Creating the twisted, tortured art for the horror novel LOOP helped me define the tone of my story.
Creating the twisted, tortured art for the horror novel “LOOP,” helped me define the character and tone of the story I put on the page.
It seems everything I write, whether feature screenplay or short film and now novels, not always horror, most times violent, have the common denominator of “intensity.”
“Crafting a story and finding those first few words that transform a blank page into a “first-page” is always a time of excitement.”
Creating the twisted, tortured art for the horror novel “LOOP,” helped me define the character and tone of the story I put on the page.
It seems everything I write, whether feature screenplay or short film and now novels, not always horror, most times violent, have the common denominator of “intensity.”
Crafting a story and finding those first few words that transform a blank page into a “first-page” is always a time of excitement.
Discovering the story as I write it, meeting characters who introduce themselves to me in situations that I had yet to imagine, purposely painting myself into a corner and then sometimes agonizing over how to best escape the self-imposed confines of the story, is sometimes frustrating, but at all times thrilling.
Knowing that I’ll need cover art, I typically start early in the process. It is the same for films I have done. We all know that feeling of looking at something days or weeks (or years) later, and knowing we could have done better, and sometimes, knowing just what we would do to fix it, playing armchair quarterback with our work. My way of solving it is to tackle it early. Those days or hours I need to take a break from the writing, working out the puzzles I create for myself, I can stay productive, revisit, and many times, refresh my original concepts.
These explorations of images stimulate new ideas for my stories, new directions for research and keep the process fun.
Of course, as I get closer to sharing my work, the joy can become a bit of torture!
Here are a few of the concepts I created and painted, both in traditional mediums and digitally, then scanned and combined in Adobe Photoshop.
Maybe the hardest part is organizing the dozens, sometimes hundreds of variations.
I embrace the insanity, letting the work consume me, sometimes day and night.
I don’t pretend it’s the best way to work, but after writing 29 feature screenplays, directing three feature films, crafting a couple of dozen movie posters, and now writing my first novels, I’ve learned to accept that it is my way.
I pull inspiration from everywhere, and like many, sit in awe of much better artists.
I’ll post a few links to some of the artist that I really admire in my next blog… and if you find yourself in need of inspiration or just enjoy watching masters at work, this will be time well spent. (and all these guys are entertaining as hell…)
Awesome work, some really nice sick excellent work. Can’t wait to see the movie. Cheers