Recently, I had the good fortune to be invited to the First Flight show at Masthead Print Studio here in Philadelphia, PA. The show opens in a couple weeks, but I've been including process photos of the work on Facebook, so I figured it would only be appropriate for me to include photos of the finished work here on the blog.
The Comet Wranglers
Pen and ink, watercolor, bristol board, strong
2011
The premise of the show is a kite theme, which could be developed in a variety of ways. My thought was to use the kite as a vehicle for an image, and give some indication of a story or world within the form and structure of the kite.
This is obviously an untried medium for me, but I found it...I don't want to say 'liberating' since that sounds so cliché...but something about the process was really enjoyable for me. Maybe it's just that thrill of the new, of testing uncharted creative waters. Maybe it's the reactions I've received from people as I've posted the process photos, which seem to be more numerous than anything I've received from my comic or illustration work. I don't know, my feelings for this have escaped words.
But, overall, I think a real thrill for me was breaking past the edge of that kite boundary, which in some ways served as an oversized panel border. That little piece of string may be slight, but by incorporating it into the action of the image on the kite, I think it helped to create a harmonious whole not only for the image but the kite as well.
I realize that I'm not really breaking new ground here, I'm sure there's a kite designer somewhere in the world who has considered all the things I've done here and made a swell living doing so. But I think for me this opens a new door for storytelling possibilities, a new way to explore the universe that I've created with Supernova Lullaby, and a new way for the characters to interact with that universe. Who knows, I just might, might be onto something.
