choices to pants-up! This is a wonderful re-design and I hope Inkling will do other LOAH redesigns in the future!

Science blogger, Ed Yong, has graphed out the emotional journey of the writer’s process. It’s frighteningly familiar to me and Raven Nevermore in particular. The rises of euphoria upon discovery and realization are balanced with the dreadful dips of uncertainty, continuity fears, clarity… distraction by researching more about things that starts the process all over again.

I hope my graph actually does have an end point greater than any I’ve experienced throughout the journey so far. Having a printed product, is as done/finished as it can possibly get. Fear of losing money doesn’t exist in my expectations. I accepted that upon starting such a big project… and anybody wanting to venture into comics SHOULD DO, for their own sanity, confidence and general happiness.

I imagine this line graph represents arts in general. I recall days doing art that the rises and dips existed as well. With art for me, “finding when to stop”… man, no worst critic than yourself. Learning how to say “done” is a big step that needs to be learned. over-working something just mangles it in the long run.

Ha! The concern for mangling Raven Nevermore! That’s on the line graph for me . It’s something I strive to be aware of and part of the major concern for me and why I’ve opted to expand the project instead of congest the content.

It’s great being a creative person, isn’t it?

The very first Beholder strip for Blueprint Magazine centered around the theme of “Death”. I chose to take an approach that asked the question: “Why do humans value death?”

My answer was to use a mad scientist transplanting the head of his beloved canine best friend onto a new human body so that it could live on with continued, unhindered, blissful happiness.

A series of images started cropping up in my Google Reader and I (unexplainably) scrolled past them to check out later. I assumed they were science journal designs to compliment the experiments of Vladimir Demihov in the 1950s, concerning his experiments with dog head transplants. Dr. Robert White would later conduct similar experiments with the monkey heads. Christiaan Barnard, who considered Demihov his teacher, would be the first to successfully transplant a heart from one person to another in 1967. And so, these historical facts were the basis of the concept behind my Beholder #1.

Artist Dmitry Izotov manufactured a series of images that pushed the history of “transplantology” forward in a “What if…” scenario. The images are quite fascinating and realistic. He starts the series off with the following blurb:

The end of the 1950s and the beginning of 1960s was a time of significant achievements in the sphere of scientific experiments worldwide and in the USSR. During those years, Soviet scientist started bold experiments on animals. A whole series of pioneering experiments was carried out at the University of Moscow and the Academy of Science. And as early as 1950 a Russian scientist Vladimir Demihov surprised the whole world when he transplanted the head of one dog onto another one. The two headed dog lived for a whole month.

At the beginning of the Cold War, all efforts of Soviet science were concentrated on creating a perfect weapon. A secret Soviet project to create a robot-cyborg was started in 1958. The scientific consultant was a Nobel Prize laureate V.Manuilov. As well as designers, medics and engineers also took part in the construction of the robot. Mice, rats and dogs were used in experiments to test if it was safe for humans. The use of monkeys was also considered, but dogs were chosen as they were easier to train and were calmer than monkeys. Consequently this project got the name “The Kollie” and existed for almost 10 years. Under orders from the Central Committee on 4th January 1969 project “The Kollie” was closed down, and all the information became classified.

In 1991 all information about project “The Kollie” became unclassified.

This places it into an area of historical relevance, expanding on the lifespan of “Kollie” to 10 years, whereas, Demihov’s two-headed dog lasted one month in a state deemed “alive” by science. I like how the statement claims that a dog was used instead of a monkey because dogs would be easier to train and were calmer. Here are the staged/manipulated images Dmitry Izotov then offers to support the well-constructed illusion:

Remarkable! What an elaborate piece of work! All this based on a wire model and great graphic design skills. The rest creates a wonderful, believable illusion of possibilities that are equally discomforting and fascinating!

The most rewarding part of all this is when you keep scrolling down his gallery of photos until you get to the placement of the Collie-Cyborg amongst people in real life. This has comic-making possibilities written all over it and it’s the type of thing you’d expect to one day see in a Mike Mignola “Hellboy” or “B.P.R.D.” book!

PORTFOLIO: Behance Network, Dmitry Izotov, “The Kollie”
LIVEJOURNAL: Dmitry Izotov

Here’s a new series of posts I’m going to explore: What things inspired World of Hellmouth? I take a (re)look at, and explore, the things in the past two decades that have left a mark on me and in turn influence my creative tendencies. I like to think of it all as the ingredients of a bubbling primordial soup swirling in my head.

Eventually, something gets out of this creative primordial soup of mine and finds its own legs, evolving with its own identity. World of Hellmouth is not the first idea to become so fleshed out that it has become more than an eager lifeform trying to find a place in the world (of my mind). It has morphed into its own plane of existence, breeding new lifeforms of its own, influencing ideas with its own core ideas, its a force requiring a revisit, a review and a reminder of what came before.

There is only one idea that has reached a significant degree of development in the last decade and a half. That idea had over a hundred (single spaced) pages dedicated to it, maps, diagrams, definitions, descriptions, and so forth. This was in the late 90s and all went poof with a computer crash and no back up. Some notebooks and maps still exist, the rest lives on in my head. It’s inevitable that some of that stuff has been pulled into Hellmouth. In fact, as early as a few weeks ago I’ve officially convinced myself to fully integrate all of it into a section of the World of Hellmouth itself. This is an example that ideas never, ever, ever die. It suchs to loose months and years of hard work, but ideas are amorphous and persistent if you nurture them constantly.

Alright, with that introduction out of the way, here’s the first topic that came to mind tonight. I had an urge to revisit one of my first favorite artists, William Blake. An interest in his work goes back to highschool years but cemented in university when I started doing more out-of-class research on his life and artistic purpose.

WILLIAM BLAKE: SUMMARY

William Blake was an English artist and poet who was active during the 18th century and into the early 19th century. He was born November 1757 and died August 1827. His work falls into the Romantic Age. William Blake was under-appreciated during his life, critics considered him mad for his idiosyncratic views–Blake had a high affinity for the bible but was openly hostile to the Church of England, and much of his earlier work was primarily rebellious in character and can be seen as a protestation against dogmatic religion. In retrospect now, many critics hold him in high regard due to his expressiveness and creativity, and for the philosophical and mystical undercurrents within his work.

WHY HE’S AN INFLUENCE?

What captivated me about William Blake’s work was the deeper sorrow I couldn’t ignore in his pieces; the art referencing the mystical, or biblical imagery or icons in particular. His gesture and form were always very expressive and carried with them a magic that resonated with an emotional response within me.

“Awe” is an early feeling I recall having. It was the kind of awe that was defined by the fact that the images never left my thoughts. I recall being in philosophy classes, for example, and doodling some William Blake image that was triggered by something taught in the lecture (I’m almost positive it was the one of “God as Architect”, see below). From there I started signing out books and periodicals dedicated to his work and life and just read, or looked at image after image, for weeks, and weeks.

Below are examples of some of the art I recall admiring over a decade ago. Looking them up again was easy to spot them. I’ll try to add some info about each as I go to put them into context. The Wikipedia entry on William Blake is pretty great, detailing his life’s work, his philosophical views, his religious views, and so on.

“Ancient of Days (God as an Architect)”, 1794, relief etching with watercolor, 23 x 17 cm (9 x 7 inches)

I think what fascinated me first and foremost about this particular piece was learning that William Black wasn’t only an artist, he was also a writer. It went a step further for me because he wasn’t only a writer in the sense that he wrote things like poetry, philosophical thoughts and the like… he CREATED whole mythologies around his life work. This was a creative mind unhindered or unconcerned about how religious society and organizations reacted to his works.

This piece for example, upon a quick glance, along with the title, is easily accepted as a representation of a white-bearded God in the midst of creating the universe. If there was heavy censorship back then, this would slip past it. In fact, this figure represented here went by the name “Urizen”, and to William Blake represented the embodiment of reason and law and originates in the beginning of Blake’s version of Genesis. He was the entity created when a voice said that light should be born, he eventually creates the material world and even becomes represented as the fallen figure Satan. It’s really too much to get into here in short, and most of it still goes over my head. I encourage interested parties to check out a Wikipedia page dedicated to breaking this whole Urizen character down.

The imprtant thing I took from it is the notion of symbolic entities that exist outside of a “material plane”–entities that are architects of the world and the laws that exist in them. This is an element found in most fantasy lore and archetype frameworks, but the visuals along with this realization made their mark on me more than any literature I read since.

“The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun”, c. 1806-1809, Watercolor, 34.3 x 42 cm

“The Great Red Dragon and the Beast from the Sea”, 1805, Pen and watercolor, 40.1 × 35.6 cm

The Great Red Dragon Paintings are a series of watercolour paintings, depicting various scenes from the Book of Revelations, done between 1805 and 1810 when Blake was commissioned to create over a hundred paintings intended to illustrate books of the Bible.

This wasn’t the first key fascination with the “Book of Revelations” in particular, but it was certainly a reconfirmation of an interest already explored when I was twelve or thirteen years old after reading Stephen King’s “The Stand” (and then watching the made for TV four-part series).

“The Lovers’ Whirlwind”, 1824 – 1827, Pen and ink and watercolour, 374 x 530 mm

The commission for Dante’s “Divine Comedy” came to Blake in 1826 with the ultimate aim of producing a series of engravings. This was regrettably cut short with Blake’s death in 1827 resulting in only seven of the engravings at proof form. The pieces I recall seeing got me interested in knowing more about the “Divine Comedy” which ultimately led to discovering Dante’s “Inferno” in greater depth. This is, at its core, one of the strongest (and likely obvious) conceptual influences on the World of Hellmouth.

Thanks to the internet many years later, you can find an assortment of annotated or summarized description of each section of the epic (thank goodness). I also recall, at about the same time, reading a Spawn issue where Al Simons goes to hell after being vanquished, and has to cross into each of the layers of Hell to get to Malebolgia.

This combination of fine art and classic literature bringing context to a comic I read, and many things I’d experience going forward, was something I found quite fascinating. It would become the backbone of many of the ideas I’d develop for World of Hellmouth–the notion of digging into a sort of “collective consciousness” of creative works that have come before and allowing it to influence some of the core structural ideas.

ADDITIONAL AFTER-THOUGHTS

Finally, I have to add another little detail about how all of this works together in the mid to late-90s as being a building block for what influences me. The detail I refer to may actually get its own “Influences” entry.

Iron Maiden was a band I reverently followed since I was eleven years old. I owned every CD up until “Fear of the Dark” when the band would split up. Bruce Dickinson, the lead singer would go off and support a solo career that I folowed as well and his 5th album was entitled “Chemical Wedding” released in 1998.

I’ll avoid going into too much detail here, but the reason Iron Maiden was a huge influence on me was because of the story, lore and respect for literature and the past in general that their music embodied. It’s easy to think that one of the big daddy heavy metal bands was nothing but loud yoddling chants, but for those who take the time to READ the lyrics and follow the entire theme of each album, it’s remarkable what you’ll learn and discover, and the creative journeys these works can take you on.

As you can see by the Chemical Wedding cover, Bruce Dickinson paid homage to William Blake’s works in this release, with both artwork, with track themes, and even lyrics reciting Blake’s poems. The vibe and feeling this album conveys had, with no doubt, given a deeper perception of my already deep fascination for William Blake’s work. I now also had an audio layer added to my persistent memories!

The album art featured here is based on “The Ghost of a Flea“:

“The Ghost of a Flea”, circa. 1819-1820, Tempera mixture panel with gold on mahogany, 21.4 cm x 16.2 cm

Sometimes I am lucky enough to stalk–er I mean–come across fanart done by artists that I’m lucky enough to add to Google Reader early! Stefan Kocevski is one such artist and I discovered this wonderful sketch featuring the LOAH crew on his blog. Stefan did the Fanart Contest Entry of Boston Crab.

This is a real fun sketch and he was nice enough to let me post it in the fanart section! I love how Boston Crab is in the background in a faint sketch holding a massive iron anchor–cause he totally WOULD beat something with that damn thing! All great designs all and all!

Here’s the benchmark TENTH contest entry! In the depths patrols Kraken with a watchful eye. This piece was submitted by another Macedonian artist, 19-year-old, Tomi Dzurovski.

Kraken is getting a lot of love in the Fanart Contest. Here’s an entry done by Croatian artist, Bojan Peršić!

Here’s a fanart submission of Boston Crab by The Mico!