Visualising a story.

I tend to do these 'test' pages when I'm excited about doing a story. I just play with format. The below is an idea in 2006 that never went anywhere.



I don't tend to just write the words, sketch some characters, and off I go to the drawing board. No. I like to gauge the book as a whole in my head. I like imagining how the pages in the book will be. The text. The page borders. The panel/grid structure... basically the 'feel' of the pages being looked at when/if the story becomes real. It helps evoke a mood for the work. Helps convince me, "Yep, this is working."... Helps me visualise, stoke the fires, and move forward knowing that it all makes sense to me.

sketchbook

Fleshing out...

There are a few comic creators that have moved to my neck of the woods in the last year-or-so. Darren Close is one of them, and yesterday he dropped by and we spent the day working on our comics and chatting. A lot of fun. Below is one of the sketches I fleshed out for the next chapter of OXYGEN.

DIGESTED #7

While the story is already outlined, I spent a little time recently finalising the story of DIGESTED #7 before penciling/inking the pages.

sketchbook...

When you see a comic style done well by another (and it touches on the effect that you're aiming for), it's natural to want to 'test' it yourself... Sometimes this can be a breakthrough, and sometimes it can confuse you even more. It can stop the momentum you had and make you a tad uncertain.



In this case I'm trying to experiment and see whether subtle hatching or bold black works better on cloth folds in my own style... it's a pleasurable way of frustrating myself.

SPX in America this weekend

My book, NO MAP BUT NOT LOST is being sold (along with many other wonderful Milk Shadow Books) at tomorrow's big American SPX indie comix expo.



If you can't get to the expo, don't worry, you can still buy all the books online at Milk Shadow Books' website.

Sketchbook