KARA

12 days! I think that's the longest that I haven't blogged since I took that huge break last year. So what's happened? Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with alien abduction, accidental arrest, deportation, kidnapping or a zombie apocalypse here in Australia (I'm reading World War Z and The Walking Dead, so I'm a little obsessed right now). It has more to do with me heading away for the weekend and miscalculating the number of pages I had to do as a full time comic book artist. I accidentally came in under my weekly quota, and then worked my butt off to get back on my deadline the last week. Blogging was a luxury I had to forgo.

I also slipped back all my commission dates back a week, and you would have received an email from me, if I had to do so. But it's all good now. I'm in a great rhythm of drawing, smashing out a page a day as well as back into the commissions, so it's all back to normal at Camp Jason.

I'm also working on my writing pitch and enjoying the hell out of it. I love writing! While I draw, my brain nuts out the problem that stopped me writing last time, then as it clicks, I jot it down for later. It's a great process.

"But don't you draw?"

This has been the most common reaction. It's like human beings are only capable of one of the other, and only an incredible amount of audacity will allow you to consider doing both. But I realised that what I really enjoy doing is telling stories. Now I'm growing less and less interested in telling other people's stories and dying to tell my own. I'm looking forward to showing you the first one.

Now for today's piece: KARA. Why not Supergirl? I mean, everyone knows that Supergirl's real name is Kara. But Kara is also the name of my model and inspiration here. From the moment I met her, I thought to myself what a great Supergirl she would make. Despite being a fair few years older than Supergirl, Kara is funny, smart, lovely and that is actually her body. She's kinda stunning.

I wanted to get away from the Playboy cheesecake that permeates the current comics where she's depicted less like Supergirl and more like Superslut. I find those depictions of a 15 (16?) year old girl... dubious. When I wanted to do my own take I wanted to infuse her with a personality that I find interesting. So I turned to Kara, and she leaped at the opportunity to model as Supergirl for me.

My goal was to create a depiction of the character that young women would idolise as much as I idolise Superman. I wanted an ethereal, almost non-human majesty combined with a smile and tilt of the head that belies her humanity.

Thanks to Kara's patience and creativity, we shot a bunch of great reference photos, and I will get to more pieces in the future. In the meantime, thanks for bringing Supergirl back for me, Kara.

Unfortunately there's no step by step process as I was horrified to find that I'd flattened the image. =(

COMMISSIONS: Still taking these on, but delivery dates have moved to the new year. Upcoming are a bunch of original characters, Diamond Lil, Emma Peel, Deathblow & Grifter, some portraits and more!

SKETCHBOOKS: Some are still available (I'm finding them sandwiched between piles of comics, papers and books). $10 + $2 postage in Australia and $5 for outside.