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11-28-2010 As promised, here is an image for this week. This is the 7th page from a book of drawing I made called "Bind. Tie. Tether."
In other news, I finished reading "The Well at the World's End" by William Morris (Yes, THAT William Morris). As with other examples of early fantasy fiction (originally published in 1896), "The Well at the World's End" has not aged perfectly. The language is archaic and the pacing of the story is not what we have come to expect with modern page-turner style fantasy novels. That being said, the language is beautiful and many of the images and events are inspiring enough to be well worth the slog.
The Dry Tree is particularly striking.
One interesting aspect of the novel is how much the hero cries. Ralph is young, strong and true, and he is quite heroic, but he spends a great deal of time in tears in this novel. He cries when friends die. He cries when he's scared. He cries when a moment of terror has passed. He cries for joy and love. In fact, he cries far more than the heroine of the story who may actually save Ralph's life more often than he saves hers. Considering the glut of manly war machine, testosterone fueled heroes in modern fantasy, it was wonderful to see a sensitive young man who is deeply affected by the lives of those around him.
11-27-2010
I apologize for the lack of an image to go with this update. I find myself ill prepared to show new art on account of not being where my art is currently lurking. I will have something for you all tomorrow.
For now, here are some further thoughts on literature and genre fiction, largely inspired by this entry by Storm:
There is a definite drawback to indulging in one's passion for reading a particular kind of stories. Horror, fantasy, space operas, romance, etc., often end up losing a bit of their punch as you gain a larger and larger backlog of material. It's one of the reasons why my reading preference has steered me more and more in the direction of trying to find authors who present their stories well.
I've read about dragons so many times now that I am hardly phased by them anymore, even though they are at the heart of my love for fantasy and the reason I first ever really tried to apply myself to drawing. The fact that there is a dragon involved is good, but it's no longer enough to make me fall in love. The dragon has to be written in a way that engages me.
Take, for example, Steven Brust. There is a portion of one of his novels where he introduces cat-centaurs. I have no idea why. Some people might think it's cool, but the truth is he has shoe-horned cat-centaurs into one novel (they have yet to reappear in that series) and there was no reason to. Ordinarily this choice would have diminished my opinion of Brust as an author. In this case, it didn't matter because of the WAY Brust writes. His narrative voice and story structures are entertaining just to read. I think I would love his writing if he were writing geology. He just tells stories well. There may be cat-centaurs, but they're well told cat-centaurs.
11-20-2010
I finally got around to reading Junji Ito's Uzumaki. I will admit to some misgivings about comic books as a medium for horror. Comics lack the controlled sound and time elements film relies on to frighten, startle and otherwise deliver the heebie-jeebies. Prose has the advantage of engaging the reader's imagination to create a sense of dread and horror built from each person's own fears and this is changed and often lost when imagery is used to show exactly what is going on. I am not convinced the ability comics provide to linger over single images and examine every aspect of them quite evens it up with film or prose. Feel free to argue with me on this if you disagree.
As a comic, Uzumaki was unable to creep me out the way horror in other media has in the past. The protagonists are not very strong, as protagonists. They know there is a problem and they are unhappy and in danger, but they just stick around and do very little about anything. I suppose we wouldn't have been able to see how the events unfold as clearly if we had followed the heroes as they fled the town. The ending not entirely satisfactory either - it answers everything without even a hint of an explanation. I suppose things just happen in the real world too.
These minor complaints aside, there are some truly awesome things happening in this comic. Ito's art is up to the task of making the surreal and ridiculously implausible images feel real and natural in his world and there are some great objects of horror and the tragic and horrific fates of the secondary characters are pretty powerful. The lighthouse is a wonderful beacon of evil and the hair battle is a thing of beauty. The story is gruesome, especially in the hospital, but it is a horror story, after all. If you have the stomach for it, don't miss it!
Now, for your viewing pleasure, a drawing with a marked lack of spirals.
11-13-2010
I have a new hat. I'm rather fond of it. Can you imagine me being fond of a hat?
I don't actually like to wear hats, except for when it is very, very cold. When my life-heat threatens to escape into the atmosphere through my scalp and leave me cold and dead, I am quite happy to wear a cap of some sort. Given the relatively mild nature of Winter temperatures in Sonoma County I find few instances when a hat is necessary apparel.
Scarfs, of course, are an entirely different matter. You almost never go wrong with a scarf.
11-6-2010
I stopped worrying about the artistic merit of narrative imagery a long time ago. For me, art has always been about telling stories s narrative art has always been the way to go. My horizons were broadened as I was exposed to more of the art from the 20th century, but my own art is still about stories. Most of the stories are unpremeditated, but the stories are always there and often carry through from image to image in a surreal juxtaposition sort of way. I suppose they don't always make for easy reading.
A point of amusement for me is that while I work at obscure and nearly illegible narratives in my own work, I spend most of my afternoons trying to teach people how to write and draw sequential art narratives for ease of reading. I suppose I hope to end up with interesting and exciting to read in both cases, so it's ironic, but not really strange. I do love reading.
As mentioned last week, I also love big robots doing things for the sake of having big robots doing things. Here is a drawing of on of Survival Research Labs' machines. I drew it from memory and took some liberties, but this thing was walking around smashing other machines and make lots of noise. Enjoy!
