How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Sorta Love The Computer

Artistically, most of what I do is technology free. I write in a notebook with a pen, draw with a pencil onto paper, ink with a brush and waterproof black india ink. I suppose I am pretty old fashioned in my attachment to these tools. But there is something about the physical artistic process of pencil to paper that just feels right to me. Simlilarly, the work produced using these tools has an organic, spontaneous quality that is still difficult to replicate in a computer (ironically, I work on a 3D animated TV show created primarily in Maya).

But in the last 5 years, I have slowly learned to use my computer to tackle some of the tasks which would be either too difficult or impossible to do otherwise. After my cousin Patrick and I collaborated in assembling my old (now defunct) website, I updated it and maintained it myself ever since, learning how to use Photoshop fairly well. I have also been using Photoshop to layout and color the non-art pages and cover elements of Logjam, my former self-published comic book.

So it dawned on me a couple of months ago that I could use my computer at work, plus the free use of the professional grade scanners and printers there to get a jump on the sections of the comic that I would have to do in the computer anyway (shhh, don't rat me out)! Not only is my computer at work far more powerful that the 5 year old laptop I am currently pounding away on, but sneaking to do a personnel project at work is a big "fuck you" for all the sacrifices I have made for my job (detect any bitterness there?). I am actually grinning as I type this... it honestly feels great to get paid at work to do my own thing here and there, he he.

Anyway, there are two parts of Pop Zeus I have been cranking away on at work...

1. a Pollard inspired mega-collage using all the GBV album images that have resonated with me over the years- intended for the overlapping inside front and back covers of the comic

and

2. fake ads to be placed in between the stories in Pop Zeus- inspired by the ads I remember from comic books when I was a kid, but with a GBV rock twist. You know... Charles Atlas, selling seeds packets for prizes, Sea-Monkeys, etc.

Below is a preview of the collage. It's not quite finished, still some shifting and extra elements to add. And this version is much much smaller and lo res compared to the finished product.

I have realized that Photoshop was made for collage and its been really fun putting it together. A huge thank you to Jeff at the Guided By Voices Database for sharing the majority of art used in the collage! And of course, thank you Bob for all these amazing and inspiring images! Enjoy and I will post more art and stuff as I am able. BTW, I am feeling a little better today, but probably won't be going to work tomorrow, boo-hoo ;)