Okay, here we go!
When we last saw Curt, he was charging at me, full of rage.
Read on.
This was a tricky layout. The first panel portrays a really clumsy moment (in a physical sense). I almost went full cartoon on this one, since it was so absurd. Then this was going to be silhouette, but it seemed too ominous. I opted for a borderline approach- loose figures, awkward poses and just enough text to clarify the action. I opted for simple pencil for the ground shading, a leadless HB.
The second panel establishes the space from an angle we haven't seen before. For a simple, boring room with tedious 1970s architecture, this space is really challenging to draw! I took half a dozen reference shots of a similar setup in my living room, tried drawing it from six different perspectives. Nothing worked. Finally, I decided to simplify and make it about the characters, then made the environment another character. The anchor points related to other pages are the cabinets on the far wall and the open area where Mother's painting once was. No facial expressions in this panel. I wanted the poses to convey the emotions. Also, that's a really tiny drawing of a human body!
The last panel goes tight on his reaching hand an foreshadows the next page. There's also the visual device of the hand reaching towards the corner, encouraging the reader to turn the page. Large curved area of black serves to anchor the panel.
I was almost late with this page, as I was also preparing work for the upcoming MCAD Faculty Biennial show this week. Show goes up in late August. Rest assured there will be photos. I reviewed about 30 recent pages and selected 14. The pleasant surprise was how much I liked some of them! My internal .dialogue on my art, my writing, my craft, leans towards lament. I tend to dwell on how much time has slipped by me and how the work suffers from that. That's human, but also very self-indulgent. My consolations/realizations are that the work is stronger than I think it is, and that if I use my time well, I can do 50 - 100 pages a year. If I manage to keep going another 20 years, that's a lot of story!
Tools for this page:
- Canson Bristol board, plain paper slipsheet, masking tape
- iPhone for photo reference.
- T-square, triangle, Ames lettering guide
- Tech pencil, Paster 6B pencil, HB Woodless pencil
- Dr. Martin's Black Star Matte Ink
- Blick #6 Round Brush
- Pen nib & holder
- Micron .005, .01, .02, .03, .05, .08, 1.0
- Faber Castell Brush Tip Marker
- Plastic eraser
- Photoshop
Next: things break.
