I'm stepping quite a ways out of my comfort zone on this particular piece. I wanted to shed a bit of that moody, deep blacks, glooming light sources work I've been creating lately and try something a little different. This piece needed a bright, daylight vibe. I also really tried to push my poses, my character design and my stylized shapes. I also applied a color hold to every line in this piece, rather than let the black ink stand alone.

I get caught up in this rut of trying to emulate some of the top artists in the big three of comics, when I never stop to realize that while those artists are amazing, I'm never drawn to them when I see their art on the shelves. I'm always drawn to more stylized art, art with more character and whimsy. I'm certainly not suggesting that I've accomplished this precisely how I wanted here, but that's the direction I want to take it.

I think when I think of comics, I think of the big three, and just assume I can't tell an epic or emotional story with whimsical character designs or a more "cartoony" art style. There are enough examples of artists doing exactly that that I should know better.

Labels: bottled, cowboy, Monsters