Hi, all. Here we go with the next page.
Last time we saw our heroine (me), she was in the tub, high on booze and prescription meds and bleeding out of her cut wrist.
Here's what happened next.
It's often something mundane that stops these attempts. I read a writer's account of their own attempt (I'm embarrassed to say I can't recall whose). They were all ready to do it, to end their lives, staring at the gun, when they got a casual call from a friend who was unaware of the crisis, inviting them to a ball game. They went but never told the friend what that friend had done for them.
One little thing. That's all it takes sometimes.
In my case, someone else's phone rang. I went on automatic pilot to answer the phone. Can't be rude, you know.
This page also serves as a reminder of some of the small and not so small things that drove me to the attempt in the first place. Curt not trusting me to do something as simple as carrying on a phone call, me being so afraid of his reaction to anything I was doing.
Technical aspects: we're back to a pretty standard grid this week. Just advancing the narrative panel by panel. I'm in every panel, but not full face shot until the last panel, my shocked reaction to his return home.
Nothing overtly about trans identity on this page, but it's one of the core elements of the story, so its presence or absence must needs be noted.
I'm back to rendering background textures in wash and grease pencil. It seems to serve me well as my style continues to evolve. There's a little #2 pencil texture on the tub surface. I continue to grow my relationship to backgrounds/environments, following Ursula Murray Husted's encouragement to think of the environment as a character. I balance that against a line that sticks with me from David Chelsea's Perspective for Comic Book Artists, in which one of his characters describes the function of perspective not as mechanical accuracy, but as a desire to "make things more or less plausible." Think about it. Realistic mechanical rendering isn't always necessary or desirable, in that it doesn't always serve the story. And one should always do what serves the story. It doesn't have to look precise, but it does have to look real, in the context of the story.
The last panel really got away from me in early attempts! The first inked version had a distorted, elongated face with a mouth one might find on a blow-up doll. So back to tracing paper, whiteout, and re-rendering. The final panel was still messy. I cleaned it up in Photoshop, then put some of the mess back for effect. I might do just a bit more correction on this before going to press, but it's pretty much there. It was fun drawing a body just out of the tub and not toweled off. Those little drippy effects are exciting to play with.
Tools for this page:
- Canson Bristol Board
- Pencils: 2B Ticonderoga, Lead holder and 3B lead, 4B graphite stick
- Erasers: Steadler Mars plastic eraser, kneadable eraser
- Dr. Martin's Black Star Matte Ink
- FW Artist's Acrylic White
- Plastic painting palette for washes
- Tight Spot brush for corrections
- Pen nib and holder
- Brushes: Blick No. 6 round synthetic, Reeves No. 8 nylon flat for washes
- Photoshop
Next: will Curt be sympathetic and supportive? What do you think?
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