How Far I’ve Gotten

The blog is approaching its fourth anniversary; it will turn four years old on August 1.  I can’t believe all that I’ve been through and all that has happened.  I have come very far.

Sunnyville Stories was conceived way back in 2005, nearly a decade ago.  It was shelved though and wasn’t revived until 2009 where I spent that ENTIRE year creating the characters, fleshing out the main protagonists (Rusty and Samantha), building the world and writing story ideas.  I was unsure what would become of the world of Sunnyville.

Over five years of work have gone into Sunnyville and I’ve come so far.  I have done ten entire stories (number ten is being inked right now) AND put out two entire books that are in bookstores and libraries.  That is nothing short of a miracle.  There are a lot of people out there who had all these neat ideas but never bothered to put them on paper.  There are others who never even got as far as their first story.  But look at me – I’ve done TEN ENTIRE STORIES featuring Rusty and friends.  

My drawing also got better too.  When I started on the very first Sunnyville episode, the limbs I drew on the characters looked more like noodles; they were very “bendy”.

Episode 1 page 13

Check out this page from the very first story; Rusty’s limbs look like they’re made of spaghetti.

Around the time that I started drawing Sunnyville, I was taking life drawing classes at the School of Visual Arts.  The first one was helpful; it was run by the talented John Ruggieri.  The second class I took though was the biggest boon.  It was run by Stephen Gaffney who was more of a realistic artist and he taught me something he called “the law of the leg”, which was how he rendered limbs.  I incorporated that into my own drawing style.

Sunnyville #10, page 4

Compare this recent page from Sunnyville #10 to the above page from Sunnyville #1.  My drawing is MUCH stronger, I draw limbs much better, and I’m getting more daring in my storytelling layouts.

I’ve come very far with my work.  But there is still so much more I have to do.

That’s all for now.  Sunnyville Stories Vol. 1 (ISBN 9780615653921) is still for sale on Amazon. Copies of Sunnyville Stories Volume 2 and Von Herling, Vampire Hunter are for sale right now at Great Stories. Check out Direct Textbook too for more details on my books!

Your feedback is appreciated.  Contact me at maxwestart(at)gmail.com or write to:

Different Mousetrap Press LLC, 1100 19th Avenue N, #108, Unit J, Fargo ND 58102-2269

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About Max West

I am a freelance artist and the creator of Sunnyville Stories, an independent slice-of-life comics series.
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