The fun begins (well, for me, anyways)... Doing art research for my graphic novel series....

The writing group was incredibly welcoming, although I admit I felt incredibly small and intimidated when I found out how many there were published authors.

Still... the main thing is- it's got me enthused and got me to get STARTED on what might be my 'life's work'.

Now, in saying that, it's not like I expect any great masses to actually enjoy the book(s), but I feel great in that I feel like I've gone through giving a damn about what others might feel or think about my work- and now... FINALLY, feeling confident that what I'm doing will be so personally rewarding that I honestly won't care. (Hopefully)

Right now, I'm embracing two things that I felt used to be obstacles in creating a comic: (1)the idea that there are TONS of comics already out there, and (2)the idea that there's MILLIONS (perhaps billions?)of fabulous concept and art designs that will always dwarf what little I can offer. But-- the difference between this go-round and the last go-round, is that I'm going to look at those two factors as allies- and not competition to what I'm trying to do.

One thing that I'm currently doing is 'dream casting' my ensemble of characters. Finding that's a lot of fun- although the tough thing might be what I have to do AFTER I set up the panels and have to bring these characters/images to life. Too often I see art references used in books, and the result feels like- well - (and I've been guilty of this, too)- traced photos.

Ralph Bakshi once said that the difference between bad rotoscoping and good rotoscoping was the artistry that was used so that the reference wasn't totally depended on, but merely used as a basis. I need to keep that in mind.

In any case, story ideas are influencing some art ideas; art is helping come up with story bits. Cool fun. Hope it lasts.