Epiphany + Cats

I had an epiphany yesterday:

I used to care about being creative around other people. It felt like this:



And while I can draw in front of people, there were other things I could not do. Like, if I made up songs I wouldn't play them. If I made art I'd show it, but I'd usaully purposefully stick in a lot of photo-realistic representational stuff amidst my cartoons.

I remember going to a children's book conference just a year ago, showing my stuff and almost passing out because I knew there were only 5 other illustrators there so mine was sticking out like a freaken sore thumb... that and I hadn't slept the night before but thats just insomnia.

But now I just don't care anymore. At all. Now I do comic books of cats and stuff and I just don't care. I paint what I like and send it off saying "Here's my annoying portfolio. Sucks to be you because now you have to look at it!" Without worrying if they'll rip it in half like I did in college.

I play my weird jazzy stuff on the piano as I have fun with a-tonal chords and composition and it probably sounds awful. Its great, I've been freed from sone inner fear, and I don't really know........when that happened.

But yesterday I noticed it. I mean, even back in College I never made up stuff around the roomies unless they asked and that I think only happened once or twice.

But now, only 1 year later, I have a style, I shop and I don't think "uh...is this--what is this?" like I used to think as I shopped for clothes--i just don't care and I buy it--which doesn't sound all that impressive because girls generally do that shopping sort of thing, but I'm really picky and so I usaully only buy clothes 3-4 times a year.

Yet now, although I'm still picky, I'm actually finding stuff. Of course, this could be because I moved to California and I just like the style here better than Utah...I dunno.

So, because I no longer care, lets talk about cats.

I'm still working on my neices comic, about a stray cat with only one ear lost in a world of magical evil dragons and cats (seemed like a good nemises of eachother) and I want to get it to the third chapter by her birthday (24th, Pioneer Day.) I've gotten intrigued with the weird and sort of creepy story, so I'm officially going to make it better than it has been--I'm going to do a second draft!

but here's some clips of things to come. No, it will not be pencil-tastic like it is right now.

I've been building this paralell world for it, one that has no sky, and characters that don't live on Earth but like to copy Earth. So the characters that go between Earth and this other place get some culture shock that is unsettling (the name of the other place is still undecided, it has to match their language, which is still up in the air) .

Making cats look like Egyptian Gods while still dressing them in modern clothes is also a fun thing. Except for the Himalayans who are obese nudists. Because every comic book needs nudity.

Whats odd is that only 30 minutes a day got me 30 pages by now. Amazing what an outline does for me.

Visual pun, see? Train wreck? I guess I'll find out next draft through...