A little election relief...
Added 2020-11-04 16:56:57 +0000 UTCIf you're like me, you're avoiding the news today but also nervously checking every website you told yourself was OK to check. Your email, Instagram stories, JUST your Twitter replies... okay, maybe just your email. You don't necessarily want to know what's going on, but you still want to feel connected.
I don't know if this will scratch that itch, but I thought it was a good time to share some closeups of calming panels from the current chapter.
I approached Miranda's pages differently than all the other characters' pages, letting myself fall into a trance with the grey ink wash I added throughout the panels before scanning them in.
It's my favorite part of the process. It feels indulgent! Just making little grey brush marks wherever I please.
Letting the brush fray, letting the paper soak in the ink in splotches, without my permission.
It feels free, a collaboration between individuals, rather than a piece dictated only by one artist.
I'm posting these photos as-is, so you can see the scratchy greys and imperfect black inks. White-out. Wobbly lines.
(These messy dark grey washes in the background were actually added after I scanned this page in; I knew they wouldn't translate well digitally, but I wanted the original art to have the same mood as the finished color page.)
I boasted about this on Twitter, but I'm real proud of those stairs. Stairs are hard! I wanted them to feel belabored enough to read as "correct," but curved & wobbly enough to read as "friendly."
The buildings in Shepherdstown are so old, and I want this story to feel so real, I've forbidden myself from using a ruler throughout this book. Humans create and then slowly wear down buildings, and humans are so imperfect, nothing we touch should be expected to be perfect. This book is meant to embrace imperfection.
I was so happy to finally draw Miranda on this page, and so many times, in so many forms. :)
I've got a lot going on the next two weeks, so next week's update might just be one big page. But I think it'll be worth the slow roll.
Be patient with yourselves this week, and anticipate imperfection.
Comments
I'm sorry, but I absolutely love those "messy washes", their organic quality really makes the foreground sing
Peter Sturdee
2020-11-06 04:38:16 +0000 UTCI love your drawings. I started my Peatron and I a little lost creating my nivels. I hope be your friend. Congratulations for your work!
2020-11-05 20:39:52 +0000 UTCThank you for this <3
Janne Peltonen
2020-11-05 17:14:13 +0000 UTCI had a feeling my brush-loving friends out there would relate. ;)
Danielle Corsetto
2020-11-05 14:57:55 +0000 UTCWhat a lovely post :)
Cab
2020-11-05 13:58:08 +0000 UTC"It's my favorite part of the process. It feels indulgent! Just making little grey brush marks wherever I please. Letting the brush fray, letting the paper soak in the ink in splotches, without my permission." Thanks for putting into words why time and time again I return to watercolor and inkwash for soothing creating.
Ripley LaCross
2020-11-05 02:04:20 +0000 UTCI got into Channeling Erika mode. <3
Danielle Corsetto
2020-11-05 00:58:32 +0000 UTCReading this was so soothing, I love when you share your thought process- it makes the art even more beautiful
2020-11-05 00:04:32 +0000 UTC❤️
Erika Moen
2020-11-04 23:05:17 +0000 UTCOh, this was just perfect. I'm avoiding the election stress because I have enough of my own personal stress to give a horse a heart attack, and the soft breaths of peace in these images were just what my brain needed. Thank you!
Amy Crook
2020-11-04 22:48:38 +0000 UTCThis was deeply helpful on a day when help was much needed. Thank you. And your work is exquisite; it’s such a privilege to see your process.
David Neale-Lorello
2020-11-04 20:53:38 +0000 UTCThank you. This was extremely soothing and comforting to read. Plus and also, in less stressful times, I’d just be giddy to see process, because I think it’s so cool.
Katrina Urmson
2020-11-04 20:46:27 +0000 UTC(And: aww...Miranda didn't get to enjoy her book!)
Andy Ihnatko
2020-11-04 20:38:14 +0000 UTCSeriously, with each new chapter I see, I mentally put another few bucks in the budget to fund your future kickstarter at the "Deluxe hardcover with bonus Miranda teaset" reward level. This is exceptional stuff on every level. I mean, art isn't a contest where we pin a gold star on the artist who put the most work into something (if it were, I'd have a chest full of them, to go along with every sketch that I've had to erase and redraw eleven times just to achieve...um...*cough*..."well, isn't it nice that we keep right on trying?"). That SAID, I always get an additional thrill on the second reading, when it's way more obvious to me that the chapter is full of decisions that ended with a resigned sigh and someone muttering "I guess it's 'the hard way', then" at an art board. (I'm also reminded of a recent story arc of "Bandette." A key story element was one of those 18th or 19th century academic paintings of the interior of a huge art gallery. Consequently, Colleen Coover had to make dozens of watercolors of a painting OF a dozen little paintings. Even when it was in one panel of a 3x3 panel grid, she still rendered EVERY sub-image, when the scale certainly gave her license to do them as dabs of single colors.)
Andy Ihnatko
2020-11-04 20:36:47 +0000 UTCI needed this. ♥
NJGR
2020-11-04 19:56:09 +0000 UTC
