Introducing "Lilith": A Webcomic!

Well here it is! It's only been in my head for five years now! It feels so good to make real. What a relief. It's like all this creative pressure just builds up inside my head, and it can even make me kind of moody if I don't let it out (what a temperamental artist, I know). It was one of those things where I had these vague perceptions of who the characters would be, but I couldn't for the life of me get it all out correctly on paper. NOTHING satisfied me when I tried to sketch this thing out, but I knew I loved my concept. Then one day, I just blocked out a chunk of uninterrupted time and forced myself to start it. Not sketch or plan, but just jump in. It turns out that method works for me! I have about 9 comics drawn and ready to go, all loaded up on the website. It's such an exciting feeling. I really needed a change from picture books after trying again and again to start one only to have it either be too similar to one on the market, or to just not be feelin' it. It's always going to be hard to top Lizzie Fox-Top I think because it was a story so close to my heart and it was about someone I cared about so much (who just passed away this Easter). I needed a new creative outlet, and I think webcomics are it.

Webcomics are scary though, I have to admit. It's like the first time clicking that "send" button for the printer of Lizzie Fox-Top, except it's that feeling every day. That nervous build-up, quadruple-checking to make sure everything's how I want it, and then the brief but immediate moment of panic just after I hit "publish." Because once it's up there and everyone sees it, I really can't go back. Every decision has to be final. That will be something to get used to.  Anyway, Lilith will be updated every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at midnight (yay automatic uploading!) so please check back to hear more of the story each day. Lilith is also on facebook, so please "like" her! Thanks!

Surrealists and Picture Books

So I just had a fantastic weekend with some old college friends who were visiting me from Richmond. We all went to art school and of course, number one on our list of things to do in Philly was visit the Barnes Foundation and Philadelphia Museum of Art. I wanted to see the Barnes in its original location in his mansion out in Merion before they move it to a boring, normal museum on the Ben Franklin Parkway (a few blocks from my home!) It was quite an experience. Barnes sure did have some weird taste in art, and I liked how he surrounded each painting with a Roman metal artifact that complemented its composition somehow.

The Philly Museum of Art never ceases to inspire me. Among my favorites are the surreal paintings of Tanguy, Dali, Klee, and most of all, Miro. I took home lots of ideas for new compositions,  and color.

After my friends left, I had some extra time (and an already paid-for admission) to see the Perelman Building, which houses even more art, and particularly a current exhibition on Chagall. I am a huge fan of Chagall, mainly for his whimsical compositions and cheerful subjects. Many of his paintings remind me of picture books. I'd like to incorporate some sort of floating ephemera in more of my illustrations and get a bit more playful.

I thought the easiest transition into floating people would be underwater, and I particularly love the sea ephemera in Tanguy's Black Storm painting, above (which I saw today). Here's what I came up with, which I think is still heavily true to my style, but perhaps not experimental enough. I did it all in Photoshop.

I'd like to find some illustrators who are influenced by surrealists and see how they incorporate it into their narratives. I feel like the two forms of art (surrealism and picture book illustration) are mutually exclusive--one being dreamlike and illogical, devoid of any narrative, and the other being completely narrative and logical enough to communicate information unquestionably.  If anyone knows of any surrealist illustrators, please send them my way!