Original Art Sundays No. 359: pin-up page: Blue Wild Abandon

 Taking a day away from the big story. It's my birthday today, and I felt an impulse. Yeah, the graphic memoir is important and I like doing it, but as anyone who's worked in nonfiction (even creative nonfiction) knows, there are certain constraints. Some things HAVE TO BE RIGHT, which can stall the creative drive. Plus, have fun with your art!

There's this character who has been popping into my sketchbooks and ideas in various forms for years. She's starting to take shape, but she's elusive! It started with the title van Dyke Parks song from Clang of the Yankee Reaper. The song includes the line "out in the blue wild abandon." I was charmed by the line and thought it would make a great character name. Eventually, she tied into the random sketches. An idea tickled me. I came to see that was the name of that character, and finally the story takes shape. I did post a sketch of her during Inktober this year.

I won't say a ton about the story here, other than that it's an homage to a favorite Western, Have Gun Will Travel. I particularly like the moral challenges in the episodes written by Harry Julian Fink, and I hope to capture that tone and energy in Ms. Abandon's stories.

I thought about making this a book cover, but soon realized that it was an old-school pin-up page, like they used to do in 60s Marvel comics. So fun, so exciting!

So many decisions! I have a very specific look for her. I need to work up some model sheets. This is very close, but not quite it. Her assistant is Marilyn, the robot who also debuted in this year's Inktober scrawling. That's vital. The assistant character in the source series is Kim Chang, called Hey Boy for much of the series. While the show made a genuine effort to overcome the racism of the era, it's still there, and Blue's helper cannot be such a character. The robot with a personality is also a tired trope, but I have schemes to make Marilyn a fresh character.

So much fun playing in Photoshop on this. I want to do some hand painted pieces of her, but that's another day. The first book is plotted and preliminary character sketches are in place. The book will be B & W with color covers. And there may be paper dolls in her future....

Mostly conventional tools on this. Bristol, pen and ink, brushes, erasers, straightedge, a little whiteout. It turned out well.

Next, back to the memoir.

Original Art Sundays no. 358: Sharp Invitations: Esther's Hands, pp. 1 and 2

 Into the next chapter!

This will be a bit faster and less emotionally charged than the Curt chapter. Planned and drafted at 10 pages, probably come in around 20. This chapter deals with my relationship with my mother, and with how she handled my transition.

This chapter comes before the chapters on work, surgery and Curt in the final book.

Very open layout on these. I plan to use her style in drawing this as much as possible. Since her style and mine are similar anyway, this shouldn't be a challenge. These pages are necessary background. I toyed with just doing the first panel, the horseback shot, in pencil, and finally decided to leave the soft background in pencil and do minimal erasing. The wedding party photo is not my work, of course, but it does belong here. I considered re-drawing it, and opted for straight photography instead. Both schools of thought are valid. In Fun Home, Alison Bechdel renders photographs, but The Magical Tack of Long Tack Sam uses photos, objects, collages.... it's a memoir. Go with what works.

Pretty much the standard tool list on these, a bit heavy on the Photoshop. I did use a new #1 brush on that first panel. 

Next: marriage to a serviceman, kids, complications....