Why comics?

For many years I have been a realistic artist, specializing in animal portraits and scientific subjects. For those of you who regularly follow my blog and Facebook pages, you might not even know that fact based on all the cartoon artwork that I have done recently.

So, why the big change?

For me, the answer goes back to my childhood. It’s a not-so-secret fact that I have always been a storyteller. Whether it’s writing or illustrating them, storytelling is very near and dear to my heart.

Right now, I am preparing to move into a new phase of my life where I plunge ahead into the world of storytelling head-first. When you dive into the deep end of a pool for the first time, you put all your swimming skills together in a new way. You get ready and just leap. That’s what I feel like I am preparing to do right now in my life. It’s important to me. It’s just plain important.

Creating characters that can adequately play their roles in a story is of tremendous value in storytelling, especially if you plan on doing an illustrated book. Thus my recent interest in studying masterful cartoonists.

Tasuki sketches

In that on-going exploration, here is my most recent page of character studies, also from “Fushigi Yugi,” by Yu Watase. This character is named “Tasuki.” (Pronounced “Taski” with the “a” sounding like the “o” in “Oscar.”) He was much easier for me to draw than the hero, Tamahome. Tasuki’s a secondary character and he’s a hot-head. Apparently, I “get” this guy pretty well. He was quite fun to draw. ;-)