HI all;
Next page is nearly done. Rather than post late or skip a week, here are my current efforts for Inktober.
Day one:
We start with a swipe from the cover of a swing album I discovered on Apple Music, Naomi and Her Handsome Devils.
More stylized than my work usually is, but such fun!
I played with BIG brushes filling in the background.
I always love the geometric elements associated with this era, as anyone who recalls my Speedy Recovery and His All-Girl Orchestra comic will attest.
Day Two:
A pretty straightforward swipe of a panel from Dean Motter's Mr. X.
I'm re-reading this and finding new stuff in it. The design paradoxically feels like both 80s-90s and 1920s.
I adore his facial expressions!
So vibrant with just a few well-placed lines.
Day Three:
Charles Mingus, in Walnut ink. From photo reference.
I didn't quite capture his majesty or exreme coolness, but I like this one anyway.
I was privileged to see Mingus live once. In the middle of the set, some guy in the back yelled out, "Do it, Charlie!"
He peered over his sunglasses and replied, "Ah, do what, man?"
Day Four:
One of my favorite panels from the Don Rosa classic Life and Times of $crooge McDuck.
Honestly, this whole sequence is just so powerful, but this panel, with him chained by his evil rival, as he is ridiculed and informed that his mother is dead, is just so perfect.
I've tried to explain the virtues of funny animal stories to the uninitiated, to no avail. I fear it's one of those things where either you get it or you don't.
Day Five:
A mocking Big Cat from Craig Russell's adaptation of The Jungle Book.
Russell is another one of those artists whose work leaves me breathless. There's a classic elegance to his work, but when you look at it closely, his lines are almost breathy. I wish I could afford to get some of his video tutorials! I learn so much from such things.
Day Six:
Very loose pen and ink rendering of the sadly demised jazz great Emily Remler. We lost her to heroin some years ago. Her style was her own, but based in the work of Wes Montgomery.
This is deliberately sketchy. I wanted some quiet energy on this one.
Mixture of ink and marker.
Day Seven:
Now this was fun!
There's a little concrete warthog on a stair post in front of a house near MCAD. We all know it and love it. It became a character in my only Surrealist Cowgirls cartoon, now lost to the ages. But it elicits such warm feelings as you walk by!
This is brush work. The background is crow quill, and the background is loosely inspired by Jim Woodring's work.
I have a couple more, but I'll save them for the next posting. The next page will be posted in a couple days, and I'll just sneak in more Inktober throughout the month. I've been crossposting my Inktober work on Facebook and Twitter, if you just can't wait.
