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[jefflewis]

Okay, let's try this new trick again... posting an image to a message.
Here's a poster I just drew for an upcoming NYC show I'm doing in April (Peter Stampfel's Banjo Squadron is also on the bill)

[img]http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/138/xjgs.jpg

[/img]

[jefflewis]

Didn't work! What did I do differently that time?
Trying again:

[jefflewis]

It worked!!!!

[Dav]

Real nice
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[misshelenc]

Lovely, it must have taken ages xx
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You don’t put your life into your books. You find it there.

[jefflewis]

I went thru a few options before ending up with that one... first I drew just the head and lettering, which took way longer than I thought it would, I should have just done the lettering free-hand but instead I wanted to try to use my curve-guide tools to get the lettering to look more "professional"... I never quite have the skill or patience to REALLY get it looking professional, I mean, look at what Chris Ware can do with curve guides and lettering to see how far away I am from the real skill levels. Anyway, this was the first version that I drew:


After I scanned that in I tried messing with it in photoshop, darkening certain parts, adding circles so that it looked like a "record" inside the head, ended up with this:


I liked this idea but I thought it would look better if I actually drew it by hand instead of adding these computerized circles and black/white layers in photoshop, so I went back to the sketchbook drawing and drew a record inside the head and scanned the revamped drawing in again:



Then the final change was that I realized it looked bolder when I had darkened in a bunch of the lettering to be solid black, so that's what I did to end up with the final version that I posted first.

[misshelenc]

I totally agree with the changes made, you definitely improved it somewhat every time and the right one made the final in my opinion. I am overwhelmed by the amount of work it all takes though, every time I put hours into a creative project I end up getting disillusioned with my lack of talent and chucking it away in a fit of self hatred, so anyone that finishes anything, no matter how good or bad, is inspirational to me. You are so talented. It's a good job I like you so much or I'd be a bit sick.xxxxx
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You don’t put your life into your books. You find it there.

[jefflewis]

Ha, well obviously I'm not posting all the stuff that I DID put hours into, got disillusioned with my lack of talent, and chucked away in a fit of self-hatred and despair! Cuz there's plenty! I try to console myself with the adage "those who fail more succeed more", but often it doesn't give me much consolation...

[Dav]

I've just noticed the hairs on the head, nice detail.

Gig posters are great most of the time. Here is a real nice one i found a couple of days ago, wish i d owned the actual poster tho... :


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[jefflewis]

wow that's so awesome! Great poster.
Did that show happen yet or is it still coming up?
i usually don't like when bands/artists play an entire album in concert but Artist Vice is so great (and usually overlooked in Daniel's catalog)... it'd be so awesome to hear those songs live, with the Wave Pictures playing the music! They played "My Life Is Starting Over Again" at the Daniel Johnston show at the Barbican, it was fantastic.

[Dav]

I think it's happening in July.
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http://uberaffe.bandcamp.com

[misshelenc]

I like the original Hole posters Courtney Love used to do, they were like, magazine pictures covered in quotes and lyrics and drawings and just had the feeling that I could do something similar in my little notebooks quite easily.
As for failure equalling more success, well, come on, that's just not true, not in my case, ever. I don't think I've done anything I'd consider successful in my whole life. x
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You don’t put your life into your books. You find it there.

[jefflewis]

Just means you haven't failed enough yet, maybe...? There's that saying about writers, as a writer you have 50,000 bad pages in you that you have to write out one at a time before you start getting to the better stuff... I don't know, this is always a weird topic. Some things can be improved with more and more work... other things seem out of this equation. But maybe that still just means I haven't tried hard enough at those other things that I struggle with. And also, even though I've put so much work and time into drawing comics all my life I'm still a million miles away from being a world-class comic book artist, I'm not even in the starting rank of the business really, here I am 38 years old and I still don't have a publisher, I'm still just paying to make copies of my own comics just like when I was a teenager photocopying my comics! I always sing that Morrissey line to myself... "you just haven't earned it yet... you must struggle and cry for a longer time..." Some people seem to succeed without all that much struggle though! Maybe that's an illusion.

[Dav]

Not trying to sound nice or anything, i borrow a lot of comic books at my local library and i sometimes am suprised by the real low quality and inspiration of stories and drawing, and it always makes me wonder why you don't get publish and some real rubbish does, your art is real great and your story are funnny, clever and makes us learn things most of the times, doesn't seems real fair to me.
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[misshelenc]

If I fail any more I'll stop going out of my house entirely. Just don't have it in me. Better to give up and carry on doing the few normal things I continue to do. Most of the time I wish the dreams were dead, they only taunt me.
_________________
You don’t put your life into your books. You find it there.