Showing posts with label Monkees. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Monkees. Show all posts

Sunday, June 21, 2020

Original Art Sundays No. 279: Third Sharp Invitation, p.2

Hi, all.
This is another one of those pages that took forever. When I find it, I'll come back and post the original version of this. It sat on my board 3/4 complete for more than a month, until I realized what I was doing wrong and moved to this version.
This turned out rather well, I think. A meditative page, a nice balance between text and image, between realism and symbolism, even if the symbolism is a bit on the nose (or closer to home than that, if you like).
Like this whole chapter, this is deeply intimate. As discussed in the past, some members of our community wrongly use surgical status as bragging rights. My intent here is just to tell it as it happened, as best I remember.
The narrative challenge is that some of the chapters overlap. When the book is done, a chapter will end, and the next chapter will begin at an earlier time, covering a different aspect of the story.
From a design standpoint, there were some challenges here, but they worked themselves out fairly easily, once I realized what the approach had to be. The big challenge was getting some weight into each panel. Each panel is a bit more sparse than its predecessor, as the extraneous is stripped away and she is (I am) left with the central question of her life - or so I thought at the time.
The lyric quoted is from a Monkees song, Sometime in the Morning. Not what Goffin and King had in mind, I suspect, yet somehow apropos.
The last panel is a reiteration of the original cover art, which may be the final cover art. I'm happy with it, but other ideas tease my mind....
Ahem.
The supply list.
Canson Recycled Bristol
Solid #4 lead
Lead holder with #4 fill
Magic Rub eraser
Yasutomo Sumi-E ink
Crowquill pen
Synthetic brushes, No. 0, 2 and 4
Tight Spot correction brush
Tech markers, Nos. 3, 5, 6, 7
Copic multi-liner brush, small and medium
And just a hint of Photoshop for cleanup.
Next: the surgery page.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Daddy's Day


More than a bit behind on posting, due to an increased work load of late. My apologies to the faithful! The Comments contest will be extended accordingly.
Today is Father's Day. My half-sister noted on Facebook that she has few photos of our Dad, so I will be scanning the ones I have.
Like many people, my relationship with my Father is complicated. But I was lucky to get to know him. Children of divorce have stuff to work out.
Rather than descend into the maudlin, I'll just post a few things.
First, here's one of my favorite parts of HEAD,  brilliantly staged song by Harry Nillson.



While I'm not a huge fan of post-Gabriel Genesis, I do rather like the first three albums. Here's a Daddy song about a Scots war being lost by a father breaking his word.



To show what fatherhood is at its best, here's John Lennon's classic. Bear in mind that popular opinion is divided on the question of how good a father Lennon really was, because of the years Julian spent wanting to know him better.



And bringing it back to comics, we can bypass the abandonment issues of Superman and Batman and go right to the chase. The relationship of Ted and Jack Knight in Starman is arguably the best father/son relationship in comics, certainly the best in superhero books. It implies the inherited mantle that fathers aspire to in so many cases, and works as a model for the child coming to terms with the parent, each seeing the other for who they truly are.


I haven't forgotten about my self-imposed Original Art obligations! More soon!
Happy Father's Day. May we all get to know one another better..

Monday, August 17, 2009

Original Art Sundays, No. 7a: Surrealist Cowgirls, p. 6

Extra post to get back on schedule with the Cowgirls!
This is still part of the 24 hour comics challenge.
Okay, this is the point in the night where I begin to get a bit punchy. Note that the page numbering skips a page.
In naming this post, I'm reminded of the beginning of the Monkees' Daydream Believer, in which Davy asks for a room number and "7A!" is shouted at him.
Just 'cause I'm short, I know.
Needless to say, I found my pen drive at work. The world is safe for more of the Cowgirls- for now.
Once again, blacks honed in Photoshop, some gradients and textures added just for increased weight of the page.