Back to the Salt Mine

I was distracted by reality, but I'm better now and able to deal with my favorite delusion. And dang, if this keeps up my tombstone might read "Death by Enthusiasm."

Back to work on SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL.

I've been working on issue #9 and the feature is the "Reco Report" - which is turning into Topsy.  "I wasn't raised, I jes' growed."

Read a book.

This has become just two more pages, just two more pages, just two more pages...

The issue already has "Other Artist of Jorune Part 2" which is larger than Part One (and is also part the last), so it was already larger than any previous page, but I added six more pages to the Reco article, just in lists for the would-be Bio-tec artist.

And Issue #10 is really almost there, so it could be released as so as I clear the big hang up.

The big hangup?

Me doing art. I have decided on one image for cover and the splash of THE RED GATE, the interior black and white, the exterior, color of the same scene. I can do them. I just think the world would be better served by a real artist. This is a simple editorial evaluation of the work - the evidence of past art by the artist, regardless of who it is.

Bleh. But I seem to be horrible enough I can't get artists to work with me more than once – and I'm still not sure why that is.

I wanted to be a comic book artist, and I drew a lot. I really fell in love with 19th Century and early 20th Century illustration styles. I took classes - I am taking an online course to improve my drawing while I am fighting doctors and creditors in this ugly world, to create scenes from the dreamtime. I get a tiny warp that allows me to peek in on everyday life on Jorune and it is not always dramatic or action-packed.

Walking Home with Mom.

Sometimes it is just about walking home with mom, under multiple moons, with someone on a balcony, lost in their thoughts, And a friend who seems to know Mom - a Corastin guard.

This illustration is probably my favorite of anything I've done for Jorune.

I try. I might even get a passing grade on this one - the original is floating around my house somewhere - it deserves a better scan.

What is bringing this up is doing Part 2 of THE OTHER ARTISTS OF JORUNE and seeing my work alongside the work of people I consider to be real "artists." David Ackerman Robert Smith, Chris Lackey, Fred Lang, and others. Some of them are far from the style of Mile Teves, who set the tone from the first edition, but they are true to themselves and to the world. Marc Diebedour, Harold Ogle,  and more.

It may sound like flagellation, but it is not an exercise in self-hate - it is an assessment. And inventory.  I do consider myself an artist, a writer first but as an artist second. I am not as skilled in illustration. I do graphics. I tweak and repurpose old graphics. I do logotypes and Mastheads. I color black and white art. I love maps and floorplans. But I do not create compositions and execute final pieces of usable art.

"Walking Home With Mom" has features I like with bare cartooning skills. There is a sense of gravity - which I think is important. Mom and the boy are firmly rooted to the ground, and the Corastin on spot, in repose, seems to be weighted - and if he stood up he would dwarf them. I would barely be able to fit through the wooden door. And you can tall it is a wooden door. There is a little scragger running alongside for no particular reason. The dreamer on the balcony is abstract, but of the world. I think I lost it in the sky, the lack of consistency in the skylines makes it less satisfying. And I have republished it before with the top section lopped off.

December 1994, it says. 23 years ago. Time flies. And my frustration grows. First at being unable to get artists to work with me, and then at my inability to bring the scenes I see in my head to the page in a recognizable form. I think I am a good art director, I know what is needed. But I am not able to create the final art required - even for a little fanzine newsletter like this.

Showing the Scar

"Showing the Scar" is an exercise in frustration. It was intended to be a sketch to give a real artist to show what I had in mind for a scene near the end of "Scars of Far Temauntro" in SHOLARI V2N1. It is a collage from some 19th Century snips with Jorune tweaks. A Shantha showing the pit to two Corastin and ... someone ... with vodra in the sky with three moons. I know what time it is, with the sun in the far morning sky.

Couldn't get an artist to work on it. So I printed it out in blue to ink, like a comic book page (I have the technical pens required for that). But it was too dark to ink and have the illustration dominate. So I did a second version which was used on the SSC #2 cover, in conjunction with Steve Devaney's monument floating on an islet in the Scar itself.

Hopefully, someone will take pity on me and do some art I spec for the last few issues of the SHO-CAUDAL project. If any artists out there would be interestign to taking on an assignment, maybe for the inside, maybe for a color... contact me.

I should talk about that, too. But not now. Now it is too late and i need sleep. Issue #9 will be finished tomorro, then the editing, and I can't get editors to work with me, either. So I will do my best and people will complain. A lot. But I will try. I think I caught the typos in this post, but I'm too tired. I'll look at it later. And if anyone reads this and want to give me the edits, it would be appreciated. (Does anyone read this?)

Only five more issues to go.