There are days when it all goes well, and there are days when it all goes REALLY well. This was one of the latter.
I officially completed my first ever two-page spread today...and I'm beyond happy with the results! So please forgive me for a few minutes, as I get into the minutia of creating this stuff.
The best artists recognize their particular strengths and weaknesses, and play-up the former while (hopefully) working to shore-up the latter. I've been told before that I have a knack for composition, which I think is indeed my strong suit. When drafting up a page, from my own scripts or someone else's, or often while just sizing up another artist's work, I often just KNOW how scenes should be framed and blocked out. It goes beyond being instinctive. It almost feels like I'm channeling the narratives. That's just how I roll.
In this instance, when I was roughing out the thumbnails, it just hit me what it had to look like. I got a strong vibe from the initial concept, and the closer I came to time to actually produce it, the more I was looking forward to it. I've never given myself that kind of room to fully spread out and get into the details of a page.
Today, the artwork just flowed. There's no other way to describe it. I had three figures on the pages, and I was able to give each a lot of attention. A lot of the choices I made worked out fine. At one point I wasn't completely happy with one antagonist's face; it seemed too large and the expression wasn't quite natural enough. It wasn't fitting with the rest of the image. So I grabbed my eraser, paused to wonder if I should leave well enough alone...then erased his face.
Then redrew it. That was the right choice. I could tell within a couple of minutes.
Even stuff I don't normally draw all that well seemed to appear on the paper like magic today. Cars. I hate drawing cars. They're not my thing. People, they're my thing. Cars -- yuck. But today, the cars were PERFECT. I couldn't have drawn them better with photo reference. (Only two, but very close in the panel) It got me to wondering what else is buried up in the swipe file of my unconscious, that I haven't been confident enough to just let loose.
There are days I love being a cartoonist. This was one of them. Oh! And I got caught up to where I'd originally wanted to be today. So nine pages in seven days...it's on track so far. A solid first week!
That's how I roll, yo'. More to come...!
This Weekend's music choices: Jimi Hendrix - Live, KISS Alive I & II, Outkast, WHERE'S NEIL GAIMAN WHEN YOU NEED HIM?
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