comics – The Art of David Stankowicz

Pivoting to new endeavors

Hey!

I’m back again but this time with a bit of a new approach. This is going to be an update on many of the art things I’m doing and working on. I’d like to do this type of thing every few months to keep you all in the know with whatever art related things I have in the pipeline. So let’s get into it!

The first thing, and you may have noticed this already, but I closed down commissions for the forseeable future. I did a handful of commissions here and there, but now I want to focus on other things that will take up more of my time and energy. So I simply won’t have the time to devote to it as before. So for that reason I’m closing the doors on it for now. Will I open them again? Possibly, but it’s really hard to say right now. I’ll certainly consider it down the road.

So what could I possibly be focusing all my attention on that would cause me to shut down commissions? Well, the answer is me. Quite simply, I want to start working more on the projects that I am truly passionate about. The ones that I decide are important. Now that could be seen as selfish and I guess it is a bit. But my whole life I have been doing work for others making their ideas and visions come to life. Well now I want to apply all my attention to making my ideas a reality. I’ve had so many ideas that I never followed through on for whatever reason. Life is short, so I’m deciding it’s time to work on my ideas before it becomes too late.

One of the things I’m doing is putting a big focus on my presence on creator supporting sites, specifically Ko-fi. I’ve had an account on that site for some time, but I never was consistent with with uploading content there and used it more of a tip jar if you will. Well now I went back and reworked my the whole thing and restructured it. I set it up so I know offer membership options on Ko-fi! I have three tier levels each with something unique and exclusive. I want to offer something special for those of you who support me and my crazy art journey. It’s already live too so please go check it out here https://ko-fi.com/dstankowiczart

The other thing is I want to focus on my original comic story I’ve had for many years. This comic stars my original characters Potato and Bimm, which you can see plus other character concepts for their world in my gallery. Anyway, I’ve completed a few pages but it has taken me far too long to still be so early on in the creation process. So I’m going to be putting an emphasis on finishing this thing real soon. I even plan to show off some of the behind the scenes look at the pages on Ko-fi. Every thing then will come full circle!

That’s about it for now. I really hope I can remain motivated to keep up with this plan, because it has the potential to be the most rewarding. The next thing is I’m looking into getting back into the convention scene and sign up for a few upcoming shows. I’m not sure which ones yet but I’ll be sure to keep you all updated again in the near future when I know.

So until the next update, keep moving forward!

March 6, 2023July 8, 2023 by DStankowicz Categories: Deep Thoughts, Potato & Bimm, UpdatesTags: art, comics, drawing, dstankowiczart, freelance, illustration, keep moving forward, ko-fi, marketing, Potato & Bimm, strategy, Updates

It all starts with a concept.
Creating a comic is an approachable creative medium to make by yourself.

When I began taking art seriously as a career, I did not think being a comic artist would be in my future. I always envisioned I’d be an animator. I hardly ever even read comics growing up. It was just simply something I never grew attached to and put to the idea to the side. I always saw comics as something strictly for superheroes. I mean, when anyone mentions comics it’s usually their first thought. Color me surprised when I found out that comics can be so much more than that. Once I had that revelation, I saw that comics can be a really approachable way to bring a creative concept to life.

So I’ve had this idea concept in my head for quite a while. I think it’s been over ten years (yikes!). It revolved around my original characters I created named Potato and Bimm. Once I created these characters I knew I wanted to make something more with them. Being a game art major, I had plans to make a video game starring my characters. I was always a big fan of platforming games and drew lots of inspiration from games like Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie. However, I had always been more interested in the creative artistic side of gaming and not so much the technical side. I didn’t know much about coding and learning it to the point I needed to achieve the level of gaming quality I envisioned seemed like it would take too long. I was also afraid that all that coding I would be doing would take a huge chunk of the fun away. I tried doing some simple coding in the past and it felt like a chore to me. I didn’t enjoy it so I tried to avoid it. I suppose if I was really serious about turning this idea into a working video game then I could’ve brought in a coder to help out. But I was being selfish with this project. I wanted it to be something I could be proud to say was all mine. It became my baby and I wanted to preserve the creative decisions I made.

I wanted it to be something I could be proud to say was all mine.

I took the idea of making this into a game and put it away to move on to a different medium that really excited me; Animation! Being incredibly influenced by all kinds of animated films and series, creating my own animation seemed to fit all to well. It was great timing too because by this point I had begun creating more characters and a whole world for them. But once again, I ran into a big problem when my dumb brain decided to be too ambitious for it’s own good. I wanted to make a Disney quality animated short film, and being that I was the only one working on it, the project would’ve taken me an eternity to complete. Again, I could have hired help to share in the workload, but I wanted to do all the work. For many years I’ve had people tell me what to do and I’ve helped others bring their ideas to life. This time I wanted my vision to become a reality on my terms. I NEEDED to do this myself.

Fast forward a bit more and I now have begun developing a story around these characters and world I made. Having put making a game to the side and determining that an animation would just be too much for me currently, I had to look to another medium to bring my idea to life. That’s when I arrived at comics. My narrow minded thinking still saw it as a place mainly for superhero stories. By doing just a little research, I learned that comics can me more than just superheroes. Then it clicked in my head. I could make a comic! Even though my heart has always been with animation, something about the concept of taking my idea and turning it into a comic made me even more excited than before. This felt like something I could do all myself within a realistic time. What made it even better was that making a comic is very similar to making storyboards for animation, which I’ve take a great interest in recently. I also learned my lesson and tempered my ambitious goals a bit. Instead of making a large graphic novel, I plan to make it more of a short form comic. But it won’t be too short; I plan to make it a two part comic with each one being twenty four pages or more! Hey, I said I would temper my ambitions, not get rid of them totally. Old habits die hard I guess.

So here we are now where I’ve committed to creating this comic. I’ve been sitting on all these characters in this world I’ve created and I really need to show it to the world. This creative itch in me needs to be scratched and making a comic has felt like the best way for me to tell the story of my characters right now. I still have great ambitions of making a video game and an animated short film. Those goals with never go away. Whether I adapt this concept into an animation and video game down the line remains to be unseen, but right now my focus is on making this comic a reality. I’ve had many ideas in the past and I have never followed through with any of them. This comic idea is the first one that feels like I have a real shot of bringing it to fruition. I’ve already taken it farther than any other of my ideas in the past. I can’t wait for the day when I can show it off. It may not be the best comic in the world, but I will be proud to call it mine. That is enough for me.