Ello, Ello! What's all this then?

Hello blogging world! Nice to meet you, I'm Rosengeist.

Sometimes when I look at art, or engage myself in a story I wonder "what did it take to make this? What was the process?" I can't be the only one out there who has felt this. There are many books and films and websites that chronicle the creation of a work after it has been completed, but few that document the process in real time, showing the thoughts, influences, rough work and beliefs that make it up. So much of our memories about things are changed by the passage of time, the erosion of memory and the influence of outside forces and emotions. It is difficult to sincerely relate experiences as time goes by. To that end, I would like to start blogging about my thoughts and experiences as I create a web-comic called "The Light Eater".

I am both the author and illustrator of this comic, and it is finally starting take on a concrete shape. Currently I have a finished cover (though I hated the lettering on it and removed it). Though I did have a first page that was completed, I was not ultimately happy with it, and I am currently in the process of reworking that first page.

There are those of you out there who are already aware of and interested in the story, and I am sure there are some questions as to why I changed the style so early on. Now that I have stated the reason why I started this blog, allow me to address this issue. This story began it's life roughly a year ago, at the beginning of last February. It was at first a short story, than a kind of 8 chapter illustrated novella, and eventually it became a comic. She just couldn't quite find the shoe that fit. Throughout all of these different incarnations however, the added and subtracted characters, the changes in setting and personalities, one thing remained consistent...the darkness punctuated by bits of light.

There was something that felt too airy, too soft about the original art style. It was done in primarily flat watercolors with some color pencil work...quite frankly it was too fluffy for the sort of story I wanted to tell. I pushed ahead with the style anyway, convinced the story would grow into it in time. However while discussing the issue with SuburbanBeatnik http://suburbanbeatnik.deviantart.com/ http://www.joannerenaud.com/blog/ who encouraged me to try a different style since I felt this way.The result was something darker, something sharper, more menacing and bleak. The first chapter of the comic is about a girl who marries a masked man in a small, dank chapter to escape her homeland, and as she walks down the aisle, she feels no joy, only anxiety that she has left behind a boy she loved very much, and that she does not know what has become of him. The original art style was all bright colors, soft edges and bright light. There was nothing in it that suggested her paranoia, her regret, her tension, or the tension of those around her. This was a decided miserable wedding, more Goya or Munch in tone than anything else, and I was treating it as though it were a Renoir garden scene as far as the color and light went (by no means do I compare myself to any of these men. There skills all surpass mine...even if Renoir was a tad over-rated...) It didn't even match the cover artt which was macabre and a bit sharper visually.

Also, I figured it was better to change now and simply redo one page, than to decide to do this 20 pages in.

You can see the cover (which I am pretty happy with overall) and the first page that no longer is part of the comic below.

Here's the cover. Sans the hideous text (trust me it was uck, I had no other choice but to end it!) -

And here is the original first page. The softness...it is too soft!

The re-working of the first page should be up soon, within a day or so. It is almost complete! Well, hope to hear from you guys soon and I hope you'll enjoy! :)