Day in the Life of Transit mockup

In the correct order of appearance...

Lou mockup

In backwards order of appearance...

Van Gogh mockups

not in order of appearance...

Mock-ups

Here are two pages from the mock-up I am doing for my story of Lou, a boy who daydreams of walking in the grass late at night but never does and instead waits until he is a middle aged guy whose life has past him by and where he finally realizes that he can't think of anymore excuses not to act on this daydreamed impulse, so he finally does.
I have completed the writing and storyboard for this short story and am now working on the dummy for it.
I am also currently working on the storyboard for Jack, and have assembled a dummy to start working on for this story as well.

Studying and such...

Things have been-a-busy this last week, and a big part of it has been researching and brainstorming for the stories I'm working on. Trips to the library, a comic book shop in Ashland, and reading up on literature have kept me busy and so far I've compiled a bit of inspiration:
Movies-
1.) Amelie
I really like the stylization and narration of the movie, plus the French theme is appropriate for my story about Jack/Jacque
2.) An American In Paris
French theme is appropriate, mostly as a guide to the stereotype of Paris; I also enjoy the narration and subtle snarkiness of Oscar Levant.
3.) Broken Flowers
The balance of humor, awkwardness and discontent fits the mood of the character Lou
4.) Sideways
GREAT mood for Lou character, and for scene changes throughout his routine
5.) Benny & Joon
inspiration perhaps for the character Anne, quirky inspirational character development
6.) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
bombshell character studies for Jack/Jacque study
7.) Rear Window
the isolation and creative solutions for boredom may provide ideas for character Lou
8.)Les Femmes
character study for Jack/Jacque character

9.)The Triplets of Belleville
Animated stylization of characters, frame changes, and examining visual narration opposed to written

10.)La Vie En Rose

French theme

11.)Little Miss Sunshine

Visual narration, and overall mood to aspire to

12.)Napoleon Dynamite

Awkward transitions by abruptly changing distance through frames instead of smoothly zooming in or out.

13.)Flight of the Conchords

Moods through music inspire me, and Flight of the Conchords gives me ideas for my pretend soundtracks I’ll give the stories to capture the mood I want them to have.

14.)Inglorious Basterds

Using Fonts to play with emotions, evoke humor, and create an overall mood

15.)Hedwig And The Angry Inch

‘Soundtrack’ compilation ideas, animation, stylization, and mood

Literature-
1.) Understanding Comics The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud

Great ideas in how to approach and combine writing and illustration to its fullest potential
2.) Adult Comics An Introduction by Roger Sabin

Ideas in how to address and tactfully/not so tactfully handle mature subject matter
3.) The Norton Anthology of English Literature The Twentieth Century vol. 2C 7th Ed.

Poetry, using minimal wording to fullest and liveliest potential
4.) The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish by Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean

Inspiration in well crafted illustrations combined with humorous narration
5.) Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Inspiration through well crafted simple illustrations interwoven with both humor and mature subject matter

6.)Stanzas in Meditation by Gertrude Stein

Examining word play and how they relate not only in context but also in sound

Project Proposal

0.) Project Title :Project Mayhem

1.) My goal for Project Mayhem is to explore ideas concerning illustrations and approaches to their interaction with writing context and subject matter.

2.) Project Mayhem will be a series of short stories complete with illustrations. Each story will play with a children's book format but deal with subject matters bordering on being adult. Each book will focus on a carefully developed character and a story evolved around the character.

3.)The products of study for Project Mayhem will be in the form of four to five formatted short stories with illustrations, each focusing on a contrived character.

4.)Visual research for Project Mayhem will include studying works by artists such as Egon Schiele, Aubrey Beardsley, and various artists who deal with cartoons and comics.

5.)Visuals for my project will come from my illustrations and final copies of books. Progress of this will be kept in the blog, journals, and sketchbooks.

6.)During the course of Project Mayhem, it will be necessary to review and work in Photoshop and InDesign to format the stories properly. I have worked in both programs extensively in similiar projects to this, although I plan on familiarizing myself with InDesign to become more profficient on formatting. As far as illustrations are concerned, I will first be drawing and watercoloring each one by hand and then scanning them into Photoshop for further finetuning.

7.)Timeline for Project Mayhem:

October 7th- Character Mock-ups
October 21st- Stories written
Nov. 18th- Illustrations finished
Nov.30th- Stories Formatted and Photoshopped
December 4nd- Printed