Near Sight
The older I get, the more I appreciate brevity.
Just say one true thing, then continue with the next true thing. I think that’s a line from Hemingway on how to write, but I’m not going to look it up.
Today is the first day of Fall, Twenty Nineteen.
I just posted Page 30. This marks a good halfway stopping point for the story so far. You can actually read it as a whole arc now: Ava, a starving archer lost in the woods, finds a young man carrying some weird object on his back. She attacks him thinking he might have valuables and he knocks her unconscious, but he doesn’t want to leave her out in the rain. This act of kindness begins a quest - to unravel the mystery of this stranger, and now on Page 30, you can begin to get an idea of this fantasy world they live in.
That’s pretty much it - the whole story. I’ve had people ask me if there’s something more to it. And of course the answer is yes, but I’m not going to spill the beans all at once at the beginning of the story. So instead, I’ve spent five years drawing two characters talking to each other in the woods...
Look, this stuff takes time.
I have aspirations for FLOLAS to be a grand tale, comprised of Seven Volumes, each several episodes long. Each episode is named after, and inspired by, a particular song. Eventually, instead of just a comic book, I would prefer if it were an animated story. So, in an attempt to fulfill this desire, I’m going to actually start working on some animation since I’m at a good stopping point. I’m not exactly going on hiatus again - I’m still very much so working on FLOLAS, but it could take quite a while to finish this first planned animation. I’ll take lots of notes and screengrabs of the process and write my next blog on the subject.
Speaking of hiatus, that project is now completed and is in what might be called Post Production. There’s still some work to do, but it might be awhile before I get to work on it again. I’d really like to see it published this year, but it’s looking unlikely. Hopefully, 2020 will be the year that I finally get to talk about it.
So, no, no super long hiatus. Just a return to my roots - I really have no formal education on anything other than art and animation - and here I am running websites, working in tech, writing blogs, pimping social media… I need to draw some keyframes.
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When I was a kid, I remember taking an eye exam. The doctor declared that I had perfect 20/20 vision. Then I spent the next decade drawing super detailed nonsense and playing Japanese RPGS on tiny screens. Suddenly, I needed glasses. I became nearsighted with an astigmatism.
I love the way the world looks without my glasses on. Everything seems more real, more 3D. It wasn’t until I got glasses at the age of nineteen that I even realized that I wasn’t perceiving light correctly. Sans glasses or contacts, light seems alive - like a living glow that dances around and envelopes everything. It moves gregariously through the blurry beyond. The darks seem richer as well, and all the colors between them seem to burst from their union.
On the other hand, once I got glasses I gained a newfound appreciation for detail. This development can be observed in my work. The oversaturated skies and gnarly clouds are an approximate simulacrum of how my naked eyes sense the world. Then I put on my glasses and try to get good at human anatomy and cloth.
This vergence of light and dark is the basis of the philosophy behind the story.
Take any idea and analyze it fully. They all eventually breakdown into esoteric minutia. Things unknown and things unknowable. But they begin in knowledge; that being the light cast upon it. This balance between the polarities gives rise to a new form. Knowledge itself and all things known are the light. The unknown and the never-ending mystery within are the dark. Between this play of light and dark lives all the colors. Pure light cascading into lesser forms as it is refracted by the darkness creating the endless repeating forms.
Anyways, I’m going to get started on a super cool little animation for the website. Autumn is my favorite season of the year, so happy football and crisp red leaves.
🙏
