Eli Trier, book artist (part 2 of 2)

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artist, Book, Elit Trier, illustrator

Eli Trier, book artist.

In our last post we told you about Eli Trier, a self-made artist, author and an award-winning blogger who travels the world writing, drawing and making picture books for grown-ups.

 

In today’s post, Eli will discuss with us about her experiences on being an artist and on becoming one when she was a marketing business worker.

H.J.: Hi Eli!

E.T: Hi!

H.J.: You went from working on marketing to start a career in the world of art. It all started with the The Gratitude Project: A Year of Saying Thank You to the People Who Changed My Life. Can you tell us when did you see that the gratitude project was becoming a real opportunity to get into the art business?

E.T: The Gratitude project grew very slowly, almost organically. It started in 2013 as something very small and private. I would illustrate one thank you message and I send a copy of it to the person that inspired it. One of these thank you messages got a reply: one day I received a lovely thank you card from the person who got my message. This person also posted it in her facebook ad that got the attention of a few people. The Gratitude project started to grow then: I started to receive emails from people who wanted some artwork from me and I was happy to do it. One day one of them suggested the idea of turning the gratitude project into a book. I asked my followers and they agreed that it would be a good idea.

I contacted a friend of mine who is a publisher and he recommended me to keep a project as personal as it out of big publishers and consider self-publishing it in order to avoid undesired changes. I did some research on it and finally released the self-published book on 2015.

Daisy & Convolvulus           by Eli Trier

H.J.: Drifting suddenly from the marketing business to publishing art is a strong drift. How did the ones close to you deal with it? Were they supportive?

E.T.: My family was very supportive. They stood at my side from the very beginning and that really helped me a lot. But for many others it was not an easy decision to accept. I had to cut down my living style and drastically change a lot of things. Making such a change in your life involves a degree of emotional stress coming from your loved ones who are reluctant to accept such change.

H.J.: Do you plan to make a living out of art? If so, do you have a plan for it? (Question by Johanna).

E.T.: After the success of The Gratitude Project, I decided to make a living out of art, but I try to diversify my sources of income: I teach online courses about defeating creative blocking and I participate on workshops; I work as freelance illustrator, do works of editing and layering and I have an off-shore that sells printings. I try to keep different sources of income at the same time, but always related with what I like to do.

H.J.: How do you see yourself in 3 years?

E.T.: I would like to have published a couple of books and to be teaching new online courses. I want to keep building on top of what I already have and get some work done on sharing ideas, both as words and pictures.

Hawk by Eli Trier

H.J.: By the end of this year you will publish The creative compass, a book focused on visual thinkers with the aim to help those suffering from creative blocking. Will The creative compass be able to help other people either than artist? For example, entrepreneurs? (Question by Víctor)

E.T.: That depends on how your brain works. Some sections will be clearly oriented to visual thinkers. The book will have 4 sections: the first will work on the getting stuck problem, the second on using your inspiration effectively, the third on getting organized and the last on productivity. I believe that the two first sections can be helpful for those not being strictly artists but the last two will be focused mostly on artist and their way of thinking and working, which is non-linear and more chaotic.

H.J.: Do you work alone? Why?

E.T.: Sometimes I collaborate with writers, but not that much. I work alone 95% of the time. I like it this way because I need to work whenever I feel like working and on whatever I feel like doing it. I need this freedom to be happy. Additionally, I am a serious procrastinator and I already take it into account when I am planning a project.

The Gratitude project by Eli Trier

H.J.: How is your creative process from the raw idea to finished work?

E.T.: It is long process. I keep track of my ideas on both a Moleskine notebook and by using Evernote. Several ideas would be popping out of my mind all the time, but eventually one of them would keep coming back to me and will turn into a new project. When I start a new project a buy a new Moleskine just for it, I light some candles and start working… is like a ritual.

I normally work 4-5 hours during the afternoon, every day. I work most of the time in my bed. I like to work with pleasant white noise background, so I use the Noisy app to create it. I work mostly with water colours and gouache and I use Daler Rowney paper whenever I am lucky enough to find some. I believe the quality of the paper is more important than the quality of the colours, but it is not easy to find the one I like around Copenhagen. The process is long and very organic, it takes several years to finish a book.

H.J.: Do you have any advice for those like you that feel trapped in a normal job while dreaming of becoming artists?

E.T.: Make the odds! Make it possible! Use your time wisely to start working on you passion, use your break times, use your train trips, use the evenings… just make it happen! If you feel trapped in your job maybe you can look for a different job, one that really feels temporary and unimportant and that allows you to focus on your passion when out of it. Whatever you do, do not wait too long, is the only thing I regret, having wasted some years where I could have been happy doing what I like to do.

H.J.: What are the main qualities that an artist should possess?

E.T.: Curiosity about life, about people… The desire to connect through art. Art is the expression of what cannot be described by words. And the ability to wonder. You must be able to find a new way to look at the mundane. Able to take something common and find out the wonder of it.

The creative compass by Eli Trier

H.J.: Answer in few words:

What is your favourite colour?

E.T.: Purple.

Who is your favourite artist?

E.T.: Dufy. I stared at his paintings for long time when I was a little girl.

What is the worst mistake an artist can make?

E.T.: Try to force getting out of a blocking period.

You will never draw…

E.T.: Dogs. I do not find them inspiring! hahahahaha!

What is the best gift you ever got?

E.T.: A bamboo digital drawing tablet.

What is your favourite book?

E.T.: Narnia.

Which book would you like to illustrate?

E.T.: Alice in Wonderland.

Say a sentence favourite of yours to finish the interview.

E.T.: Don’t give up.

We encourage our readers to find out more about Eli Trier! You can check her Website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and online courses!

Finally we want to announce that Sandra Garriga is (again, twice in a row!) our lucky winner of a free digital copy of her book, The Gratitude Project! We will put her and the Eli Trier in contact very soon.

Eli Trier, book artist (part 1 of 2)

Tags

artist, Book, Eli Trier, illustration, illustrator

Eli Trier, writer & artist

Our next two posts will be dedicated to the work of Eli Trier, a selfmade artist, author and an award-winning blogger who travels the world writing, drawing and making picture books for grown-ups.

Born in London and moving short after to Somerset, UK Eli got a degree in Literature & Art History but had a late start as writer and drawer. She started working in the tourism marketing business, where she was the marketing manager for what was then the largest hotel in Cornwall. After that, she had other jobs in marketing back in Somerset until she decided to work on her own as a copywriter and freelance marketing consultant.

Dylan by Eli Trier

As with many late bloomers artists, Eli did not felt happy doing marketing and she felt that she was not living the kind of life she wanted to have. Eventually, marketing got harder and harder to do. This situation led to a personal crisis where Eli had to redefine what her career was going to be.

Not finding an answer to her questions and seeing the weeks go by, Eli decided to start doing what she felt like enjoying: art. She realized that the only way she was going to get better in her spirit was by noticing and appreciating all the good things in her life. So she started The Gratitude Project – a blog where Eli drew a picture and wrote a thank you note to all the people who changed her life.

Go Outside by Eli Trier

The Gratitude Project eventually turned into Eli’s first book: The Gratitude Project: A Year of Saying Thank You to the People Who Changed My Life. A picture book that makes the case that all it takes to radically transform your life is a change of mindset. Amazingly enough, the most wonderful thing happened – over the course of that year her story and her artwork had captured people’s attention and Eli started getting paid illustration work. First a little, and then more and more…

The Gratitude Project: A Year of Saying Thank You to the People Who Changed My Life, came out in 2014, and her second book, The Creative Compass, will soon come out.

The creative compass by Eli Trier.

The Creative Compass will be an illustrated guide focused on visual thinkers where Eli explains some tools and methods to help artists beat creative block, self-doubt and finally get organized in a way that uses their creative strengths rather than working against them.

We hope that you found the story of Eli as much inspiring and interesting as we did. You will discover more about her on a soon to come interview and as always you have the opportunity to ask Eli any question you would like her to answer by just posting a comment in this post. But wait, there is more, Eli Trier will give a free digital copy of her book, The Gratitude Project, to one lucky winner randomly chosen among those commenting!

If you want to find out more about Eli Trier and her artwork, we totally recommend to go and check out her Website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Star Fall, the webcomic (part 2 of 2).

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interview, JS Loomis, SJ Dann, Star-Fall, Webcomic

S. J. Dann, J. S. Loomis, J. Ciurla and D. Wendl

In our last post we talked about the Star-Fall project, an original Science Fiction/Fantasy Webcomic written by S. J. Dann and illustrated by J. S. Loomis and based on the figures and background crafted by the former.

In today’s post, the Star-Fall crew will discuss with us about their experiences while creating this webcomic and about crafting and writing the novels.

H.J.: Hi Star-Fall team!

SJ Dann: Hi, thanks so much for having us.

JS Loomis: Good to be here.

H.J.: In our last post about your work, we learned many interesting things about the birth of Star-Fall. Can you tell us when did you realize that it was becoming real, becoming a project that would see the light?

Lt. Nef’Fenya Naa, created by S. J. Dann

SJ Dann: After creating the first few custom figures, the simple backstories I had designed for each character began to expand and grow into what will be a three part novel series. One day I was scrolling through my newsfeed on Facebook and I happened to see a post by a very talented artist offering to do hand-drawn commissions for people. The images of his work that I saw depicted a lot of female superheroes and different established comic book characters from the major labels.

I was very much drawn to his treatment of these characters, especially his eye for capturing female characters. The artist was JS Loomis and I decided to send him a message asking about some commissions of some of the early Star-Fall characters I had created as custom action figures. JS agreed to do a series of simple pencil sketches from the figures. I was immediately blown away how he was able to bring Nef’Fenya Naa and Aves and the others to life on the page. JS told me he enjoyed drawing the Star-Fall characters, so after about 10 sketches I proposed the idea of doing a full-scale webcomic. JS agreed, and the rest is now history.

JS Loomis: I was really getting into the character sketches SJ was having me do, but I was pretty sure he was going to be pursuing this as a prose book project. So when he pitched the idea of taking a Star-Fall Universe story to sequentials, I was already sold on the idea. I could already see the characters walking, talking and interacting as I was doing the sketches based on his custom figure designs. The characters have a lot of life in them.

H.J.: Are there any legal restrictions on using spare parts from figures of patented seals in order to create a totally new figure?

SJ Dann: The creation of custom action figures is primarily a hobby activity. While there are those that sell their unique work to collectors and other customizers, there have been no legal cases of copyright infringement as of yet. Custom action figures are art, and as long as the artists that create them do not claim the original copyrighted characters and concepts as their own, they do not violate the laws. However I am not a lawyer and I would be interested to hear what someone with copyright law experience would say about this issue.

The custom action figures created for Star-Fall were made using parts of existing action figures of established copyrighted characters, from there, the original Star-Fall characters which are unlike any preexisting copyrighted characters have been redesigned in formats and mediums that are then copyrighted. This practice is often seen throughout pop culture. Many of the devices, costumes, and props in Star Wars, for example, were preexisting products that artists working on the film made slight modifications to. One prime example of this is are the blaster rifles and lightsabers. Many of the rifles are based on patented preexisting earth rifles used in American and British armed services that were modified with extra parts. The lightsabers were handles from camera flash bulbs. It is a long standing method for creating the look and feel of a universe and Star-Fall takes this method to a unique place as the only webcomic with illustrations based on custom action figures.

H.J.: The number of people participating in the Star-Fall project seems to be increasing. Do you considering to add more members to it? Why?

SJ Dann: The Star-Fall team currently has 7 members in addition to myself, JS, Jennifer, and David, including our webmaster, web designer/graphic artist and a composer. Star-Fall is a collaborative effort and right now we are a small group, each of us devoting as much time as we can afford to the project.

For what we are doing and the speed we are moving at right now, I would say that we have the perfect amount of team members. It is our hope that we will continue to grow and take on new team members as we need them and when we can afford them. In addition to creating the Star-Fall universe I am also building an independent exclusively web-based comic book label called VAST!Comics, of which Star-Fall is the flagship title. VAST! seeks to eventually host a wide variety of webcomics from a diverse group of creators.

H.J.: Tell us briefly how Dann and Loomis work together to put on the paper what is in Dann’s imagination. Does the final result differ a lot from starting concept?

JS Loomis’ drawing process. Everything is hand-drawn and hand-inked.

SJ Dann: Each page is broken down by panel. I draft a basic outline of the story that we are currently working on and then distill each sequence into individual panels. Each panel is broken into two sections: setting/stage directions and dialogue. From there, JS is able to develop a visual representation of the scene and the narrative taking place.

Because the majority of the characters depicted in the series are based on the figures I make, very little is lost in translation when JS draws them into the comic. JS has a fantastic intuition and we are almost always 100% on the same page with how we imagine things. I try to give him as many suggestions and thorough descriptions of each character and scene as possible.

I cannot speak for JS but I imagine it helps a lot to have full-color 3D versions of the characters to work from, rather than relying solely on text-based descriptions. It would be a lot more challenging to try and convey the complex characters of Star-Fall using only words. However there will be some that I am unable to build as action figures. The settings and scenery are all based on the written descriptions I provide for JS, so there is a bit more back and forth and tweaking in those areas as we work to get the look and feel of the Star-Fall universe just right.

JS Loomis: The final product always looks different from how I envision it in my mind. The finished page is the compromise I make between what my brain dreams up and what I can actually pull off on paper. I see full blown animation in a 360 degree rotation in my head when I’m reading through SJ’s scripts and narrow the focus from there to what will work on paper with the lettering. Sometimes I can smell, taste and touch the scene inside my head, too. I don’t know if non artists have the same reading experience that I get, but it is a lot of fun when you can really let yourself fall into that world.

H.J.: How are you planning the production of the Star-Fall figures if you reach the patreon goal? 

The recently added character Hazard Girl

SJ Dann: It would so great if we reach that point! I plan on having JS do some character workups, and I will take some photographs of the custom figures to provide them for the sculptor we would work with. From there, the sculptor will create the mockups of the figures that will go to the production company. I am a stickler for details and want to produce the highest quality figures we can while staying within our budget. I will try to secure the original sculptor for Hasbro’s GI-Joe to do our figures if possible. He was a friend of my father’s.

H.J.: How does the work of Ciurla as cosplayer help to create Star-Fall? Does she help Loomis to find the best way of drawing characters? 

SJ Dann: Jenn Ciurla is a professional marketing and PR consultant who just happens to be a huge sci-fi/fantasy fan, model, actress, and cosplayer. I first met her while working on a charity toy drive I organized. She used her Youtube channel to help the charity go viral and was a huge part of our success. For Star-Fall she has been helping us with some social media marketing and will be starring as Lt. Nef’Fenya Naa in some of our promotional videos. She is currently our official Star-Fall spokesmodel. Her work has not yet involved modeling for any drawings, but we will be doing some photographic cover art with her in costume to promote the series and I am working on an exclusive custom figure based on her likeness as Lt. Nef’Fenya.

JS Loomis: As we get the ball rolling I am sure she will have an influence on my approach going forward, but we just have not gotten to that phase with her yet.

H.J.: Wendl is currently a guest artist of the project, in what way does he ad his part to the webcomic? How do he and Loomis coordinate?

SJ Dann: Many years ago, David Wendl and I met in grade school and we became good friends, bonding over science and science fiction and fantasy. David has a beautiful and unique artistic style that he occasionally lends to the characters of Star-Fall for use on merchandise and promotional items.

Sad Robot, by David Wendl

He and I have talked about putting together some mini-comics featuring his art that we may do at some time further down the road. Wendl also does some stunning 3D graphics and animation work as well so we may do a digital animated collaboration at some point. His “Sad Robot” short film is fantastic and I highly recommend watching it. JS and Wendl haven’t yet needed to coordinate.

JS Loomis: I have not coordinated with David at this point, but if he ever gets to the point where he needs lettering or computer coloring tips, I will be here as a resource for him to tap into. If he has the opportunity to look over the action figures in person to problem solve character details… well, I am a little jealous, heh.

D Wendl: Mostly what I do is extra art, for promotional or inspirational purposes. This allows me to be pretty loose. I work with reference photos of Dann’s figurines. Sometimes he gives me a prompt such as “how about this character in this situation”, but there is usually a lot of blanks for me to fill in on my own. Ultimately, it kind of depends.

H.J.: Did you ever consider to contact one of the big franchises out there to see if Star-Fall could get a rocket launch into fame?

SJ Dann: That is something I ultimately want for Star-Fall. Once we have enough material, I do want to shop it around to major comic labels and publishers as well as film companies and videogame developers because I think the story is rich and deep enough to be adaptable across a wide degree of formats. On the other hand I want to keep Star-Fall independent for as long as possible. As a small, free, independent webcomic we are our own bosses making comics exactly the way we want them to be and that’s really important to the work.

I never set out to make money with Star-Fall. I set out to make the kind of story and characters that had shaped my life as I was growing up and in doing so, pay homage to the myriad of creators and artists that I have looked up to since I was very young.

JS Loomis: I am trying to keep everything at print level quality, if we ever do make that deal. Having a particular publisher’s name on the cover means a lot less to me than the quality of the work at this point. With the advent of digital publishing and the instant contact with your fan base made possible by the internet, selling your soul to the big guys in exchange for a wider reach is less appealing than it used to be.

H.J.: What would you tell to a fan of sci-fi to convince him/her to read Star-Fall? What is it that he/she will not find in other sci-fi works?

SJ Dann: I would say that Star-Fall is unique in that it features hand-drawn and hand-inked full-size comic book pages even though it is a webcomic. Next I would want them to know is that Star-Fall is the only webcomic with art based on hand-built and hand-painted custom action figures. Star-Fall has a diverse cast of fully developed characters, a rich lore-driven story, ripe with its own culture and history, snappy dialogue, and a heaping helping of action-packed adventures. It is a comic created by fans, for fans. And it’s always free to read.

JS Loomis: We care deeply about the world building under the surface of the comic. This is not just make it all up as you go along, and I hope that shines through.

H.J.: To Loomis and Wendl: can you explain briefly about your drawing process? What are your tools? How does the process work from Dann describing a situation/character until it is finished on paper? How much time does it take to create a single page?

Loomis inking a page of Star-Fall

JS Loomis: I’m still old school in the digital age. I start with pencil (Ticonderoga HB is my favorite) and paper (Strathmore Bristol smooth lined for pages is what I use for the comic pages). For inking I use nib pens (Hunts 512 ex-fine bowl point and Speedball B-6 are my favorite tips) and Windsor and Newton Series 7 round point brushes, sizes 0, 2 and 4. The ink itself is Higgins Black India Waterproof drawing ink, which I put in a small metal cup for better dipping results. I use a metal yardstick ruler with pennies taped to the bottom, and a flexible curve to get clean lines when I feel they will be too long to pull off freehand. I also employ whatever round, circular things I can find around the house to help me out. I used a can of beans to help me ink one of the early Star-Fall pages, which SJ got a kick out of. Once inked, I do everything else on the computer, with the aid of my large format scanner, Adobe Photoshop, and a Wacom digital tablet.

I read SJ’s description of the page and watch it play out in my head. From there I make a mental note of the amount of dialogue required per panel and what moments I think are the most visually important for the page, and build the design around those considerations. From there, I scan the roughs and work up the digital lettering, to see if I need to change anything in the layout stage to make it all work together. Once I’ve done any digital tweaking and have it looking nice with the roughs, I make any changes needed to the physical artwork and take it to inks.

Time-wise, things will vary per page depending on if I get stuck on the details, but clocking for the most recent page I have been working, it took close to two hours (split over 2 sessions) to do the initial pencils, about an hour to do the lettering and digital editing, and 5 minutes of physical edits. On the previous page, it took me 2 hours to ink, and another 1 1/2 hours to computer color. So I will hazard a guess that it takes about 6-7 hours of work time to complete a page, but I need to take breaks to recharge my mental batteries.

Star Gazin, by David Wendl

D Wendl: My process varies from piece to piece, but it usually begins with a pencil sketch in my sketchbook. I scan it and do all coloring and inking (if I am doing inking) in Photoshop. In most of my works, the end result is all digital, but I always work better when starting on paper. Photoshop gives me a lot of flexibility with the final product. Do not like this color? I can swap it. Does that hand look wonky? I can fix it. Is it mostly good, but the colors do not pop? Time for some color overlays!

H.J.: What would be your advice to someone who wants to become webcomic artist?

SJ Dann: Go for it! There are thousands—probably hundreds of thousands of webcomics out there. Don’t feel like you have to be able to do everything yourself. If you can write, or draw, or build websites, or are good at organizing people—whatever your talent(s) may be, there are other awesome people out there looking for people like you to work with, you just have to find them.

Never be afraid to promote yourself and show people the cool things that you are making. Do not be afraid to fail and if you do, keep trying and never give up. Learn from your mistakes and move on. I am not a professional writer and I have never worked in the comic book industry. I did not know anything more about making comics than simply being a fan. Never be afraid to succeed.

JS Loomis: Stop just thinking about doing it and start doing it. The more you do the physical act of it, the easier that part will be. It will be a struggle. Your ideas will not translate to paper as they were in your head. But with practice you will start to close that gap and the work will improve. I have literally thousands and thousands of comic book pages under my belt before taking on this project, so you do not get to suffer through my formative years here on Star-Fall. Not all of them are pretty, but they got me here.

H.J.: According to you, what are the main qualities that a project like Star-Fall requires to keep going on?

SJ Dann: Any creative project needs dedicated participants to sustain itself. Without the creators and the readers there can be no creative work. Both roles are integral and depend on each other. While money helps, it is certainly not the most important factor in sustaining a project when the people working on it are invested and dedicated to the ideas they are trying to communicate.

The power of people is truly one of the greatest powers in the world. Being able to listen to your collaborators and heed their advice and see the genius in their ideas and contributions is invaluable. To quote Peter Dinklage, “Everyone you need is right here.” That is the truth. People all around you have the talents and skills and the drive to help you succeed and in return you can help them succeed as well, all you have to do is be bold enough to ask them.

JS Loomis: Passion and funding. Without the passion, you have no reason to keep pushing when you hit the inevitable creative lows, and you will give up. That driving passion can either come solely from within, or it can be fostered by others, which is what makes fans and collaboration so important to keeping that full head of steam going. Without the funding, you will not have the time to devote to that passion, because you are too busy doing what you need to do to pay the bills.

H.J.: Where do you see Star-Fall in three years from now?

SJ Dann: In three years I hope to see Star-Fall deep into new stories with new characters and fresh adventures. I would like to see some spin off titles based on the series featuring other writers and artists. I would love for JS and the rest of us to still be collaborating on the project together, but time may change these things and Star-Fall may take on new directions and maybe the cast of the Star-Fall team may change as well.

We do hope that the brand has taken off and is earning the success it deserves by then. Who knows, maybe it will be a major motion picture or a brand new toy line stocked on all the shelves. We are all dreaming big!

JS Loomis: I would like to be able to look over at my bookshelf and see a physical, collected edition of what we have accomplished with the project to that point, smile for a moment as I remember all the behind the scenes stories and sacrifices and roads that were taken to make that happen, then turn back to my drawing board and look at that moment of new creation, where we are dreaming up fresh material for the web.

H.J.: Name an actress that you would choose to be Lt. Nef’Fenya Naa on a movie.

SJ Dann: This is definitely a difficult choice. I don’t think the star that will play Nef has yet been discovered. If we were to cast the movie now my first choice would be Gal Gadot. I would also consider Chloe Grace Moretz, Ellen Page, or Daisy Ridley. Really any strong young female actor could play the role.

JS Loomis: I would probably lean towards Emily Blunt.

H.J: Thank you so much for your time! 

SJ Dann: Absolutely. It was our pleasure! Stay tuned for new pages nearly every week!

JS Loomis: It was fun! Now back to inking for me.

We encourage our readers to check out the Star-Fall project! You can check their homepage, facebook, twitter and tumblr to find out more about this amazing webcomic!

Finally we want to announce that Sandra Garriga is the lucky winner of an original character sketch from Star-Fall! We will put her and the Star-Fall crew in contact very soon.

H.J.: Bonus question. When asked to name just a bunch of their favorite sci-fi books and movies, this was the answer we got from SJ Dann and JS Loomis. You can judge by yourself how broad the inspiration they use is!

SJ Dann: My father got me into science fiction, comic books, action figures, and movies. My mom got me into literature, poetry, and politics…

Books: Timothy Zahn (The Conqueror’s Trilogy, Warhorse, The Blackcollar series, The Icarus Hunt, The Cobra series, The Thrawn Trilogy/Thrawn’s Hand series, Cascade Point and other Stories, The Giftie Gie Us, Time Bomb and Zhandry Others, Spinneret), Dave Wolverton (The Courtship of Princess Leia), Philip K. Dick: (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, A Scanner Darkly) Ray Bradbury: (Fahrenheit 451, Dandelion Wine, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Illustrated Man, The October Country, Driving Blind, The Small Assassin) Aldous Huxley: (A Brave New World) C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia) Lewis Carol (Alice In Wonderland, Alice Through The Looking Glass), JRR Tolkien (The Hobbit, The Lord of The Rings Trilogy), Susan Cooper (The Dark Is Rising Sequence), Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash), Madeleine L’Engle (A Wrinkle In Time, A Wind In The Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet), Antoine de Saint-Exupery (The Little Prince), Roald Dahl (Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, Charlie and The Great Glass Elevator, The Witches), Robert A. Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land), Cormac McCarthy (The Road), Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse 5), Lois Lowry (The Giver), Trevanian (The Eiger Sanction, Shibumi, The Loo Sanction, The Summer of Katya) Comics: The Amazing Spider-Man, The Invicible Iron Man, The Avengers/Avengers West Coast, The Fantastic 4, The Uncanny X-Men, X-Men The End, House of M, Wolverine, Weapon-X, X-Factor, X-Force, X-Men 2099, Doom 2099, Spider-Man 2099, Squadron Supreme, Earth X/Universe X, The Runaways, The Young Avengers, New Universal, Dark Horse’s Star Wars, Mr. Miracle, Fables, Astro City, V For Vendetta, Transmetropolitan, Y The Last Man, DMZ, Ex Machina, The Maxx, Goldfish, Fire, Jinx Movies: Star Wars, Metropolis, War of The Worlds, Forbidden Planet, The Creature From The Black Lagoon, Frankenstein, The Day The Earth Stood Still, The Omega Man, Journey To The Center of The Earth, Children of The Damned, Empire of The Ants, Fantastic Voyage, Brazil, Rosemary’s Baby, THX1138, Close Encounters of The Third Kind, Spaceballs, Blade Runner, Outland, The Abyss, Damnation Alley, Dark City, The Matrix, Equilibrium, V For Vendetta, The Terminator, Terminator 2, Robocop 1-3, Predator 1&2, Alien 1-4, Species 1-4, Mad Max 1-4, The Fifth Element, Logan’s Run Tank Girl, Waterworld, 12 Monkeys, Starship Troopers, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Willow, Mac and Me, Indiana Jones 1-4, Scanners, A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, Screamers, The Thing, The Fly, Howard The Duck, The Wraith, Big Trouble In Little China, Ninja Turtles 1-3, Super Mario Brothers, The Rocketeer, Gremlins, The Langoliers, The Sphere, Solarbabies, Critters, Captain EO, The Lord of The Rings, X-Men 1-5, Guardians of The Galaxy, Blade 1-3, Star Trek 1-5, Batteries Not Included, The Navigator, Short Circuit, Weird Science, Real Genius, Total Recall, Escape From New York/LA, Dune, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, The Never Ending Story, The Ice Pirates, Time Bandits, Godzilla (Classic Japanese), The Arrival, Millennium, Planet of The Apes, Super 8, ET, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Serenity, The Guyver, Heavy Metal, Death Machine, Re-animator, Hardware, Demolition Man, Nightbreed, Hellraiser 1-5, Dreamscape, Altered States, Jacob’s Ladder, Videodrome, Naked Lunch, Phantasm 1-4, John Dies At The End, Deathrace 2000, The Running Man, The Man With Two Brains, Steel Dawn

JS Loomis: Oh, that list is way too long! Haha. I’ll try to give a general snapshot. Books: Authors will be easier, starting off with some of my dad’s favorites, as I’m a second generation sci fi fan and creator; Edmond Hamilton, Leigh Brackett, CJ Cherryh, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jules Verne, Anne McCaffrey; my dad’s book, the Heart of the Two Mile Game, which I devoured at 5 years old; Piers Anthony, David Brin, Robert Asprin, Peter David, Alan Dean Foster, Mike Resnick. Movies: the Frankenstein films, the Invisible Man, the Incredible Shrinking Man, the Star Wars films, Swamp Thing, Flight of the Navigator, E.T., the Last Starfighter, Starman, the Terminator, T2, the Running Man, Logan’s Run, the Star Trek movies (VI is my favorite), RoboCop, I will grudgingly include Flash Gordon on its own merits even though it’s far different from the source material which I love, the 6th Day, Total Recall, Alien Nation, District 9, Pacific Rim, the Time Machine, 12:01, the Incredibles, Spider-Man 2, Iron Man, Tim Burton Batman films, Christopher Nolan’s Batman films, the Prestige, Limitless, Akira, Cherry 2000, TurboKid, the Companion, Galaxy Quest, the Incredible Hulk, Edge of Tomorrow, John Carter, Gattica, Daybreakers, Captain Harlock, Ghost in the Shell, the Butterfly Effect, Bladerunner, Aliens, Predator, Frequency, Tron, Looper, the 5th Element, Unbreakable.

Star Fall, the webcomic (part 1 of 2).

Tags

artist, interview, Star-Fall, Webcomic

S. J. Dann, J. S. Loomis, J. Ciurla and D. Wendl

For our next to two posts series and starting today with this first post, we will not talk about one artist as we use to but about a project. STAR-FALL.

STAR-FALL is an original Science Fiction/Fantasy Webcomic written by S. J. Dann and illustrated by J. S. Loomis. Set in the Altarus Starcluster, the comic chronicles the adventures of Rrrouthaan and J’Vaadus Nu, two V’Saah Vao Warriors as they seek a sacred text that might hold the key to saving the Universe. The concepts for the main characters in the series are based on original custom action figure artwork created by S. J. Dann as reference material for J. S. Loomis’ illustrations.

And how did this project begin?

Star Fall, by S. J. Dann and J. S. Loomis

In the spring of 2013, S. J. Dann was down in his father’s basement sculpture studio in upstate New York. He was busy taking apart preexisting action figures and reassembling their pieces into new figures. It was down in that very basement that Dann’s father had worked as a sculptor during the hologram craze of the 80s and 90s. He had sculpted officially licensed models for Spider-Man trading cards and comic book covers, Batman trading cards, Superman comic book covers and trading cards and countless others. He also did original sculpts for toys and action figures for The Inhumanoids toy line, GI-Joe, Littlest Pet Shop, and My Little Pony. It was within these hallowed walls that Star-Fall was born. S. J. Dann began building a new figure from spare parts that he had in his collection. As the figure began to take shape he began to consider who she was. Where was she from? What universe or storyline did she belong to? What was she doing? How did she wind up with a robotic leg and a robotic arm? Early on he decided she wasn’t part of any preexisting story. She needed her own story and her own universe, but first she needed a name.

Lt. Nef’Fenya Naa, created by S. J. Dann

Nef’Fenya Naa Amantra became the first character that would be a part of the Star-Fall universe. Shortly after, more characters began to emerge and take shape. The second Star-Fall character he designed was the robot Aves, Nef’s manservant and caretaker. After that, the story was off and running and ideas for new characters kept emerging. Some characters started as figures that then needed their own backstories, and some started as concepts that then needed figures.

Initially Star-Fall was set to be a limited run of independently produced action figures based on the custom figures Dann was making. The Star-Fall action figure line was originally intended to be an homage to 70s and 80s toy lines like The Visionaries or Masters of The Universe. Featuring 80s color schemes and over exaggerated concepts of right and wrong, the Star-Fall figures fought a never-ending battle of good vs. evil in space.

As he was looking for someone to sculpt the production mock-ups for the line, Dann realized that the backstory for the toyline was growing larger and faster than he could keep up. Star-Fall couldn’t be contained to a series of short blurbs on the backs of action figure packaging. The more characters and concepts Dann created and incorporated, the more he knew he needed to focus on getting the story written. Star-Fall: The Novel Series will center on Nef’Fenya Naa and her allies as they explore the Altarus Star-Cluster and fight to save their universe from impending evil.

Why a Webcomic?

Once he had created enough characters for Star-Fall, Dann approached the incredibly talented artist, J. S. Loomis about doing some concept sketches based on the custom action figures he was making. The beautiful art that Loomis produced captured the essence of each character and added a new dimension to the story. Because they both enjoyed the work and the characters, Dann suggested the idea of doing a comic series and asked if Loomis would do the art.

Buzzard against Star-Cavalry Marines. Sketch by Gabriel Smith

He said yes, and thus began an exhilaratingly intensive 4 and half month process of getting everything ready from the ground up. With the writer and artist in place it was time to assemble the rest of the Star-Fall Webcomic team that now includes their webhost, web designer/graphic artist, PR fairy, and several guest artists and writers.

As a huge fan of the sequential art medium, Dann wanted to pay homage to the amazing stories and art that has touched his life over the years. The webcomic has added a visual storytelling component to the rich and diverse universe that Star-Fall encompasses. Because Star-Fall is such a massively lore-driven universe, having a regularly published webcomic will allow the creative team to explore its history and mythos in a nearly infinite capacity.

A webcomic also affords its creators more freedom in storytelling and allows for a much larger cast of characters and a wide variety of stories to tell. This way, they have more room to play and that means less of their ideas have to end up on the cutting room floor. The events that transpire in the webcomic take place roughly 1,000 years in the past and tie directly into the plot of the novel series. The novel series and the webcomic can be enjoyed separately from each other, as there is no need to read one to understand the other, however, to get a deeper, richer, Star-Fall experience, it is recommended reading both. The webcomic series functions as an indirect prequel to the novel series.

Star Fall, the webcomic.

If you want to find out more about the Star Fall project and about its creators, we encourage you to read our soon to come interview where they will talk with us about their project.

If you have some questions that you want to ask to them, use the comments section below. The Star Fall crew will be very happy to answer them! And that is not all, one person among those commenting this post will be awarded with an original character sketch from Star Fall! The winner will be randomly chosen short before the publication of the interview.

In the meanwhile, if you want to learn more about this interesting webcomic you can check their homepage, facebook, twitter and tumblr.

Ryan Lanz, writer (part 2 of 2)

Tags

artist, interview, Ryan Lanz, the idea factory, unknown sender, writer

Ryan Lanz

In our last post we talked about Ryan Lanz, a writer from US who published his first book, Unknown Sender, in 2015. Unknown Sender is a horror story about Jessica, a normal student who suddenly attracts the interest of a stalker. Last month, Ryan published his second book, The idea factory. In his new book Ryan wants to help writers having problems to generate ideas.

In today’s post, Ryan will discuss with us about his experiences on becoming a writer. We are sure that you will find his tips very valuable!

H.J.: Hi Ryan!

R.L.: Hello there. Glad to be on.

H.J.: Tell us about how you learned to write professionally. Did you take writing lessons? Did you read an inspiring book maybe?

R.L.: I learned to write like I imagine how most people learned: by first writing terribly. I certainly didn’t take any classes or lessons, but I wrote a fiction serial for a local newspaper as a teenager, and it was terrible. I wrote a first novel that may never see the light of day, but I just kept at it, writing some under my name and some as a ghostwriter. I also read quite a bit from authors I admired.

H.J.: With Unknown Sender, you achieved something that many writers long for, to get published. When did you feel that your chances of getting published were serious? What made you feel it?

R.L.: I’ve self published my books, so my chances of success were 100%. If I wanted to do the writing, editing, and book cover procurement badly enough, I would do it. It was a matter of a decision. I don’t have any experience with traditional publishing, but I’ve heard even that described as a decent chance of success if one keeps at it long enough–and has at least some basic element of talent to build upon.

H.J.: Do you think that getting a spot on your own in the editorial world is particularly hard nowadays with so many people writing from their computers or on the contrary, do you think that the new tools offer more opportunities to the writer to get his/her work finally published?

R.L.: I certainly think more tools help authors overall. The self-publishing movement has opened the door wide open. Nowadays, anyone who wants to be published, can be. That’s mostly good, although it does have some drawbacks, although relatively few.

H.J.: Is it possible to combine a writing career with a full time job? (Question by Alice)

R.L.: Absolutely. I can say this with complete confidence because that is the situation I’m currently in. It would be a stretch to call my writing ambitions a career quite yet, but I do have a very active, full-time job that I balance with my writing time. For me personally, it comes down to how badly I want to succeed. When I come home and I’m tired, I’m tempted not to write. That’s when I have to do a gut check.

H.J.: Tell us about the effect of critics. Are they helpful or demotivating? Who were your first readers? Did their opinions play an important role on your decision to write?

R.L.: I tend to take criticism too personally, especially in reviews. That’s something I’m working on. Writers certainly need a thick skin in this business. My first readers, as they will likely continue to be, are readers of my blog. They are an awesome bunch. Their opinions mean a lot to me.

H.J.: First a horror story, then a book about generating ideas, and now you’re working on a fantasy saga… Is there a reason why you change so strongly from one style to another between your books?

R.L.: *laughs* To entertain myself. More seriously, I write what interests me. I wrote Unknown Sender initially to give my blog readership something to read while I worked on the next project. I do have other horror ideas, but it might be a while until I can come back to that genre. I think it’s important for writers to write what moves them, which might mean a change in genre. I trust my readers to follow along and skip over the genres they don’t prefer.

H.J.: The Idea Factory is your last book. With it, you help writers overcome the problem of the “blank page/screen”. Is there anything that was left out of the book? Do you think another book about helping writers can follow it with new ideas and advice?

R.L.: I felt that book said what I wanted to say. The only follow up to that I might have in mind is another book only with writing prompts. For example, a horror writing prompts book, romance writing prompts, fantasy writing prompts, etc.

Unknown Sender. Applebury Press.

H.J.: How do you work out the covers of your books?

R.L.: Both of the book covers I’ve used under this name have come from Adrijus Guscia with Rocking Book Covers. He does excellent work, especially with gritty book covers for thrillers and horror, although obviously he does other genres because he made my nonfiction book cover. It’s important to find a book cover designer that meets your needs, and sometimes it’s trial and error to find that person.

H.J.: When you write something, how do you make sure it is truly yours and that it’s not too inspired by other things you may have seen or read? (Question by Elisabeth)

R.L.: That’s a good question. Even if you have only read a single book, I don’t think it’s possible to completely avoid being inspired or even replicate some of what you’ve read, even if only done on a subconscious level.

For example, Brandon Sanderson’s (a fantasy author) idol was Robert Jordan. Robert Jordan had a character called Min in his book series. Years later, Brandon Sanderson had a character in his book series named Vin. They both had a similar personality and physical description. Is that copying? Many people have different answers so that, but in interviews, Brandon mentions that it was done completely subconsciously, and I believe him. To be fair, I don’t think that is copying.

Elements from your past experiences as well as your reading experiences will bubble up in your writing. I think the best method is to experience and read widely enough so that your creative subconscious mind doesn’t pull too much from any one source. As long as it’s merely trace elements here and there, I don’t see any reason for someone to fault another for that, and that’s essentially what artists do.

H.J.: Talk about writing tools. How is your writing process? Do you start by taking notes on a notebook and then move to a computer? Do you do it entirely using a computer? Do you prefer a specific software or OS? What is your opinion on typewriters? They are gaining popularity again because they say typewriters are less distracting because they do not have an Internet connection…

R.L.: That’s interesting about typewriters not having an Internet connection. I can see the appeal there, although there are apps and computer programs to block the Internet from computers. My writing process these days involves a normal Word document and a voice dictation software program. In fact, I’m writing this via voice dictation. It saves a lot of wear and tear on my hands, and it’s a bit faster. I do all my writing on a computer, notes and all.

H.J.: How do you work out a good middle part of a plot when the only thing that is clear in your mind is the beginning and the end of it? (Question by Rubén)

R.L.: For me, the challenge isn’t how to work out a middle part but to come up with interesting things to do to carry them to the end part. For that, I typically put more obstacles in the way of the character getting to the end

H.J.: What would be your advice to someone who wants to become a writer but has not been able to publish any of his/her works so far?

R.L.: It depends a lot on the person’s goals as a writer and whether that person is going for traditional publishing or self-publishing. The advice would vary quite a bit between the two. The advice I would give in all situations is to keep writing and keep producing. It’s not quite a “cure all,” but pretty close. It will improve the quality and increase visibility, because the writer has more products to offer.

H.J.: According to you, what are the main qualities that a future writer should have?

R.L.: It seems like an effective quality these days is productivity. Almost all cases of successful writers I have seen recently are ones who have a decent or large amount of titles published, be it traditionally published or self published.

The Idea Factory. Applebury Press.

H.J.: Answer in few words:

How many hours per week do you write? 

R.L.: I do an equal amount of editing to writing, but I typically put in somewhere around 20-25 hours a week into something having to do with writing.

The best moment of the day for writing is…

R.L.: For the day, it’s logging into my productivity log how many words I’ve written or how much I’ve edited.

The writer’s best ally is…

R.L.: Encouraging people around you who support your ambitions.

And his worst enemy… 

R.L.: Temptations to do other things and idle distractions.

Who is your favorite writer?

R.L.: I’d have to agree with Brandon Sanderson on Robert Jordan’s skill, so I would have to say him.

What is the book you’ve always dreamed about writing?

R.L.: Definitely a fantasy series.

H.J: Thank you so much for your time Ryan! 

R.L.: Thanks for having me on. I enjoyed it.

We encourage our readers to check out Ryan’s work! You will find the links to his books and personal webpage at the begining of the post.

Finally we want to announce that Elisabeth, Rubén and Alice won a copy of thanks to their comments in the last post!