Foreward

"Venge is my dream of a hero and his quest for love. And in this dream I have to do things that scare me.

I am MidKnight, and these are my Knightmares. "

-Sunday, December 13, 2009


Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Lost in the Details

Being OCD about things being organised and always having new ideas have combined with being a perfectionist in my own work to cause me great delays.

Organisation: A process in which I create a schedule and a process to complete any task. Step by step I create and execute a plan and move to the next. Plan and execute. Plan and execute. Interruptions in the process can be attained by inserting another step that must first be evaluated for its effectiveness and then implemented. This can create a situation in which previous execution must also be evaluated and reimplemented.

Creative: The ability of my overactive mind to storm off into a wide array of tangents. Each one, in and of itself, having to possibility to storm off into their own tangents. Most often the greatest creative processes stem from sensory stimulation. A taste, smell, touch, sound, sight, or feeling. Most often the later. Somethings triggers an onslaught of tangenting ideas with the most powerful or 'coolest' creating the largest impact.

Perfection: An acceptance that nothing that I can or will ever do/create will meet its full potential. An understanding that everything can always be so much better. This further leads to improving upon everything I do. A better story, a better character, a better way. Nothing will ever be complete. And nothing will ever be as good as it can be. But damned if I don't get as close as I possibly can.

A majority of inspiration is actually just an improved upon idea. I wanted to draw Venge as Darren Duvoss in a straitjacket before he became a 'hero'. A desire to create an accurate straitjacket needed researching. Researching it became a realisation of similarities with other elements. These similarities became and idea. This idea became a reevaluation.

This reevaluation has become a confliction of desired elements and logical inclusion. A man with blades on his arms must be able to use his arms. To have the blades cut through the jacket creates an unnecessary distraction of design elements. Why have frayed jacket sleeves present if they are just going to be frayed tatters? How to combine jacket that fastens in the back with one that fastens over a breast? How to make it efficiently look like both a straitjacket AND a fencing jacket? Oh and lest we forget to incorporation of the reaper element?

Six of one... half-dozen of the other.

Step by step examples of this process was an interesting idea, but failed in its execution. 1) Sketches too light to scan, graphically enhance, and repost for clarity. 2) Whole images erased in their entirety, abandoned, and have no bearing on the outcome. 3) Doubt

3 comments:

  1. What do you have exactly for your comic? Do you have a running visual concept or storyboard?

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  2. I have the first 13 issues outlined with main story points and underlying minor plot points. Then I have the 1st issue written and plotted out, but actually drawn, yet.
    I do have a visual style in how it reads and what artistic elements it will contain.
    I shouldn't be afraid to, but I really don't want to start creating one graphic story only to end with a different one. I want it to be exactly right, from the beginning, and I know better than that.
    I really just need to march head long into this and destroy the obstacles with a battering ram. In James O'Barr's The Crow Graphic Novel, I could visually see how his artistic style 'matures' with every page. That gave me a bit of hope that, with a great story, I could make up for everything else. I could create something awesome and still have it evolve. I just don't want to create it twice.

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  3. Like you say, seems like as much prep as could be considered prudent. I always go way too far and end up with a ton of unused content. So be it, whatever throws salve on our apprehension of failure.

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