A new focus

Lately life has decided to shake things up a bit. This has caused me to lose a lot of the focus I had going into, not only this class, but many other things as well. While I feel like I'm starting to get a grip on myself again, I'm not sure where to pick back up.

SO! I've decided that I'm going to start working on a long term comic. I think, if anything, focusing on this project will give me less time to worry about the crap which has been giving me so much trouble for the past week or so.

I have a lot of ideas planned for this comic but I'm not sure where exactly to start. My goal is to create a story which presents a unique look at friendship and the power it has to stick through an sort of situation. I intend to deal with a lot of existential and philosophical issues. Drugs are also gonna play a pretty big part in the storyline as well.

The main premise involves a reclusive artist named Mike (left) and his friend Kevin (right), who is a drug addict. Kevin's goal is to be crazy. He thinks that going insane would finally bring meaning to his life. Mike, on the other hand, is a pretty normal, albeit socially awkward, guy who happens to hallucinate this sketchy cat in his apartment. The two guys really only have each other and the comic is gonna deal a lot with their interactions through Mike's point of view.

Here you can see the cover/character page I drew up. I'm not sure how finalized the designs are but I'm pretty confident in each character's overall look.

My biggest worry is the amount of time I'm going to spend on the art for this. I feel like I am an alright artist at best and usually that's only if I spend a long time perfecting each panel. I might as well invest in a lot of erasers... I'm hoping that a lot of drawing practice will help develop my skills to a point where I'm able to recreate each character without referring back to my original sketches.

I'm not sure what I'm really trying to accomplish here but I have this idea that all the best art is formed out of some emotional experience, traumatic or otherwise. So perhaps this is where I'm meant to really focus my energy right now.

-Jeff