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My main project for 2010 is a graphic novel by the name of Pastel Sun. This has been a long time in the making, and I’m glad I finally grew the balls to start working on it. I’m going to give you a very brief introduction to the story here, as well as some considerably longer notes on its inspiration.

I have always been fascinated by the deaf. Sign language, too. On the one hand, I love music so much that it scares me a little to even think about what it would be like to be deaf. But at the same time I have such an enormous respect for people who live without it because I’m sure they’ve heard that exact sentiment a thousand times – how do you live without music? I’ve only met one deaf person in my life so far, and I tried my best to hold back on my questions. Something about the fact that I literally could never understand the way they see the world intrigues me to no end.

At some point I wondered if there had ever been any (well known) stories about a deaf main character. I couldn’t think of any, but that might’ve just been a lack of luck. (If you do know of any, please email me! Books, movies, short stories, comics, anything!)

So, being a wannabe writer, I figured I’d write one. Not long after the story started brewing I realized it would carry so much more depth as a more visual medium than writing, and I stubbed my toe over that dusty old comic book idea. I had never really been a fan of comic books (I have issues with most superheroes…) but the idea behind the medium was one I had every respect for. This was about six or seven months ago.

I spent some time trying to doodle out an acceptable comic book style of art, and eventually gave up. Lineart goes against everything I find fun about painting. Eventually I was clocked on the head by some unseen force of reason and it dawned on me that I didn’t have to come up with a whole new style of art for this to work. I could do it in my own painting style. It’ll just be, y’know, difficult.

And so the complete vision of Pastel Sun promptly popped into my head; a story about a deaf priestess in a fantasy culture that worships beauty and believes demons literally travel and breed by word of mouth.

I’m still outlining, so that’s all I’ll say for now. If all goes well, finishing this story will be the proudest moment of my life.

Cheers.

Posted in Art, Graphic Novels, Other Writing, The Odehren Fables | No Comments »

I’m young.  I’m still learning about myself and my creative impulses.  So, I’m going to try something.

I’ve always loved the idea of comics and graphic novels, although I never read any at all until recently.  It’s a brilliant mesh between written storytelling and visual art.  I want to be a writer and I want to be an artist.  I figure I’ll try doing both at once and see how it goes.

I expect this to be an enormous project — much bigger than the novel, maybe.  But hell, I can’t learn without trying, so here goes.  First order of business is writing out the script.  I’ll update again once I’ve finished that.

The plan is doing the whole graphic novel in my own digital painted style. Nothing cartoony if I can help it. A daunting project, but if I can pull it off I might find a life calling.

Cheers. (EDIT: Doing this with a new story called Pastel Sun instead)

Posted in Art, News, Novels, Other Writing, Summeryear | No Comments »

My aunt sent me a link to a writing contest today. I think it would be a fantastic smaller project for me.

Wicked Words

I think I might finish the rough draft of that story I started a couple of weeks ago and see how I like it to fit. It has to be under 1500 words, so I could whip up something else too if need be. Gonna give this story a shot first, though.

So I’ll be working on that for a while, as well as outlining Rusalka. If I don’t get enough time or inspiration to edit Summeryear before NaNoWriMo it might have to wait until December. Which, while it wouldn’t be the end of the world…I don’t particularly want that to happen.

Either way, I’m still making progress. I’m still working. Very nearly finished Suntamer, and I have another couple art projects in the works. Five hundred words into this short story right off the bat, and Rusalka is starting to really speak to me.

Tags: short story, wicked words writing contest
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Been quiet for a while, oops!

Most of this week has been spent brainstorming on the potential of a graphic novel alongside my other projects as well as painting through the days.

I’ve been trying out a few cartoony styles, varying from not-quite-anime to not-quite-realism, and I haven’t really found one I’m comfortable with yet. I do want to tell this story (it’s one that’s been in my head for the last four or five years), but a graphic novel might just be outside my talent. Or else, I’ve just spent too much time working on realism that I need far more practice with comic styles before I can put it together. Maybe it’ll end up more like a heavily illustrated novel than a comic, only time will tell.

I’m going to be out of town Friday to Sunday(ish), so I’m trying to get the Suntamer painting finished before I leave. I think I’ve been working on this on and off for about a month now, with something like fifteen hours put in and probably about halfway complete.

Even if I do manage to finish the painting before I leave, I doubt I’ll have time to put together the tutorial. That’s a project for next week. I’m planning for the tutorial to mostly cover colour tips, detail, and textures, but that might change. I’m absolutely not qualified to discuss anatomy just yet, as I tend to spend half my time fiddling with my sketch until it looks at least almost properly proportioned. We all have our strengths.

I’m sad to say I haven’t been working on Summeryear much at all lately. My creativity tends to come in bursts for each of my projects, so once this Summeryear slump ends I’ll zoom through it. I suppose I’m a bit of a binge writer.

Just a quick update to show I am still alive and working.
Cheers.

Tags: Comic, graphic novel, painting, suntamer, update
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