Drawing

I have returned to the world of drawing with a vengeance.

It's bizarre how when you do a long-term project with no deadline how you can flitter from procrastinator to the FOCUSINATOR!! in the space of a couple of weeks ...

I am continuing the mammoth task of planning the comic rendition of "the Long Weekend in Alice Springs" by Craig San Roque. Perhaps I have come back to doing it again because I am heading to Alice Springs for a long weekend in a couple of weeks ... the stimulation that was required to get the arse back onto the camel ....

Some rather odd coincidences have also led to the recent revival. I was browsing the web after rediscovering Bobby N's fine work ... I found his blog and saw the photos that he sticks up of the monthly comic meet-up some artists have in Melbourne. There I saw an old mate of mine from university ... from about 9-10 years ago Jen Breach ... she's taken up the deadly task of writing comics!! How cool is that!!

I have a much clearer head as to what I still need to find to acheive the bizarre task of putting everything in order ... writing/adapting a long essay with many windy and tricky concepts that are not necessarily visual in nature ... and more strangely enough ... are not necessarily narrative in nature ... well, let's just say it's a challenge. One that I've enjoyed immensely. It's not the art that I've derived the pleasure from at all ... it's just been staring at Craig's words and putting pencil to paper and headbutting the problems of coming up with concepts for how this might be conveyed visually in a way that works.

For research into how other people might attack the problems that I've met with I have looked into some obscure corners ... in fact, although I'm certain there are others out there who may have attempted similar tasks, they are not easy to find. Most interestingly I have discovered some great works of art such as Abstract Comics. But I think that the most relevant material to my task remains the monolithic work Epileptic by David B. I'm not suggesting that my work is anything like David B's work ... far from it ... I've just found his methods in visually conveying concepts and feelings through consecutive panels and pages and his overall pacing of his work to be the most influential to my thoughts about how to attack Craig's article.

Pacing will always drive me nuts I reckon ... without some sense of how that functions I think that a comic will never achieve its end goal. But perhaps I place too much emphasis on such things.

who knows ...

it's fun though.