Why INK and Why Now and it is all Hopeless In Maine's Fault

Panels from Hopeless In Maine by Tome and Nimue Brown

Over six years ago I ran across online comic that really inspired me. It was called Hopeless in Maine by Tom and Nimue Brown. Both art and story drew me in also the attitude of the Browns, the go for broke determination that fueled its existence, was ultimately paid off with Hopeless in Maine going into publication, a role play game and other projects that will eventually come to light. The Browns now live in the UK and Hopeless in Maine is thriving well.

Hopeless in Maine RPG

But the seed that Hopeless in Maine planted in me led to an online comic that I began working on called Sanctus Sanitorium, unfortunately after 32 pages I was derailed with cancer and having spent almost a year of going through chemotherapy and treatment, I didn't have the strength to return to it and much of the plot which was in my head got lost in a chemo fog.

Panel excerpts from Sanctus Sanatorium

I have been in remission now for over six years, knock on wood, and I couldn't shake loose of some ideas and characters that have been haunting me for decades. Then tragedy struck again, five years ago I lost my father to pancreatic cancer, one year and one month later, my Mother passed away from congestive heart failure and months after that, my brother died of a rare form of blood cancer. So Sanctus Sanatorium, a Gothic steampunk tale got lost in the ether.







About a year after that, I lost my best friend, someone who had been with me through my cancer ordeal and the loss of my entire immediate family,  my cat Poe. Poe was an exceptional cat, more so, he was Legacy. He was extremely empathetic, read me like a book, knew how to manipulate me, knew how to push my buttons and he knew how to make me laugh. I fought hard to combat his declining health and dreaded his loss. When the decision was to release him for his suffering I broke down and wept as they administered the drugs that put him to rest. If I had not done that, his suffering would have been much greater than I could bear to witness. His ashes now sit in an urn on my shelf.  He was sixteen years old.

Poe

Shortly after that, Lenore, the black Egyptian goddess that was Poe's pal and partner in crime, died of a broken heart, literally, she had what the vet described as an elongated heart.  She now rests in my Mother's garden.

Lenore

Knowing that the best way to honor their loss would be to rescue another cat, I went to Pets and People and found Marlowe, who is the inspiration for INK. Marlowe was a special project cat, being feral and cringing when anyone attempted to pet him made his chances for his adoption slim. But his orange eyes did me in. Now Marlowe is not only spoiled and loves to be petted, he follows me everywhere, kind of like the puppy I never had.

Marlowe, under a year old.

Last September I decided to retire, you see cancer changed me in a lot of ways and one of those ways was not wasting away at a call center job even though it paid extremely well. My life had returned to a cycle that I could not break. Go to work at a highly stressful job, go home, sleep, repeat. I decided to give my creative outlet its voice and return to what I love doing since I really don't know how long I have left to tread this sodden earth. I don't live in the daily fear of cancer returning, don't get me wrong, but I wanted to take the lessons I learned from cancer and make the most of what time I have left. So INK was brought from creative aspirations to paper.

I also wanted to take the opportunity to pay homage to the felines that I have known in my life as well as bring characters that have haunted me for decades and create a world that appealed to me that they could play in and I, myself could get lost in. INK is entirely a vanity project. It takes longer for me to do a page, since I am not relying solely on pencils and digital means to create it, but old school tactics, pen and ink. But in this I am trying to do quality over volume. I started in September and now only have 5 pages done with page 6 near completion. As soon as I sort some other things out in my life, progress may go a lot faster.

Banner for INK

  If you choose to support INK, you can do so in different ways. Either buying a Tee Shirt that has my original art reproduced on it or by subscribing to my Patreon account. Even if you don't choose to support it, I am am hoping you will enjoy it anyway...and at least give it a nod and maybe some attention that you will pass along.

Artist of the Month for January

I was sitting here this morning trying to work out marketing strategies, preferably I would rather put a pencil in my eye. So I decided to detach, let go so to speak. I always feel as though I am whoring a bit when I push my work. I guess I am old school, the work should speak for itself, but in this digital age that simply is not the case. So I return to what one of my original themes of this blog site is, Artist of the Month.

Now not all Artists of the Month have to be artists I have met and I have never met Barry Windsor-Smith. I always wanted to. I have read several of his interviews, own Opus 2, have a copy of the Studio and collected (which sadly are gone and now all I have are reprints) his Conan comics that he drew for Marvel. I have always wanted to meet him, show him the body of some of my work and tell him, "Here, you are responsible for this." Maybe it is better I didn't meet him, if he rejected my work my inner child would suicide on the spot.

I am choosing Barry Windsor-Smith for Artist of the month for a few reasons. One is that it is January, the start of a new year and also coincides with Machine Man which takes place in 2020. A title Barry worked on.

The other is that Barry Windsor-Smith inspired me like no other artist, not just by his style, but by watching his grow. This growth I witnessed from his early Conans to his work in the Studio and beyond convinced me that one can get better with dedication. Barry Windsor-Smith is the heart of dedication. I can think of no other artist that with determination and belief blossomed as much as he. He also introduced me to the Pre-Raphaelites, which broadened my artistic vision. Watching Barry grow made me believe I could too.

There are the stories of how he sent work to Stan Lee and Lee invited him to come to Marvel, which he did all the way from England and ended up drawing his first strips on park benches in New York. Can you think of the determination it took to do something like that?

Frost Giant's Daugher

I first noticed Barry's work in Conan 1, which was unique but his style was in its infancy and you could see that this was someone trying very hard to define his mark. Then came out one of my all times faves, "The Tower of the Elephant". Barry showed that he was developing his own sense of graphic narrative. One of the pages had no word balloons using only panels to tell the scene. To me, it was magic. Then by issue  # 8, the "Frost Giant's Daughter"inwardly I knew Barry was the man to watch. That was in 1970.

Tower of the Elephant

In 1973, Barry did "Red Nails", in a black and white format and also "Song of Red Sonja" which was his last work on Conan. The disappointment in his leaving the series for me personally caused me to drop the Conan titles all together. The replace- ment artists just didn't seem to capture the fantastic as Barry had done. I moved on. The magic had simply gone.

Red Nails

During this era Barry formed Gorblimey Press and began selling prints of his work and then in 1979 he joined Jeffrey (Catherine) Jones, Bernie Wrightson and Micheal Wm Kaluta and created the Studio. Four comic book artists that showed the art world that comic book art should be taken more seriously. This was later vindicated when Barry's Artemis & Apollo sold for $ 75,000 and Bernie Wrightson's illustration for Frankenstein auctioned off for over a million just last year.

Artemis and Apollo

The Studio fired my imagination. Barry's work had opened up a new world for me in the fantastic. All four artists tripped my imagination and fired my desire to create. But behind it all I could see Barry smiling, whispering "take what we do seriously."

Barry's logo for the Studio

Bernie Wrightson, Jeff Jones, Michael Wm Kaluta and Barry Windsor Smith

Stan Lee never though Conan would take off. He came close to shutting it down, thought it was a pretty book but would go nowhere. I won't delve into the friction at Marvel that developed between them and Barry. A lot of it is gossip. Barry did continue to do work for Marvel off and on. He wrote and drew the Weapon X backstory and also started his own series for another label, Valiant Comics, Armstrong and Archer and the Story Teller series.

Barry disappeared from the scene for sometime. Apparently he has been working on a new graphic novel entitled Monsters. It is reported to be over 300 pages. Who the publisher is and the publication date is yet to be revealed...but I am anxiously waiting.

Thank you Barry, for your inspiration.

A New Year, Patreon and Begging on the Corner

So Christmas came and went and now we enter into a New Year full of resolve...

...for the record I have already broken one of my resolutions, I am hoping it is not a trend.

Self Marketing has never been my forte. I always feel that inner dialogue creeping in with its insidious whispering...

"You are just going to embarrass yourself"
"You thought you were good enough"
"They (whomever they are) are just laughing at you waiting for you to fail"

So on and so on.

In spite of that self deprecating dialogue, I went and did it anyway. I created a Patreon site. Patreon is an interesting beast, people donate money to you to create or support your project. You in turn, the creator, gives benefits and exclusive content depending on the donation. I like the concept but like anything else on the internet, if no one knows about it, no one comes. If only Field of Dreams' statement of faith were real, you simply build it and they will come. But unfortunately cinema may reflect life, sometimes its through a mirror darkly.

Now, I know I am painting a negative picture, I am really am not, just explaining the tasks of getting noticed. It's not easy and often risking and I have been really good at avoiding rejection, in fact I have turned it into a fine art. In spite of all that, I persisted anyway.

My goal has always been to create and fill a niche that I believe is there, finding the niche takes effort and time that I would rather be creating, but it demands itself to be done. So here I go again, standing on the street corner like a beggar, but instead of a dog, I have a cat on a leash and holding up a cardboard sign with "Help Fund My Funny Book" scribbled on in with crayon. In an odd perverse way, I kind of dig that imagery.

If I have garnered any of your interest, this is the link to my Patreon site. It set up to fund INK, an online graphic novel I have been planning for months and finally set down and began to do it.

So far three pages are up, pages four and five and near completion. You may determine from the style and the amount of ink spilled on it, no pun intended, INK takes a lot of work and frankly I wouldn't have it any other way. I want to be able to take all I have learned about pen and ink and use it to create a world that I could get lost in as well as pay homage to cats that gave me friendship and comfort in my life.

If the concept of subscribing to INK is not something you want to commit to, though if you do you will have access to pages seven days before web release, I have created a Tee shirt from one of the panels. The cat is Mistress Lenore, actually based off of a dear cat that recently passed away at the age of fourteen.  Her name was Lenore and she was the queen of the house.Just click on the image below to take you to the Amazon sales page.

Also as a note:

If you noticed that there was no Artist of the Month Entry for December, I skipped December due to the Holidays. It will pick up again this month.

Artist of the Month (November)

I have been following Heiderbou Hasegawa's work for sometime on Facebook. She has a definitive style that reminded me of 19th Century storybook illustrations. She was gracious enough to allow me to interview her for November's entry.


Your work has a storybook quality to it, much like 19th Century illustrators like John Tenniel who illustrated Alice in Wonderland. Who were your early inspirations when you were growing up? What illustrators inspire you today?

Unlike a lot of artists, I never really thought about art when I was growing up. Oh I did the occasional art/crafts projects at school, but art did not play a significant role in my life so I didn't have artists that I admired..

It wasn't until I was in my late 20's-30's that I actually saw books by Frazetta and Vallejo and those 2 played a huge role in what I drew. I used to be heavily into the fantasy/dragon/warrior type of art...but even that ran it's course after several years as drawing just wasn't that important to me. I was more fascinated by creating things with my hands, either jewelry or miniature sculptures.

I attended an art college but during that time, I guess I wasn't "ready" to "learn" or accept what was being taught. I was more interested in art history rather than the actual hands on drawing or creativity portion. Although I did get my BFA in drawing, it didn't hold my interest very long, lol.

 Today, I admire artists like Franklin Booth and all the  others who have a great understanding of ink line work. (I certainly can't list their names because I don't know them, lol.) When I see artwork that is intriguing or inspirational, 90% of the time I don't even know who the artist is. I am just in awe of how they've managed to capture the essence of what they are depicting, in awe of their technical expertise and how the art "feels". I've seen "beginners" who have the "IT" factor, technically they are still growing but their work already has that special, personal quality about it. Those are the artists who inspire me, the ones who go beyond the technical aspects and make the piece personal.

The rabbit is a reocurring theme in a lot of your drawings, there is a story there isn't there? 

Hahaha...I guess there might be. The bunny arose from a meeting with someone who listed their dietary habits (apples, carrots, pears, etc.) and I said to that person "Good lord, you eat like a rabbit!"

Two or three of the original drawings were the results of a psychological break from my then current life. (Hmmm, maybe that's too much insight, lol.) Currently, The Bunny is just a good character and he does whatever he wants, or whatever I want him to do. Perhaps he represents things that I want to do?? LOL. I think what's interesting is how some people have began to think of him as "real".

You work in ballpoint pen, called Biro art, I have done ballpoints and love the medium because there is a certain amount of control that ballpoints give. 
What are your favorite ballpoints that you work with and do you take lightfast (lightfast is the ability for ink not to fade in direct sunlight) into consideration? 

I found the pens that work best for me are the cheap ones that you find in Dollar stores. Also the multi-color ones where you get eight colors in one pen and those can usually be found in office supply stores. I also have BIC and Papermate colored ink pens but typically you can't get fine point in those, except for the Cristal BICS. Whenever I am in a store, I ALWAYS check out the pens and right now I have a huge backup inventory so I don't have to buy any for quite a while.

 I never used to consider longevity in any of my drawings, be it ballpoint or ink, until someone really got on my case about taking better care of my artwork, lol. So needless to say, when drawing with ballpoint pens, it wasn't a factor UNTIL I hung one of my drawings and over a couple of months the ink color changed and the drawing started to fade. THAT was disturbing as it was a drawing I did like but luckily I had scanned it prior to displaying so I have it on file. To answer your question, I do take fastness into consideration now but that doesn't stop me from using the cheap pens that I like (and typically aren't fade resistant). I don't display my original work at home, I have prints that are 98% accurate in color and that's what I hang, lol.

 I have attempted color ballpoint before and I know how hard it is to work with them, yet you seem to have a good control of the medium. What are some of the best colored ballpoints to use? 

 In my opinion, the best are the ones I listed above. I think people have to understand that when you do ballpoint work, it's all in the layers, especially when you're dealing with color. I rarely have "pure" colors, that is the ink right out of the pen. Most of my colors are from layering 3 or more colors to get what I want.

You also have experimented in sculpture and created some really interesting mechanical boxes even creating your own gears out of material like cardboard. They are really clever, are you going to create more? 

I really enjoy doing 3 dimensional work and researching how to get things to work. Assemblage art enables me to get "off the paper" and think differently and I love the tactile aspect of doing it. Also to have it look good "in the round" is a different type of challenge. I'm quite sure that I'll do more cabinet boxes (I hesitate to use the word "shrine" because that leads people to think "religious" and my pieces are anything but, lol) but I don't now when that will happen. That's the great part of being an artist, you can do ANYTHING that you want! I don't think I could ever do just one thing , I get "bored" just drawing...or if I hit a wall and can't think of what to draw...so I'm thankful for the other things available to me. Life is short, don't limit yourself, you never know what you can or can't do if you don't try, right? 

Do you think you will create a written book about the adventures of the Rabbit? Your work has a definite graphic narrative. Also have you considered doing children's books? 

I did a book of the Bunny but it was made up of drawings from an Inktober and didn't "read" very well. Also, I hated the flimsy paper it was printed on. Others have mentioned me doing  children's books but I haven't a good story line yet so maybe one day I will try it again.  And this time I'll do it in color! 

 What music do you listen to while you create? 

I'm not a big music fan when I'm drawing . Music deeply affects my mood and what I "see" inside my head and if I'm drawing, I don't want something detracting from the path I'm on. Crazy as this sounds, I can have a movie or some cooking show or other nonsense on  and it doesn't affect me! In fact, I purposely turn the TV on for the visual and background noise. However if I'm doing jewelry or assemblage work, my choices range from opera to metal....anything and everything EXCEPT Jazz! 

What authors inspire your imagination?

Currently, I'm a historical novel reader but I like to read just about anything that catches my eye, lol.( I used to read all the major fantasy authors and had a massive collection of books ) I've read a lot of  Conn Iggulden and Sharon  Kay Penman novels and hope to read Iggulden's Genghis Khan  series next. When I read the non-fiction  "The Vatican Prophecies" I ended up doing 2 drawings from it so inspiration can come from anything and everywhere.  I really do love to read but have to limit myself or I'll be stuck on the sofa reading all day, hahaha.

Artist for the Month of October

I have known Forrest McKinley for over fifteen years. Ironically he was my boss at a former place of employment in the technical field. I have to admit, for a time, this was my favorite place for employment due to the fact that I have met some of the finest minds and truest souls and it was actually a pleasure to come to work.

Forrest and I both held a sinister passion for art and also shared multiple interests in movies, books, spirituality and even cats. Not only did he rival me in oddness, though I believe I may have outmatched him in the field of eccentricities (though that is debatable).

He and his wife Richelle live quietly with a herd of cats. He was my first choice for doing an Artist of the Month.

His style is distinct and his imagination rampant. The interview follows below:






When did you first began to draw?

I cannot remember when I first started drawing, but I remember drawing a lot through elementary school and high school. More than anything I remember drawing a lot with my brother and one of our friends back in my early teens. Back then we were really trying to find our style. Whereas most of them drew images out of comic books, I was leaning more towards images out of Mad Magazine and Garfield.

What motivated you to continue drawing?

There are quite a few things that kept me drawing in the early years. I had twin brother who was drawing and I had friends that were drawing quite a bit. Later on, once I had started to really find my own style, I really discovered the joy of cartooning. Interestingly enough, I was 30 years old, when I started to really like what I was putting out, but I think that all artist, cartoonist included, are always so critical of their work.


I find that inspirations change over time, who were your earliest inspirations?

Paul Smith

In the earliest days I mimicked Charles Schultz (Peanuts) and Jim Davis (Garfield), but I was a massive comic book fan in my younger years and was inspired by some of the top artists of the time – George Perez (drawing Teen Titans and Crisis on Infinite Earths), Paul Smith (drawing X-Men at the time and would later on draw Doctor Strange), and of course John Byrne who was just simply amazing (drawing, writing, lettering, inking, and coloring Alpha Flight and Fantastic Four month
after month).

John Byrne

Can you describe the process you go through when you are creating a piece? Such as, when and where does the inspiration begin and then what process does it take for you to bring it to life?

Nowadays I get my inspiration from a wide range of sources, which can trigger my process. Many times it can be due to conversation or just a spin-off of another image just get me thinking. I don’t immediately go to laying out the picture, but rather usually keep a few ideas churning in my mind, especially if I am needing to look at reference or inspirational pieces.

Most often, when I am going about routine work around the house or my drive to work, I get a rough image in my head. Without really thinking about it, I layout out a crude rough draft and let the draft settle and work itself out in my head. After that it is a matter of just roughing it out on Bristol board, coming back in to really tighten up the lines, and then once the line work has been worked out, porting the image into ProCreate, and digitally inking and coloring the piece.

Your inking style is minimalistic, you have mastered the use of thick and thin lines to accentuate detail and shape. It works extremely well, is this a style that you cultivated over time and when did you notice how effective it was in portraying what you were trying to convey graphically?

I started this technique when I was 30, when I started using a micron pen set. Besides the various line weights there was also the brush pen in the set. When I started using those pens, it really just gave me a new perspective on my own work.

Sadly, traditional inking has always been tough for me, so about 2 years ago when I started doing work on my iPad in ProCreate with the iPencil, I was able to take the traditional technique and put it into a more forgiving digital media. Finally having a way to ink and color on a level that I felt comfortable helped me to push my work to a new level. So it really goes without saying almost, that no matter where we are in our process, we just need to keep experimenting and learning until our we find the way that resonates with us.

This is an excellent example of how Forrest uses thick and thin lines to accentuate detail. Sometimes less is more.

Who are your current inspirations and what direction do you want your style to develop?

With the Internet at our fingertips, I take inspiration from a host of nameless artist that are posted on Pinterest and scads of other sites. Besides that, I am currently inspired by comic book artists like Skottie Young and Humberto Ramos, who has taken cartooning to a new level, and by this new age of cinema which has really showcased HD filming and state of the art special effects.

Paul Young

Humberto Ramos

What books and authors inspire you creatively?

Neil Gaiman is hands down one of the most inspirational authors that I have come across. Whether it is the fairy tale feel of Stardust or his dark version of Alice in Wonderland when he did Neverwhere, his work just pulls from so many myths, legends, and tales that he always creates such a vivid sense of the world that his stories are set it.


Another artist that stands out is Wayne Barlowe’s Inferno, where he did his translations of what Hell looks like. Years later, after doing Inferno and the Brushfire Illuminations, he was inspired to write the book God’s Demon. I was so struck by an artist so passionate with his work that he crossed over into another medium.

Wayne Barlowe

When you are creating, what music do you listen to or what do you have in the background while you draw?

For years I struggled with trying to create the perfect space when drawing. I used to sit at my drawing table with 3 or 4 albums queued up, but I just stared at the paper with some sort of drawing block. It was a few years back that I found myself just playing a movie in the background, that I was able to relax and just sketch, draw, ink, and color with more flow.

So now I always have some movie that I have seen a dozen times playing in the background. Every once in a while I will look up to catch a particularly visual scene, but for the most part I generally only watch about 5 to 10 minutes of the movie as I get wrapped up in the work that I am doing, which is good as I am fairly slow when I am doing a piece.

What current project or projects are you working on and where do you want to go with your art?

I currently have three projects that are going on. The first is the short term project of doing standalone pieces that will be sold as prints and tees and my second is doing a gallery show in Oct. 2020 in the Paseo.

My third is my long term project of The Sins of Youth, which is a twisted children’s book that is not met for children. I am also, after all these years, going to be establishing my own imprint – Broken Dreams Studio, which will be launched in early 2020, and will be the studio brand that I will be releasing all of my cartoon work through. So far 2019 has been a great year for me to really tighten up a lot of my work and channel it in the right direction, and now I am really wanting to make 2020 the year I start showcasing my work locally and on the internet.

Below are samples of Forrest's work:
Note: All images are copyright protected by the artist and should be treated as such.

Commissioned Piece

Every Christmas Forrest designs a Christmas Card, this is one of them.