Delicious treat or sacrilege? Kurt enjoys some lobster in Baddeck after we finished driving the Cabot Trail. At this point we’d just gotten off a boat tour (Donelda’s Puffin Tours) where we saw a whole lot of bald eagles and seals and some puffins, which are a heck of a lot smaller than I thought.
Taken from atop the Cabot Trail in northern Cape Breton, this sums up our state of mind at the halfway point of our journey.
We rolled into Halifax after a beautiful day of driving. The sun was on my face, the roads were smooth and the Acadian scenery was wonderful. I was warm and cool at the same time and I caught myself appreciating the moment several times over.
Staying with some friends of Kurt’s (who are now friends of mine) in Halifax. Their home is warm and loving and full of life. It’s inspiring and comforting. Below are Bade and Kecia, mugging for the iPhone.
I’m on the road right now, riding my motorcycle from Montreal to Halifax with my brother. Just trying out the Wordpress app from my iPhone to do some mobile blogging.
We were off the cellular grid in northern Quebec but I’ve got a weak Edge connection now.
More to come..
I used to be a fixture around these parts, and some of you may have been wondering where I’ve gotten to. Although with our track record of infrequent posting here, maybe not. Anyway, I have a brand new blog over at www.iamkalman.com. If you have a second, come on over!
Karl’s still hosting my gallery here, but all new my new work has been going on the new blog. New work like the art from my new Marvel project NYX: No Way Home! (See how I did that?) Issue #1 hits shelves this Wednesday August 6th. If you happen to see it on the stands (and with a Jo Chen cover, odds are good you will) please give it a flip, and let me know how you like it.
Joey: I guess, if we’re being as honest as we can, I rely on people who have chosen stability over adventure. Earlier this summer, I stayed on your couch for a week, because I was essentially homeless, before flying off to Paris. I had no money for hotels or even hostels. I stayed with strangers. Slept on floors. When I traveled the US a few years ago, and came home penniless, I had to stay with friends for a couple months before I got back on my feet, and that’s kind of a dick move. You’ve spent every penny going out for adventures, and you expect the people back home to be your safety net. I know that, but again and again I get restless, and I need to just sell everything and take off, and I tell myself that I won’t rely on people to catch me afterwards, but of course, they’re always there, and they always catch me, because they love me whether I’m stupid or not.
An excerpt from an interview with Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics and Joey Comeau of A Softer World. I feel like this all the time and it both excites and scares me.
Another convention?? Yes.
I’ll be at the Paradise Toronto Comicon this weekend (July 12-13) with the rest of the crew from Transmission-X. We’ll even be hosting a panel called Webcomics: The Future of the Medium at 2:00 on Saturday, so if you live in or around Toronto, come on by!
If you’ve never been to Steven Gettis’ wonderful collection of sketches of literary figures, then you should go there as soon as possible. He’s collected pieces from some incredible artists and it’s a nice window into their personal tastes as they’re drawing portraits of authors and characters who have influenced them.
I did a drawing of Santiago from The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho. One of my favourite books.
I was asked to talk to some high school students about my job. Usually when I talk to kids about making comics, I go in with high hopes of imparting some gems of wisdom upon eager ears, but it always turns into a ‘Can you draw me a Spider-Man?’ fiasco. But this was different. It was high school students! Passionate, budding artists on the verge of stepping out into the world and expressing themselves! I asked the teacher what they were interested in hearing about and I was told:
how you come up with your ideas for stories, how charaterization develops and how the drawing process dovetails into these.
Which was great. I could really have fun with this. I decided to just wing it when I got there, but in preparation I made a few quick notes the night before, just so I’d have some talking points if I needed them. Here are my notes:
- story ideas come from life, personal situations, watching life occur around you. Seeing something and imagining a story around it. Usually, these ideas start out as very grandiose but get whittled down into very specific, personal stories. Zombie movies, for example start out being about global plagues, but the actual story revolves around a person or small group of people and how they deal with conflict.
- How I come up with ideas for the comic. Wake up routine, etc.
- It’s all about giving yourself over to a sea of imagination that’s much bigger than you are. Tapping into a global consciousness of ideas. The best way to to make your ideas feel false and manufactured is to try too hard to come up with them. Let go. Let them come to you.Characterization is key to a successful story. Each character is a facet of your own psyche. Often, as an author, you have no idea who your characters are until you spend enough time with them for them to slowly tell you. Some of my most successful characters have come to life on the page without my having any idea of who they were or why I was drawing them. They show up when they need to, whether the reason is to further the plot, act as a foil for the main character, or just change the tone of the story. You don’t need to know what the reason is, you just need to trust your instincts. Your subconscious knows why they need to be there even if you don’t, and your instincts are always right. Always.
The Drawing Process is unpredictable, but that’s a blessing. Happy accidents occur when the drawing on the page doesn’t match what you intended to be there. Rather than obsess over the technical shortcomings, try to see what the mistakes are telling you. You might need to add more black to an area or follow a line in another direction to make the finished page flow in a more natural, or more inspired, way.
Bottom Line: sincerity is the most important aspect of creation and expression. Turn off your head and let go.
I have never been met with a sea of more disinterested faces in my life. If it wasn’t so amusing to me I might have been flustered. Eventually I just turned on the computer and showed them stuff from my gallery on the projector and they came to life a bit. The ones who weren’t talking or flirting amongst themselves, anyway.
Oh well. Now I can give a talk on how to be an entertainer.
Kitten back from vet, newly castrated and groggy. What have I done?? :( 15 hrs ago
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