Once more into the adventure!
When we left our hapless/intrepid family, the kids (us) were coming into their own, slowly. Mother had begun taking painting classes on night a week.
One night, she had news.
Continuing the brush stroke motif from last page. This motif will carry on for one more page.
Story and art notes intertwine on this page.
The astute observer will note that the hand has moved down the page a bit, but the left panel border is still defined by the implied brush stroke. In the original art, I had the hand a bit higher on the page, but it was too close to the location on the previous page to imply motion. Minimal corrections on this page, primarily eliminating the local color of the paper in Photoshop. I sometimes have luck with the Threshold command in this process, but with the bit of wash on the last panel, that wasn't an option today. Threshold has an almost bitmap effect, making everything rather stark and dropping gray values.
I am reusing the rather static panel with everyone sitting around the dining table as an establishing image for the page, with some minor changes in pose and slight aging of the kids. Perhaps the aging is too subtle, but my Beatles haircut was on point for my age of 14. I don't know if there will be a page in the book for this or not, but I was originally forbidden to listen to The Beatles. Once they got a Saturday morning cartoon show, it was somehow okay.
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| I learned to draw The Beatles in this style by copying a TV Guide article on the cartoon series! |
There may or may not be a chapter on music at some point. It's such a huge part of my life, but I do want to keep this book focused on the main theme (and under 500 pages!). I have to focus on the three things this book is about: growing up relatively poor, trans identity and domestic abuse.
The art in the last panel is slightly more complex than my usual work. This is a lead-in to the next page.
Tool list, just because it's been a while:
- Sketchbooks
- Canson Bristol Board
- Lead holder with 4B leads, 4B pencil, graphite stick
- Plastic eraser, Click Eraser
- Whiteout pen
- Dr. Martin's Black Star Matte ink (full concentrate and wash)
- Pen nibs and holders
- Brushes: Grumbacher no. 2 flat, Escoda no.4 Kolinsky, Princeton 1/4" mini detailer
- X-Acto #11 blade, cutting matte
- Photoshop
