When I was sketching this page out I knew I wanted to draw Jenny's memories in silhouettes, but for a moment I couldn't put my finger on why. As I was driving this evening, however, a cool synth pop tune came on my Spotify, that reminded me of the anime series' I used to watch in the late 90's and early 2000's. That's when I remembered one of my favorites: "Revolutionary Girl Utena." If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it -great show. As to why this is relevant -in the series they often depicted the memories of different characters in silhouettes like this, as well. I guess somewhere in the back of my mind I wanted to give homage to one of my earliest references, that has inspired my work ever since.

Several people have pointed out that my style has a very "old anime" feel. I suppose that makes sense; when I started drawing in what could be loosely called anime style, a lot of series from the 70's, 80's and 90's (or "old anime") was starting to filter into the United States. Back then I was an avid watcher of whatever anime I could find at the local video store, obscure comic shops, Suncoast (really dating myself here) and the fledgling Adult Swim. Although my style has certainly evolved since then, as most artists do and should, (maybe one of these days I'll have the guts to show you guys some of my work from high school, circa 1999-2003) but I don't think we ever forget our earliest inspirations. Even if we look at the most skilled, and well-studied, artists I'm sure we'll find faint traces of the movies, magazines, cartoons, and whatever else first ignited that initial flame of creativity.