Having recently completed my first major work as part of the Planet Me comic book project, I wanted to share it with you here.
Keep reading; it follows this post.
Radio City
The initial intention was to produce an illustration that encompasses my aspirations and ideas for the Planet Me world I want to create. The illustration is entitled ‘Radio City’ and captures a moment of excitement and discovery, as Penny spies the oncoming carnival parade.
I’m inspired by both intelligent graphic simplicity as well as richly intricate creations. When a piece of art, music or film has a multitude of layers and textures in them, that only become apparent on second or closer viewing, I often think to myself; Wow that’s clever!
I am a big fan of poster design and set about creating my own promotional advert for the project. The illustration below will form part of a growing collection of limited edition Planet Me prints, soon available in the shop section.
Character building
At the heart of any good story are the characters. I feel that how we, as readers, warm to and empathize with characters is of pivotal importance to good storytelling. Good stories enable readers to sympathise with the lead characters and understand their inner feelings. Whereas great stories empower readers to empathise with them and actually feel emotion. There is a subtle difference, but an important one.
For me, the most gripping stories are when the readers go on a journey with the characters. I like to discover things, as and when they do, especially when intertwining plots converge to a climactic ending.
A certain Mr. Walt Disney once said;
I try to build a full personality for each of our cartoon characters – to make them personalities.
