kalahari

American Heat

Added 2020-03-29 23:26:51 +0000 UTC

First of all... who else is in lockdown? I live in one of the few cities in my area enacting this policy, which means a lot of time at home for me. Ideally, I would have imagined this would be a great time for pumping out art and getting all these WIPs finished, catching up with everyone... Ideally. The reality has involved working from home on a big writing job for an academic textbook, which I'm actually kind of excited about! That, and (I think I can be blunt here) a surprise bout of depression.

There's a handful of new art pieces underway, which should make it up here over the next week, as well as a fully colored version of my "Mangoes" comic from last year. And as for today's post...

I was pretty thrilled when I got tapped to do the cover for Heat, since I've known this magazine since... about forever! If you want to check it out and read a blurb on the picture's background, it's on the SofaWolf website. The scene came from the story "American Heat", which follows a jackal and ferret on a cross-country, post-apocalyptic trip. And the color scheme here... it was a special challenge working on an almost monochromatic scene trying to get the feeling for a HOT night in the predawn hours. I went through a dozen color palettes before settling on this one -- even a touch of blue in the sky seemed to cool down the atmosphere too much.

Stay safe everyone. Even if it's quiet and peaceful, I think we'll remember these months for the rest of our lives.