Sunday, October 30, 2016

Coma's End #30


Now, let me preface by saying this was originally the last piece of the series until it was reopened.
This piece has everything from the overhead light in my office, a collage of randomness of which had kinda been seen throughout, and the scribble man at the foot of his bed praying or looking into a dimensional vortex of some kind.

If you're ever stuck of something, just look around you.  The center of panel 1 is the overhead lamp in my office at home, distorted on paper, and then the solid black extra was added.  Just use something simple, distort it, and then add from there.

Panel 2, it's as mentioned, a lot at random but the type of stuff that had become the norm in Coma's End; i.e. abstract shapes, tentacles, parts of faces, etc, etc.  Even though I had spoken about the plus sides of self appointed perimeters, you STILL even then don't have to be locked down as you can see in panel two is a little bit of everything, making barriers within barriers.

Panel 3 is much like Panel 1 in which it's a normal setup that's distorted with little things.  The top bit is from the top closet spots in my office but then they get distorted with a cat tail, etc.  The rest of it is your typical bedroom setup with the scribble man at the foot of his bed looking into this...gateway type thing.  Since it was, as said before, a comic of sorts, this last panel was to represent the character finally waking from the coma.  HOWEVER, after it was all done, every page was rearranged when lettered so this WASN'T the last page.

This is now #30 in what will be an ongoing series.  At this moment, Coma's End remains endless.

Coma's End #29


Candy and weaponry!
Aliens!
Lines and dots!

With Panel 1, I had that vision of snacks and candy with knives and guns scattered throughout. It came out fairly similar to what was in my head.
Panel 2 was very simple once I did the first alien head I just felt that I should do the rest of the panel with a few more alien things.  Sometimes all it will take is some simple notion.
Panel 3 came in a wave of different tracings with random items I can't remember.  I went through tracing the different lines and dots and once the panel was done it didn't grab or captivate me at all.  I then saw it in a different way, adding textures such as the diagonal stripes on the right, the look of Philips head screws in the center, and then the black and white contrasts on the left.  Once these changes were made, I felt more from it.

Friday, October 28, 2016

Coma's End #28


Sometimes I don't really know what I'm drawing until it's done and even then I'm skeptical.  I take the first panel as theater actors.  While the dragon and its eggs in panel three are quite simple and bold, the second is the story of life to death.  One of the fun things about doing these scenes is that some of them can tell a story.

Coma's End #27


Broken pyramids, snakes, guitars, creepy scribble hands, and an octopus with a silly mustache - don't be afraid to just have fun with pieces.  Not everything has to be a serious moving picture.  You can still be a serious artist and do something others would find silly.   

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Coma's End #26


Panels one and three are definitely from the hip and while panel two is essentially as well there's a sort of craft to abstract shapes and patterns.  Panel two is definitely my favorite here.  You can say so much with just such abstract things.

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Coma's End #25


A full page of horror though it wasn't planned as every page is from the hip.  I was doing the doll from memory of a Raggedy Ann doll my wife has on a shelf when I decided to black out the dace but then put the face in a different spot.  The person hanging from the tree was an afterthought that I felt worked well.  The overall image is very peaceful and homey, which are always great templates to use for the little creepy things.
The second panel is simple yet says plenty and sometimes simplicity and minimalist works best.  A dinner table with two coffins stood up beside a fire place says more than anybody coming out of said coffins.
The demon like face in the third panel actually served as the back cover for when this was originally a comic.  And of course it's surrounded by abstract shapes.



Monday, October 24, 2016

Perimeters

Setting the three panel perimeters actually ended up helping me.  I could've easily just started with a blank page but I loved the idea of three different scenes, ideas.  If you set these boundaries for yourself, forcing you to work within them, you can do so much more than what you realize.  Sometimes those perimeters can help.  You can do full scenes or collages of ideas.  It doesn't have to be three long panels but you can shape your perimeters any way you want.  Ideas will come when you see your allotted space and you get to just go wild.  I know what you're thinking though, 'Why put limitations on art?'  And there's no limitation.  By setting some boundaries for yourself, it's not limiting.  Once I had set my boundaries for Coma's End my mind went CRAZY with ideas, more so than I did when I was first looking at a blank white page.  So if you want to do something but you're having trouble getting started, just do a plus in the middle of the page making four squares and go from there.

Coma's End #24


Now, while the images in panel two may appear to be trees of sorts, what was in my mind was actually large drills.
Panel three features a large creature's leg stomping through a castle.
The first panel and all the other panels like it, at the time were these images drawn 'from the hip' so to speak and now when I look at them they seem to be animating before my eyes.  I can see how they move and pulsate.

Just do what's in your mind regardless of how it's taken or seen by others.  Art is subjective and it may mean or be something else to you, someone else is always going to see something different and feel something different.

Sunday, October 23, 2016

Coma's End #23


The ghosts are back.  As I've mentioned before, I've always had a thing for the classic ghost look.
While the first panel is one scene, the third has it's own framework along with abstract shapes, little scribble men, and such shapes ended up making a face of sorts in the center.

Saturday, October 22, 2016

Coma's End #22

Often times I'll start in one corner and spread from there.
Sometimes I'll be working on an image comprised of traces and something tells me to leave it intentionally unfinished.
Asymmetry is often my friend in a lot of things.

Friday, October 21, 2016

Coma's End #21

Coal black eyes are very attractive to me in art. Often times I'll read a comic or see some other similar art and see the eyes thinking 'This character would grab me more if they'd just have the eyes solid black or even white for that matter.'
There's something about aquatic life and insects that really grab me. If I didn't go into the world of writing and art, a second choice would definitely have been entomology.

You can always infuse the things you love and that are attractive to you but you don't have to replicate them directly; just keep the essence of said things and create something new.

Coma's End #20

Sometimes I'll have an image in mind as well as abstractions and so instead of doing two different panels I'll do the image and then fill the rest of the space with the shapes in mind.
Something like the third panel starts off by a simple childish image... and then it needs something else in contrast like said childish image being eaten by a monster.

So you can always do more than one of the ideas in your head. You can also start with something so silly and simple only to add just that one off detail as I do so often in this series.

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Coma's End #19


Ah, the scribble man returns! Panel 1 is one of my favorite panels of the series.
After the shapes of the second panel I felt like it needed something and so I made the bar across the center. Sometimes it just takes something simple.
I think the third panel had started I believe it was with the top of one face and then decided on the rocket flare like bottom and then repeated this image before the wisps on top.
 

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Coma's End #18

It's fun to play Dr. Moreau and I do it often as seen in the first panel.
The second panel was more of a merging of shapes.
And the third I was definitely having galactic thoughts.

Sometimes they start with a simple shape and sometimes it starts with a skewed version of an animal.

My Eraserhead

David Lynch's Eraserhead, a film I love, is often described as filming a dream or nightmare.  The best way I could describe Coma's End is that it's my Eraserhead.  It's a nightmare in a coma; images of simplicity and complexity in black and white coming at you scene after scene.  Even without the words, which are easily found on www.52weeksofhorror.com, I still keep that description in mind as I continue the series.

Monday, October 17, 2016

Coma's End #17

Still not sure whether panel 2 is flowers or explosions.
Bees with lady legs was an image that had come to my mind after already doing the bees.

Sunday, October 16, 2016

Coma's End #16



When making the third panel, it was at first the wavy grid.  Then I felt it needed something else so I made the line patterns going in different directions.  But theeeeeen I found a smudge of my thumb in ink on the picture.  It sparked an idea.  So using the large marker I used for the panels' squares I repeatedly blackened my thumb and put my prints across the image.

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Coma's End #15

When this was a comic, I had used the first panel here as part of the cover.  The simplicity of the miner still draws my eyes to it.  Then again, the FrankenFoot in the third panel draws my eyes to it as well.  Sometimes it's the simple things.

Friday, October 14, 2016

Coma's End #14


One thing I've enjoyed doing in other works as well is my little scribble man.

The second panel of evil robots was once as minimal as the first panel of shapes and figures.  While I looked at the two I thought it needed some more detail but I felt the first panel just needed its bare appearance.

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Before the Coma

Sometime between writing the abstract song and drawing the art series I was talking to a friend at the factory we'd worked at about making a comic book.  He wasn't sure how to go about it and I was thinking of a simpler way for him to do the art for something I'd write.  I proposed every page have a set format, whether it be a four square panel set up or three long rectangle panels.  Needless to say, nothing came of the comic - maybe some day though.  Years later when I found the old lyrics, one of these formats came back to me and I decided to use it for what would be this odd experimental comic book.  And, of course, as explained, something was not feeling right about it so I took the words from it - which you can find in whole at www.52weeksofhorror.com - and decided to press forward as an art series.

Coma's End #13

A piece like this could explain the whole series: a strange scene, abstract shapes and patters, and a collection of random images in my head at the time of the pen hitting the paper.

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Coma's End #12

While some of these pieces will focus on a centerpiece there are plenty like this one that are as random as they come, which led my wife and parents asking plenty of questions haha.

While I love to fill the page on occasion I also enjoy minimalist tones with large blank gaps.  It all depends on my mood at the time.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Format

For a project like Coma's End I think a set format helps.  I knew I wanted something set in stone so that inside this structure I could do whatever I wanted.  Along with that I knew I wanted it to be black and white - I love B&W art and photography so it was always in my mind to do that.  I knew I wanted it to be straight ink on paper without the art being penciled first.  So the three panels was the format that I'd chosen from the beginning.  I find the format/structure helps so that's something to keep in mind if you're interested in doing something similar.

Coma's End #11

With panels like the first one here of just moving shapes I tend to think about films like 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I like to have fun with some of the panels like the second one altering the viewpoint.

Sometimes panels like the third one here will be done and then they need something a little extra like the like scribbly smiley faces.

Coma's End #10

Due to technical difficulties I couldn't post this yesterday.

Along with tweaking a regular animal to be some kind of 'creature' I'll also find abstract shapes growing bit by bit.

Sunday, October 9, 2016

Process

With other art projects, I'd think it out, pencil it, ink it, and go forward with whichever process next be it coloring or altering.  With Coma's End it's pretty much been the same process since the beginning: with a big Sharpie I make my three panels and, again as previously mentioned, I don't make them perfect rectangles.  Using a fine point pen, I get to work.  Sometimes I have at least one image in my head and others it all comes out pen to paper; just ink, no pencil.  If I don't start in a corner, then I start a bit more center and work my way out.  %99 of the time it's completely as I go with no thought.  Just straight ink, from the hip.

I had stopped when I got to #30 because it was the end of its original form as a comic, doing a 31st page to use as the title page.  It was all done over a year ago, probably two.  I started again recently with #32 after a lengthy absence and I'm happy to say it matches the rest of the series.  SO, with that said Coma's End continues and it feels good; especially when I'm writing and working on stuff but have an itch to draw.

Coma's End #9

You'll see plenty of tentacles in my work.  Not too sure why I've always been fascinated with creatures and machines with tentacles but it seems to be around.

Also, after starting with the panels, often times I'll draw something small without a thought of what to go with it and then, soon enough, I'll add more; such as the middle panel.

Saturday, October 8, 2016

Coma's End #8

Sometimes I find it best to start with scribbles and find something along the way; through chaos comes clarity. And of course, there's more randomness of whatever was in my head at the time whether it be a hook, a noose, bullet holes, or flying eye creatures.

Friday, October 7, 2016

Coma's End #7

Some of these start with a single image such as light coils or ant hills and some of them start of as simple blank shapes which are soon filled in with little detail.

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Coma's End #6

I start every piece the same: making the three panels. I never want them looking like perfect rectangles.

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Quick note

I don't know how long this series will last before I end it. Before, it was simple - do a comic's worth.  Now, I'm going to keep it going until I've had my fill.  Perhaps I may start a Cafe Press shop for some merch with the pieces or even just a book containing the whole series which will probably start or end with the written piece.  But, of course, that's all for much later.  I hope you all enjoy.

Coma's End #5

I'm not sure why but I've always had an affinity for the old school Ghost design.

Coma's End #4

Though I had meant for the center of the second panel to be a heart, my father and wife both kept seeing a vagina.

Coma's End #3


Coma's End is full of abstract shapes along with some kind of creature and, like this one, upside down bits.

Coma's End #2

A lot of these will have an idea here and there and then it will spill out into surrealist craziness.

Coma's End #1


This was the last one of this set to be drawn as it was done to be the title page.

Coma's End - the stripped words



Lost love never found…
A pond of numbers and fluff…
Pillow science…
…key punching…
…an exact science upon man…
Let the gum on the bottom of your shoes be a lesson…
…a lesson learned
Dream? Reality?
Why are you sleeping?
The doors will shut when they are too heavy…
Don’t be alarmed…
…it’s only a test.
Or is it?
It’s not a test.
It’s all real.
Very real and in your face and it’s not backing off…
It wants…
They want…
They’re knocking…
Knocking…
KNOCKING…
Knocking at your front door…
And yes…
They want you…
You’re at the top of their list…
Number One, Jack…
Number One…
Still with us?
Good.
You’ve done fine…
Now take a nice deep breath…
And tell the pigs in the pit how you feel…
and remind the lonely dogs in the street…
…that breakfast is served…
A nice big bowl of stars and stripes with warm milk
And a side of anarchy with the crusts cut off…
Slaughter the innocent…
and bathe in their blood
Sacrifice the virgin…
Upon the leafy mold that is Earth
Now follow the pink rabbit to the waterhole…
and wait for the bus.
Slay the pink rabbit
and leave it by the waterhole
Take the bus…
Get a window seat…
…and kick back
Thirsty? Soda?
Hungry? Candy?
In need? Indeed
Vegetarians with cannibalistic urges
A Sunday picnic gone astray
love hate love
hate love hate
Love thy neighbor…
…But don’t trust ‘em
Sugar. Salt. Repeat.
Sugar. Salt. Repeat.
control alt delete
control alt delete
…backslash
…backslash
Free?
Happiness in the distance
This coma’s nearing its end…
…and we’re waking up
NOW!
...
And our adventures remain a snapshot in secrecy
Shh, don’t tell anyone
Promise?
We’ll see…

COMA’S END

Welcome to a paranoiac nightmare from the depths of man’s psyche while the grieving soul sleeps.
Please enjoy your stay.
By Christopher Michael Carter