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Things got off to a pretty quick start and I hit my first speed bump with the whole affair when I accidentally threw out the storyboards for the first four chapters of the book. Discouraged, but recovering, I've launched into a bunch of quick pen and ink sketches of some East Austin scenes to figure out the style of the book. I'd like to find a balance between drawing and comic book art, and prefer the painterly qualities of a graphic novel over the tight and slightly bland art of the comic world.
*** OLD MAN DISCLAIMER ***
When I mention comic world, I'm referring to the mostly DC style of the 80's that I grew up hating, as well as the Marvel style of the Dark Phoenix X-Men days. I spent an afternoon doing research at Austin Books and was slightly taken aback by the steroid induced and computer colored pages of the usual suspects - X-Men, Spiderman, Superman, etc. My comic mind stopped with the Fall of the Mutants, and didn't pick up again until the golden age of
the Tick, Flaming Carrot and the early Eightball days of the early nineties. I can't wrap my head over the cost of comics today ($3.00????), the fancy computer aided coloring, nor the oversized musculatures of our heroes, not to mention the obscene amount of attention given to bountiful
bosoms.
*** END OLD MAN DISCLAIMER ***
So I'm re-doing all my previous work of laying out the storyboards, which actually is a trickier assignment than one might think, as I felt pretty good about the layouts, timing and balance between imagery and story. Recreating it all is a depressing task, but absolutely vital with a pile of Bristol boards waiting for the final drawings to be done.
I've also started to spread my wings some and bring my watercolor markers and ink out with me to wherever the days and evenings take me, and I'm starting to pile up a nice stack of little observational drawings. It feels really good to not have to hold a paint brush and struggle in front of a canvas right now.
Last month's studio update with more about the comic
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