It occurred to me the other night as I poured through a boatload of past character designs in my studio cabinet (I tossed out a ton of paper) that I have a bunch of potential cartoon characters just waiting to be brought to life in comic book or strip form. That indeed has always been my problem….I have a bunch of “potential” strips in me just waiting to come out!!! Seems like every time I sit down to bring one of these funny looking characters to life, I come up with a few more!
I have finally decided to STOP!!! What I need to do now in the coming weeks is to start to produce a strip or two with these guys and see if any take hold and run off on their own! It’s that first week of strips that seems to be really difficult for me to get off the ground that MUST happen before a “second” or “third” week can begin to materialize.
When I was working on my book, I remember how the story began to take on a life of its own once I got to about the third chapter and it was then a blast to write!
Sure,..I had my outline and I kind of knew how I wanted it to begin and end,…but the middle became a work of passion once I found the groove and became one with the characters. I believe that this phenomenon will also hold true for me with a comic book, comic strip or animated feature.
So….you may see a strip or two appear up here and then POOF!!….disappear as I realize that the potential really was never there to begin with. The result of this exercise will hopefully be a strip that I can be proud of and faithful to as I press on through the years. Time will tell.
As for a countless number of pieces of art that made it to my trash can over this past weekend,…goodbye and good riddance! It feels good to weed out the bad for the sake of the “not so bad!”
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