Some place new

A long, grey raincloud rolled sluggishly overhead, and in higher altitudes smudges of white broke up the cold blue sky. Standing tall was an assortment of mountainous trees: oak, madrone, pine- the wind raking through their leafy manes like a tugging comb. The rain fell with decreasing persistence, and when staunched finally to a light drip, fell silent on the dewy grass.
A pair of dark, wet birds perched nearby on the black cables of a power line. They passed back and forth in a soft chatter of clicking and squawking as they gossiped together the latest fowl news. The two payed no mind to the trained eye of a neighboring cat. He seemed too lazy to be capable of more than a fierce stare, and the bird pair were quite aware of this fact. They began to sing.
Unobserved, the cat slinks away.

Someone new: Miss Van

I discovered Miss Van in my favorite magazine, Juxtapoz. Doll like figures meet happy forest critters just before being stranded in a dark corner to fend for themselves. Brooding, seductive and (yes), even charming in their very own special way, Miss Van's paintings are fallen angels making their own in the world, and I love it.
One thing I find particularly interesting about Miss Van's work is the way she casts her shadows, contrasting focal points on top of a washed out background. It makes for an impression that something else could be happening just outside of sight, lurking and hidden. I never thought myself much of a macabre fan, but a fan of Miss Van I am.

My "artistic father": Heinrich Kley

Heinrich Kley has a fabulously loopy style, scribbling and slashing his way into my heart. Uninhibited by traditional standards, his illustrations depict fantastic scenes of common place people doing not so common place things. His imagination seems to root from either a wonderful drug trip or a bad dream: either way, this artist steps outside the boundaries of normal ink drawing and into another realm of its own.
I draw alot of inspiration Kley because I too have a very loose style of drawing, though I'm light years away from the technical genius Kley has developed. The world he depicts is one I hope to incorporate into my own: a reality of playful lines and comic actions. Kudos to Kley, master of the pen.

Project

0. Working title: Other Realm
1. Project goals: Exploratory. It's my first time trying to make a serious comic!
2. A project description: I first wanted to do an online comic, but considering my classical training in the non digital medias, I have decided to keep it to a hard copy version of an adventure comic.
3. Specific products of study or deliverables that you will be creating for your project: In regard to media, I'd like to try out photo shop but my fallback is what I'm familiar with- namely ink, acrylic, watercolor, maybe some sharpies. I enjoy mixing medias and am not sure which format I am going to use consistently.
4. Visual and/or written research for your project: So far I found actually a lot of inspiration from the art of the movie 300. I've also found the art of Ukiyo-e prints to be fascinating, and hope to incorporate the lovely landscapes somehow into my own art. We will see!
5. Treatment visuals for your project: None yet so far, but coming soon I expect!
6. A written description of specific technical and research issues you will need to address during the course of your project: I'm looking to make a comic with a dark atmosphere and fantasy environment. I'm particularly interested in drawing ideas from mythology and dream analysis, so one of my specific research goals is to find a good source for both these components that ideally will encompass the main of my story.
7. Timeline:
Monday, Sept. 4th: First page completed
Monday, Sept. 11th: Second and third page completed
So on and so forth until I have more of an idea where I'm going with this