Koda

I keep noticing lately how some relationships I have with people will flow naturally forward. How there are people some who seem to be naturally open, and I am able to be open with too. And how there are also some that, no matter how hard I try to push, just don’t seem to be this way.

I think one thing I’ve recognized in the last few months is how important it is to appreciate these relationships in life. And to try to cultivate them as much as I can.

Somatized.

So much to do and yet so little time.

Oh boy. I have fallen in absolute head-over-heels love with Copper, a monthly comic by Kazu Kibuishi. It’s gorgeous, artful, interesting, funny, wise, colorful, and ad-free. And it’s two unlikely protagonists will absolutely win you over.

With it’s monthly schedule, Kibuishi clearly takes the time to do things right. Copper has been in the making for 4 years, so there’s a good amount (with a huge amount of effort and art) to read. Be warned though, after reading these fantastic comics, you’ll be left wishing that the next one would come sooner!

Also worth reading is the digital part of Kibuishi’s description of his method. There are many excellent digital coloring techniques and sensibilities that may be gleaned from his tutorial. What I found most interesting was his choice to scan in high resolution and threshold the line art down to aliased black and white values. As primarily a vector artist, I originally bristled at this approach, but the way he utilizes it for convenient selection is very reasonable. And after all, if it’s done in high-res, it can always be sized down to an antialiased finished project afterwards. A fascinating read!

Wikipedia: Homo Sapiens Sapiens. Part of me can’t help but want to flag it as biased.

Perhaps part of being an artist is getting really really good at something, setting it aside, and trying something completely different. Isn’t it a strange coincidence that, the artists who usually have the most to say, have found the most ways to say it in?

Skill is inevitably attainable. Experience breeds skill. But vision is something we are born with, and spend the rest of our lives trying to find. Vision is message, purpose, and drive. Skills can help bring attention to a vision, but visionless skills talk a lot but say very little.

To me it’s reassuring that we can always find something we’re terrible at the first time around. It’s equally reassuring to think that every time I do, there’s more meaning in there, somewhere behind the terribleness.

I think to be an artist is like being a warrior; part training, and a vastly larger part perspective. Fighting battles is pointless if you lack the perspective to justify why you fight.

Sense a pattern? I do.