Hey! I don't know why, but I feel like posting, but I don't have any new works done yet, so I'm going to go ahead and ramble for a little bit!
About 2 months ago I was at Borders (best store EVER!!!) and I was looking at books with some money I'd made from returning coins to the Coinstar (very lucrative). Anyhow, I was in the Manga section looking for the next issue of Fullmetal Alchemist (which to my dismay, wasn't out) when I came across a large book with the words "The Art of Evangelion" stamped across the front. I've watched the full Anime series of it, and I enjoyed it, but it wasn't until I picked up this book that I came to the revelation, that the art is simply gorgeous! I think it must be the organic attributes that made the Evas pop out at me, and not to mention the fact that they are 100 foot tall mechs!
So naturally I bought the book (with the money I was saving to buy myself a pen tablet... I'm sitting here questioning this purchase now...) and went home and oogled it for hours!
Before I go on, something you have to know about me is, I keep my books in perfect condition! It urks me to look at one of my books if it has a knick in the front! I'm in no way O.C.D, because I could walk through my kitchen, and not touch a dirty dish, it's just my books that I have a need to keep nice.
So, continuing, I got up to eat dinner and clean the kitchen (that I could very well have left dirty, but didn't). Afterwards I went back upstairs to find something to draw from the new book, and that's when I saw my cat sitting on my book. At the time I chuckled to myself because my cat is unable to sit or lay anywhere unless there is a book or paper beneath him (ooh I could kill him for sitting on my drawings and scratching them up!). I quickly scooted the cat off my book and proceeded downstairs to draw.
I drew the body of a mech and several weapons before calling it quits. I slowly closed the book, taking in the last few images that I could. I sat at the table for several seconds staring at the cover, and that's when I saw it! The abomination, right on the lower part of her arm! It practically laughed at me as it sat there staring at me with such utter disrespect! A SCRATCH! It was less than an inch long, and no wider than several millimeters, but it was enough to send me up the wall! I would always love this book, but never like I had in the store.
My brother and my mom suggested that it may have been there from the time I purchased it, but that's just absolute blasphemy! How would I have missed such a beast as that? I blame my cat Oscar! He tends to shred my drawings when I push him off, so why wouldn't the same apply here!?
My cat and I are still good buds, but he's lost the privelege of sitting on my bed when I'm not around (well, even when I am around for that matter...). The moral of this story is... uh... don't get cats if you want to keep anything nice in this world?... I don't know that there is a message here, I just know it's an unfortunate event.
While I'm on the subject of inspiration (okay, only kind of) I want to mention one of the greatest artists who ever lived (unfortunatly, lived is the key word in this sentence).
Michael Turner was a genius and a god amongst men. I was first exposed to his supremecy in the Superman story "Godfall". I'm not sure if it was his attention to detail or just the fact that he knew how to draw an attractive woman that most appealed to me, but I was hooked from page one! If you were to have asked me the plot of "Godfall" when I had just finished it, you would have recieved quite a blank stare, I was only attached to the art at that point. It wasn't until 4 months later when I reread it that I realized what a good writer he was! His plot was actually engaging. Its been nearly a year since I last read "Godfall", but I just finshed reading "Batman/Superman/Supergirl" (which, by-the-way, is written by the brilliant Jeph Loeb), and I'm still going back to look at the art after 8 times of reading it. I'm truly a Turner addict.
Unfortunately, June 27 this year, Mr.Turner finally lost to his long fight with cancer. I was crushed when my brother nonchalantly ended one of our conversations with a sly "Oh, and Michael Turner died yesterday." I frantically searched the internet for all the info that I could find! He was one of my few artistic heroes. I had sworn upon finding "Godfall" that he was one of the artists that I was going to meet once I broke into the business! And now all I can do is look at his artwork, and try to get to know him through what little literature he produced.
My only question now is, where is Aspen comics going to go? He was going to fund and (I think) write for this company that he fought to birth. If you have any information on what is to happen, please do contact me in whatever way you can! Thank you!
On a lighter note, other inspirations I've recently found are the 'Spy Boy' comics, Ryan Ottley's art, old westerns and most movies, most recently including 'Edward Scissorhands', 'Hancock' and 'Ghost in the Shell'. I hope to see 'Paprika' some time soon and on a totally unrelated note, I'm totally digging the guy whos now drawing Hellboy, I sat and analysed his stuff while I was at Border's, and he stays so true to the standard that Mike Mignola set without being a total carbon copy of Mike.
Well anyhow, that's my two cents and my 13 paragraphs (unless you count this one, which brings us to the safer number of 14).
God Bless
(and don't forget to comment!)
