Category Archives: Influences

Influences on my artwork and writing.

Influences: The Deathworlders by Phillip R Johnson

Posted on by

“The Deathworlders” is a shared fiction based on the premise that Earth is an unusually dangerous place, and anything that can survive there is also unusually dangerous.

I first heard of the idea through Reddit and Tumblr comment threads posted via the aggregator site MediaChomp. But I was able to track it down to its original archive.

The Deathworlders is now a major story with at least 90 chapters. I am currently somewhere near Chapter 67. Here’s the beginning, which was originally posted as a stand-alone story:
The Kevin Jenkins Experience.

More info:
https://www.facebook.com/HamboneHFY
https://deathworlders.com/books/deathworlders/

Two charming children’s books: “Kindness Pie” and “C is for Camp”

Posted on by

My former co-worker Rebecca Thompson has illustrated two charming children’s books. Both books were written by Kirstin Dias.

C is for Camp

The first book, published in 2021, is called “C is for Camp”. It’s an alphabet book that describes the journey of a family of bears to their cottage, or “camp”, in the woods. It is utterly charming and makes me intensely miss going to the cottage. Running off the end of the dock into the lake… the way the waves sorted the beautiful multicoloured sand of the beach… the smell of the woods… I miss it intensely.

But I was thinking… we always called it ‘the cottage’, not ‘camp’. To me, a ‘camp’ is an organized thing for public-school students. However, my sister lives in Sault Ste. Marie and calls it ‘camp’. Imagine my joy when I saw that Kirsten Dias, the author of “C is for Camp”, is from Sault Ste. Marie!

Continue reading →

And Now: Sequels to The Lonely Little Fridge!

Posted on by

Yes, today a passing remark from a co-worker crystallized a lot of stuff in my head, and now I have titles and ideas for the first two sequels to The Lonely Little Fridge!

I give you…

The Lonely Little Fridge: Spin Cycle

Little Fridge is settling into his new home, in the apartment with the guys. He starts to connect to the community of appliances and other devices in the apartment. But one day he is covered in damp clothes! The apartment is crowded with hanging damp clothes placed everywhere! It seems the apartment clothes washer and dryer has broken down.

Little Fridge sees the repair tech arrive. He’s afraid. Will the washer/dryer be thrown away like he was? And then the tech opens up the washer/dryer! What is this frightening event?

But then suddenly the washer/dryer is put back together, and starts operating normally. The guys rejoice and start gathering up the clothes to re-wash and finally dry them. Little Fridge can feel the joy of the washer/dryer, knowing it has been cared for and saved.

The Lonely Little Fridge: Spin Cycle will be followed by The Lonely Little Fridge: Rest Easy.

This story will be about the guys rescuing an abandoned chair. It’s inspired by the picture nearby, which was forwarded to me by another co-worker with the words, “This reminded me of you.”

Influences: Simona Cojocariu

Posted on by

Another of the stunning artists from Linked!n. Her work is also magical rooftops and cityscapes, but it’s completely different in feel than Camila Nogueira’s. The colour palettes are different, the style is less rigorously technical, and it feels friendly and small-scale, showing quiet moments in peoples’ lives.

LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simona-cojocariu-221074179/

ArtStation portfolio: https://www.artstation.com/simona03

The artwork that grabbed me: Morning Coffee: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/QrzVLx

Influences: Camila Nogueira

Posted on by

Camila Nogueira is a Portuguese illustrator, one of the artists I found on LinkedIn. Some of Camila’s works show the rooftops and alleys of fantastic cities, but others show fantasy landscapes and floating buildings. The style is a fusion of technical illustration and magical realism. And the colours are stunning. And apparently some of the artworks are of real places…?

I recently dreamed in Camila’s drawing style…

LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camilaillustration/

Website: https://camilaillustration.pt/

…and this is the work that grabbed me. Porto Alley II:
https://camilaillustration.pt/work/portoalley2

Books: How To Think When You Draw (and Write)

Posted on by

Kickstarters I Have Known and Loved #2

After 2018 I started following things on Kickstarter and Patreon. After pledging to a Kickstarter project to create a clock-radio using actual nixie tubes for display, I started to look at descriptions of other projects.

One such project was a series of cookbooks of art and writing tutorials by the Etherington Brothers out of England. Lorenzo Etherington handles the drawing; Robin Etherington handles the writing.

Lorenzo has a very intriguing, very traditional style of drawing. It’s very 1940’s dieselpunk, all big internal-combustion engines strapped to race cars. It reminds me of the old CARtoons magazine I used to read when I was a kid, or the original Mad Magazine, or even some of Will Eisner’s work (for examples, see Eisner’s Comics and Sequential Art).

Continue reading →

Books: How to Draw Black People (updated)

Posted on by

Kickstarters I Have Known and Loved #3

It is very good to be able to look out into the world and see yourself reflected back.

As a writer and cartoonist, I want to be able to portray and ultimately connect with all sorts of people. I have been noticing that all my people drawings tend to look like Generic White People, just as my trees tend to look like Generic Maple Trees. I have to remember to explicitly make things look different, to match the variety of people (and trees) I actually see on the street. But how to do that?

A week or so ago, I stumbled across a very interesting Kickstarter. 

Continue reading →