Comics!

I mentioned earlier that for the latter half of October I attended a 3 week residency with Paul Pope in NE Florida. I had a remarkable time! I worked in a wood studio in the middle of a swamp - it was perfect to decompress and think. At first I was confused as to why we weren't really drawing that much, but rather talking...a lot. But I came to understand that this was a workshop on comics, not drawing. The conversations my group had were life changing. Paul is a force, and his dedication to his unique vision and beliefs is incredibly inspiring.

I was also able to spend time with the other groups, led by the terrific Craig Thompson and Svetlana Chmakova. Jimmy Palmiotti (the owner of the craziest, jaw dropping collection of original comic art..that he brought!!!!), Amanda Conner, Sam Hiti, Kostas Seremetis, and Jeff Newelt all took the journey down for a few days to give talks and keep the inspiration flowing. It was great to hear so many differing perspectives.

I highly recommend artists look into residencies. There are a ton out there, with money ready to support your trip. You just have to seek them out and be persistent. I applied for 14 residencies in the months prior, and failed, before I was fortunate to receive this one. It turned out to be the perfect one for me!

As far as the art goes..... Paul had us take an image and interpret it with our own vision. I created three versions: one for color, one for tone, and one for just black and white. The next image was fan art created for Sam Hiti. He recently published part 1 of his Death Day trilogy (which you can read in full online), and this is a little thank you for the info he shared! The final image is a study of a page by the great Attilio Micheluzzi, reinterpreted a bit in my own aesthetic.

Take a moment to check out the great work of the other artists that took part in the residency at Katie Shanahan's blog (first set of links on right). Thanks to everyone that made the experience legendary!

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What's this image? ^^

I've been working for months on a comic for Soleil, over in France. It's the first project where I feel like I have a clear, confident vision, and the work shows this. I am crazy excited, and nervous, but more excited! It's not due out for a while, but I'm creating all the art. Between this project and leading the studio at TAD I stay putting in work. I love it! I may sneak out images of the book here and there, but I want the content to be brand new when it's released, so imagery on this blog will be work I create outside of this project.

Don't hope that 2011 will be great, make it so!!!!

take care,

-francis