Archive for the ‘art’ Category

Daybreakers: What went wrong?

Last night some friends and I went to see the new movie Daybreakers. Honestly, I’m a little sick of vampires, but I wanted to see what they did with it.

Daybreakers is the vision of the Spierig brothers. With the 1940s style costuming and vampire friendly environment you feel like you’re seeing something close to our world, but just a little different. I thought this was nicely done, even though in a few places it felt more like I was watching a music video than a film.

Honestly, this story almost made it for me. I think it’s greatest weakness was its hero. The main character fails to grab your interest, because even though he has an overriding concern, he never goes through any great transformation. He makes a physical transformation, but not a psychological or moral one, which leaves the audience with the feeling of, ‘What’s the point?’

He’s a victim hero and those guys are never any fun unless they’re out for hardcore, car-exploding, mob-bosses-dying-in-terrible-ways revenge. Our hero has no need to change, because he’s there to do exactly what the writer wanted him to do–show off the neat vampire world. Had more work been done to create a satisfying hero arch, you would have seen a completely different movie. A much better movie.

It’s good eye-candy though and there are a few cheesy lines that got a good laugh, but overall it falls short of being a satisfying film experience.

Where do you get your inspiration?

I have to admit that I’m a real hooked fish for visual images. Most of my characters are inspired by something I’ve either seen in a movie, comic, manga, or other visual arts. Digital paintings and fantasy art are a never ending inspiration for me.

I think all illustrators have to be story tellers to really make their work stand out. It’s a much more difficult form of storytelling than what I do. I can capture an entire event, from it’s start to its finish, and hopefully give the reader the feeling that what they read was something real. And illustrator, painter, or other still image artist must capture a single moment in time and give the viewer the impression that life came before this image and that life will continue beyond it.

As an author, I will often look at a work and ask myself questions about the character. Who is this person or this thing? How did she get where she is? Where is she going or where does she want to go? What is she most afraid of?

When exploring the fantastical there’s more to the depth of character than the fact that the fantastical is unreal. Unreality is the easy part. It’s exploring the reality of the unreality that’s difficult. It’s the process of bleeding over enough reality that the unreal seems more likely than our physical world.

This is why I tend to appreciate Realism as an art form more than any other. Realism doesn’t always mean that the subject of the image is real. It has more to do with style. I just want to point you in the direction of some artists who are working with the style to tell some fantastic stories.

Warning: many of these sites contain adult content and might not be suitable for younger viewers or a typical work environment.

Brom – Not only a talented artist, but now a novelist. Doesn’t quite seem fair, does it?
Ryohei Hase – Digital painter
Dorian Cleavenger – gothic pinup
Lauren Cannon – digital artist
Patrick Arrasmith – Etchings
Anne Yvonne Gilbert
Samuel Araya

Like I said, these are just a few of my favorites. I’m always looking for more inspiration, so please feel free to leave me a comment and let me know who some of your favorite visual artists are.