Daily Sketch - The First Fire

My first real fire as a member of our department was in a dark, crowded basement, full of smoke, and bathed in 16 inches of water.  A real eye-opener, and nothing at all like the training I'd yet been exposed to.

Required Reading - The Sculptor, by Scott McCloud

Just finished this incredible novel by Scott McCloud, of Understanding Comics fame.  Five years in the making, The Sculptor is a story about art and love and death and wonder and failure.  The main character is an artist, in whom a colossal arrogance and terrifying insecurity coexist.  He wants to make great, objectively good art, art to be remembered.  But when the most common (and probably accurate) advice that the world give us is: "create what's inside you," it's easy to despair - who of us has penetrated that labyrinth?

McCloud has a couple interviews where he discusses his comic-making process, and I think it's pretty unique - He created all his roughs on a gigantic photoshop document (which he shows on his blog page) and used that to edit and move around - this gives him incredible control over the pacing of the story.  Which moments are emphasized?  How do page turns affect them?  After spending years writing the book (literally) on how comics work in the mind of the reader, it's easy to see that every tool has been brought to bear.  It reads perfectly, easily, and emotionally.

Incredible work.

Daily Sketch - Amherst Coffee Bartending

Purchased the Higgins neutral grey ink, trying it out in a water-brush for quick sketching

Daily Sketch - Amherst Coffee Late Night

Daily Sketch - Amherst Coffee Yawn

Daily Sketch - Amherst Coffee

Daily Sketch - The Roost

Character design for Herb, part of a potential project.

Trying a different method - I want a more brittle, energetic line, so I worked it out in pen, then filled in with brush.  The tooth of the paper is great for these dry brush effects, which makes it easy to switch between hard and soft edges - imparts an energy that I don't feel with the more delicate feathering methods.

And the final image - I rather like this one!