Creativity can be a weird ride.

It always amazes me how I can both love doing something so much, and at the same time be so critical of that which I enjoy. It makes me wonder if I'll ever find some sort of zen place with my art, where I truly like what I create in a complete way.

Of course I realize I'm still very young, creatively speaking, so there are decades of growth ahead.

Today I brewed Starbucks "House Blend" coffee. It's not bad, though I still prefer a cup of Columbian any day. I've had two cups black, and 4 with Amaretto creamer, making me delightfully energetic!

The weather here was gray and rainy, which I personally enjoy, but following what seemed to be a long winter it'd be nice if we had some more sunshine.

This is a piece that I did early last week, prior to the last piece which I had posted here:

Current Location: Michigan
Current Mood: determined
Current Music: Dimmu Borgir

I've been playing with the style in which I do my work, for the last week. It's been a massive headache as I draw and redraw things, testing different techniques, trying to find what it is that I would like to do with my work.



It's obvious that I'm going in a more animated direction. For years my work has been influenced by animation and manga, more so than anything in American comics, which is ironic considering that much of my work has looked so "Image". But if you were to check out most of my Soulblazer work, and even some of the unpublished work that I did with Rob Liefeld, I think that you can see where my interests have lied all along.

The trick with the new style for me, is that I'm still trying to find a balance for all of the detail that I like to draw, while simplifying the work at the same time.

I'm hoping that in the coming months, things will really start to come together as I keep pushing myself to improve at the many aspects of comic book creation, from my drawing style down to the style of storytelling that I employ.

One of the toughest parts of this challenge for me, is that I'm doing it "midstream", in my Soulblazer story. Issue 3 so far has been illustrated in my "old" style, and now I'm going to change that style up in the middle of the story. I may end up redrawing much of what I have "finished" of issue 3. (Good god I'm anal.)

Hopefully, when I finally get through this little trial, I and my work will come out improved and stronger.

It reminds me of a quote by Nintendo's lead game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario and pretty much everything else in modern games, "A bad game is bad forever, a delayed game will eventually be a good game."

So, I'm hopeful that eventually I will release a truly good comic.

On the same note, during the 7 year filming of Apocalypse Now, people began calling the movie "Apocalypse Whenever". I think it's safe to say that the time put into the film was more than worthwhile, but I *hope* that it won't take me 7 years to get Soulblazer going...

Current Mood: determined
Current Music: Amon Tobin

Hi, and welcome to my blogspace here at Livejournal. This is sort of new territory to me, as the only "blogging" I've ever really done has been to post announcements on my myspace page, My myspace , feel free to add me if you're a member of that community.

Also, I have a website shanepeters.com, which I update semi-frequently.

So, I'm a 33 year old illustrator from Michigan, and currently I'm working on a comic book property titled "Soulblazer". (Amongst other things which you'll learn about later.) Originally I conceived of this series as an ongoing monthly comic book, but my recent deliberations have led me to believe that I will skip the more traditional comic format, and go straight into a digest sized trade paperback format.

If you're confused by what that is, picture something like a readers digest book.

This, dear reader, is a cover to a preview book that I had published last year:



In coming posts to this blog, I'll share some of the insights that I have when creating characters, plots, and conceptualizing, that will give you a better look at just exactly what it is that I do, and how it is that I do it.

I hope that it will be of help to some of the other creative types out there, and also to myself. They say writing journals can be therapeutic, so I'll be putting that to the test!

Feel free to reply to me here with anything you'd like to discuss. If you have questions about art, writing, or even what movies I'm watching, feel free to ask!

And special thanks to Kelly for kicking my derriere when it needs it!

Current Mood: determined
Current Music: Dimmu Borgir