a begining

The other evening, inspired by a friend who's doing some cleaning, I tackled the bookshelf in my studio and did some organizing. Hence, I stumbled upon the sketchbook I got a few years ago for the express purpose of writing/drawing out my first graphic novel.

At that point, it had been a while since I had drawn much on a regular basis.
It was discouraging for a while.
But it was a place to start. That, at least, was something.

Eventually, I started piecing together the ideas. It was not quite the story I originally had in mind, but it was a start.

More piecing together became Being Born for the Sunstone comic edition. Again, it was not the story I originally had been telling myself in my head (by this time I was starting to recognize I had a few things to learn about story telling). But it was a start.

Currently, that little story is on the back shelf again as I am hard at work fleshing out the final panels for a comic that John wrote which was accepted into the Monsters and Mormons anthology.

But eventually, sometime, I'd like to brush off the original idea of an outrageous first-woman archetype who lives in a house made from rib bones, takes swords away from angels and hangs out with snakes.

Here's the first page from that sketchbook, a beginning that I am still working on:

Josh Howard's take on Eve, plus thoughts on audience

image source

Well, it's old news now, but here's Josh Howard's spin on Eve:

"Journey back to a time when magic still thrived, dragons and fallen gods roamed the earth, and man was just a myth. The Garden of Eden was a place of perfect peace and tranquility. That is, until its keeper, Adam, went missing. Now, his newly created wife, Eve, must venture outside the safety of the Garden for the first time to go in search of her husband, all the while battling monsters,beast men, wizards, demons, and even the gods themselves. It's the fun and adventure of Samurai Jack mixed with the epic scope of Lord of the Rings." (more, plus preview here)

Just ordered my copy, interested to see his take on it.

Now I just need to get back to work on my own version; it's been on the back burner while I negotiate kids during summer vacation, working more hours, and taking on fun little side projects.

Meanwhile, something on my mind is how to successfully reconcile (or successfully split) my various artistic persona's. Those persona's being connected to divergent and fairly incompatible audiences, I'm starting to feel the push/pull more and more, the distressing tension that lies between the work that gets exposure & recognition among the intellectual/feminist/LDS community, vs the work that gets exposure & recognition among the speculative fiction/horror/graphic novel community. There is some overlap, but not much.

Option B: find contentment dwelling in that tiny niche where they DO overlap, but that seems to be a marketing dead-end and I AM trying to think of that part it too. (BTW, existing in a small isolated niche = story of my life. x_X )

Anyhooo, to end, one of my own Eve studies:

sunstone comic! (being born)

In case you didn't know, Sunstone is doing an issue for Mormon Comic Artists. (Woot!)

The deadline is coming up and I am getting serious with the pages allotted to me.

So, after months of drawing around the images/concepts, playing with style, taking them off into all sorts of random directions, I am now bringing it all together; taking all the loose ends and trying to coax them together (sometimes with gentleness, sometime with bailing wire), filling in the gaps that I've neglected up until now, ironing out the awkward transitions, etc.

For your entertainment, here's my written synopses (complete with links to the various images/ideas/concepts that haves been my studies for the past year. Warning, a good number of the images are fairly graphic.)

What I'm working on in particular:

~making the shocking imagery more subtle, finding the fine line between challenging and outright offensive and off-putting.

~balancing the gender aspect of it.

~finding the gaps that leave the reader/viewer confused.

~making it sequential (I am better at single panels but need sequence to tell this story)

~ etc

***************

Anyhow, feedback, thoughts, (constructive) criticisms are suggestions are welcome :)

published

Bloody Eve is in print.
Well, one copy anyways, self-published.
To hand over to my instructor so I can get a final grade on the course I signed up for last year.
It has A LOT of mistakes: In the writing, in the style, in the flow, in the medium, in the editing, processing, formatting (etc etc etc). But they were good mistakes, the 'learning-from-them' kind, and since this is my first time, I'm okay with them (well, I can tolerate them, for now, at least. As long as next time is better. Yah.)

But here you go, if you want to see a preview of what it looks like in book form (it doesn't show the last few pages, but those are only a collection of sketches and paintings anyways; a sort of last minute add-on appendices I used to pad the page count)

Here's the final images:

Starting with the cover, front and back

Then the inside pages:Then there's this other two page spread that I ended up taking out of the story line, adding it at the end as part of the appendices (with the some of the other Eve vs the Angel images):

So there you go.
Be gentle, I'm new at this.

pgs 9 - 12

So, it took me months and months to do the first 6 pgs, but now in less than a week I have started burning through the last 6 with a good deal of ease and excitment. Yay for the holidays being over!! (Yes, I blame it all on xmas.) And also, Yay for neighbors who watch my son in the afternoons so I can get a few more hours up to my elbows in paint. (And too, I should credit the decision to remove almost ALL of the text/diologue. That has really helped me out. Words are so not my thing.)
(These are not finished, by any means, and two pages are on another panel that I neglected to photograph, but I thought I'd throw this up here anyways.)

only 6 pgs?

I've been working on eve (well, working off and on, and more off than anything) for how many months? Certainly longer than my proposed NaGraDraMo of November. And now I am still only 6 pgs in?! (Do those last two pages even count? They are still a work in progress... so... I'm guessing not). I'm struggling through a learning curve: narrative sequential artwork not being my usual MO. I have also been struggling with a pretty strong avoidance tendancy surrounding this project (directly relating to the fact that this project is not my usual MO). But, then, working on those last few pages I really felt like I had hit a good stride... was finding my groove, was getting the HANG of it~ but that was over a week ago. Work Obligations and Family Obligations and Holiday Obligations hit. So now I have to go and find that nice little line, that feel good spot, but I'm back in avoidance mode, writing BLOG POSTS about it rather than doing it. Oh, and I'm hungry, need to make some lunch first. Then, it will be only a short time before it's time to pick up the little guy from school, then homework, then making dinner, then cleaning up, then bedtime routine.... Another day gone forever. Brooke's poem is close to the front of my mind right now.
Yah, I'm whining right now. Pay me no mind.
Anyhoo... if you want to see these two-page spreads individually see the flickr set here.

Oh... and because this looks AMAZING (and hits so very close to home): the trailer for the documentary "Who Does She Think She Is?" (women and mothers who are also artists)

[wishing I was so cool.....]

NaGraDraMo

In solidarity with my many friends who are NaNoWriMo-ing this month, I shall be GraDraMo-ing. Graphic novel Drawing Month (not a National event yet, but who's counting.)
Because I have a class deadline coming up.
Because it is a personal goal.
Because all I have done up till now is sketch, plot, experiment, and doodle thumbnails yet have successfully avoided just jumping in and doing the real thing; and because I have reached the end of all my avoidance techniques (including writing posts about it. Heheh.)
Therefore I declare this month to be my offical NaGraDraMo. Starting... NOW!

meet Eve

Okay, so BiV beat me too writing about this (and OF COURSE, she did it way better than I could), but anyways; I'm drawing a story about Eve. Yes, drawing, because really, I'm better at images than words... though we shall see if I can jump into the sequential nature of graphic novels with any success. Now I'm still working out the particulars, but the general run down goes something like this: After the fall, Eve returns to the garden to have it out with that angel who was placed as guardian. Whether she beheads him or just beats him to a bloody pulp I'm not real sure, but as with Virginia Wolf, she has to kill this angel to get on with what she needs to do. She also takes on the apple (see above, inspired by Brooke's delightful poem on eating the apple). Now I'm still not sure the exact outcome of all this, but Eve's bottom line here is to have a deadly serious conversation with God (who, of course, is also her husband Adam, because Brigham said so. Oh, and Adam is also Michael the archangel who helped create the earth, AND might just also be the angel guarding the tree. Maybe. Yah, serious identity crisis. Utterly fascinating.)

So here's the thing, several people have asked me why this isn't a story about Lilith (the usual suspect for uppity/aggressive garden of eden variety femaleness).

It's because I was endowed in the temple and, as a woman, was a stand in for Eve. I was dressed in her name, said things in her name, did things in her name, I was her and she was me.

And she was this silent and passive thing, created to please Adam. (Absolutely LOVE Lynnette's take on the subject. Wow.)

So instead of despising her, I wanted to re-invent her. To give her a quest. Give her a sword (she takes that flaming one from the angel). Give her a mind of her own and the grit to do what she needs to do which is different than what the 'authorities' are telling her to do.

I guess feel I owe it to her. And to me.

So that's why it's about Eve and not Lilith.

[Jan 24, 2010 update: I just self-published one copy of my first version of The Story of Bloody Eve. Woot]

Oh, and btw, I've written before about my artist's block and my neglected studio...
Well lately I'm back in the paint again! and it feels good. Just had to share :)