Speaking of that mural, here it is, the final version. I had a LOT of fun loosening way up, looking at screen grabs from "Singin' in the Rain" as inspiration. The figures are scribbly but have a lot of movement and, like Silas, I'm really pleased with them.

So the next thing to do was to get a shot with both murals in them so we can lead up to Silas gesturing with the paint all over his fingers. So I wrangled the two of them and made this as a starting point:

I finally made my new Mac spin its little beachball when converting the Tamino mural to curves. That was asking a lot. I really want this to be a 'Broadway' kind of moment; I haven't referenced the stage in a long time in this comic and really then, only when Howard's doing his narration. I did it a couple times in Tamino. Sometimes, linking two pages is the hardest part of this comic. No, getting anyone to READ it is the hardest part.

On a totally unrelated note, I've starting auditioning online for some voice acting jobs. So far, I've applied for about 20 of them, most of them to the same company for the same game. Haven't heard back but it appears I've been shortlisted for one of them. Not sure if that means anything or not, but it's a little green check. So who knows?

 I left a whole bunch of things out. I worked on a transition from the ream sequence to the end of the track where we see Silas in the waking world having finished the mural. It felt too jarring without it. I'm still working on the dead space between the two tracks as we haven't yet seen the full mural as we did with the first one of Tamino. So more work, but hopefully no more drawing. Or not much.

 So, we have a problem. Well, -I- have a problem. I forgot that I was thinking of doing a section of the comic in black and white to highlight the ink as I do love black ink on white paper. So I first greyed the colors out of Silas. And that was fine, especially if I left the background in color. Then I also remembered that I wanted to add splotches of color on his fingertips to subtly suggest the two murals he just painted. So now I can't quite decide which direction to go. I think I'm going to go with the colors, but those greys work well, too...hmmm.

 Did a whole bunch of work on this page today and now consider it done. That being said, I realize I need a spread for the second mural Silas did or this won't make sense. So don't know what this page number REALLY is, probably about four later than it's numbered. Such is life.

 Working a little on the next track of City Silent. As usual, I want to change things up again. I've been looking at some other cartoonists' work and thought I'd try and add a little texture to the figures. Also I want to keep the distortion but do it in a kind of different way. So, this. Digitizing the more textured brushes is a little bit of a challenge but I think it's going to work ok. 

 Oh right, and I finished this today as well. Added some props up front and considered it done. But there needs to be a transition page before it. Ah, well.

 I utterly changed my mind. I didn't like the color version of this at all, but the black and white was somewhat appealing. So I went back to grayscale and will leave it at that. Not a serious portrait but a bit of fun. I think that's what it's best left as.

 Tried to make another sketch for the head. And while the sketch turned out ok, I couldn't get a painted version to work. Will try again tomorrow or will scrap this portrait. No big deal.

 Finally vectorized this and set about doing some color. And...I'm not happy with the pose. Will take another stab at this tomorrow, trying to make it less stiff and more natural. But it was still fun and worthwhile to do this way.

 Small but significant changes on the portrait. If I have time tonight, I might try and go for some colors. We'll see. Still thinking about splitting some of the current tones out. But I like it better than I did. Still feels very solid.

 Did some more work on this. Getting there. I'm worried it's too posed? Don't know. Might or might not put words behind it. We'll see. It is fun to do, though.

 Got some more work on this done. The hardest part? The lettering. I wanted it to be correct but I didn't want to trace it. And I'm glad I didn't. It has an organic feel I want while still looking like a logo. I'm not sold on the expression; I'm a little meaner in the current Procreate version so will likely work on that a little. Also might do this in more than the usual three of four colors which means I'll have to go back and take the hair out of the details layer. No big deal. Still, it's coming along. Time to sit on it and come back to it with fresh eyes.

 Might not seem like a huge difference but here's the updated sketch. Stretched it just a little and moved that one eye down a hair. Otherwise, did some erasing, editing. I think it's a lot more solid. And, frighteningly, I can see both of my parents in my face which I never could growing up.

 Should be finishing that page and making one that transitions between it and the last one but no, I'm doing yet another self portrait. I've been mentally planning this one for awhile. I noticed while looking through my gallery on flickr that I didn't do nearly as many portraits last year as I thought or hoped. Don't have a lot of subjects in mind currently so there's always me. This one's going to be a 3/4 length but I wanted to focus on the face first. It looks a little off, so I'll poke about with it in Procreate but this is the unaltered, freehand, no grid sketch I did this morning. The gesture and the t-shirt I'm wearing are what will sell this, I think. For now, this is how far I got.

 Made only a little bit of progress as this was a three movie day. First up was the new Looney Tunes movie which I rather enjoyed. Nice to see 2D animation done well for a change. Second was the new episode of "Severance" which was even more enigmatic than the last. Finally, the Rifftrax version  of "Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle" which should NOT be seen without the Riffers. So only had a little time for this. I did take ref and make a sketch of Silas that will go over most of this image. More later.

 Made a little progress on this tonight. Colors are not final at all, but man, that pink really makes the figures stand out. Silas has made a mural of him dancing, showing joy, painting just to paint. He's reaching that point where he's broken free. But how will it go over? One more track before we find out.

 Doesn't look like much yet, but this is the next page background. All those damned bricks. But I read something from artist Bill Sienkevicsz back in the 60s that said one should always do things like bricks by hand as it gives a more organic feeling. That's stuck with me all this time. It also adds a lived in look to the city, which is very necessary. So I spent a couple hours on the sketch and then a couple hours on this 'inking.' Should have some time in the next few days to finish the page. We're in transition between tracks.

                                                       

Another artist and I were chatting on and off. Out of the blue, he asked if I'd do a drawing of the main character from his comic. I don't know that anyone's ever asked me to do that before. I decided I would though wasn't sure how soon I'd get to it as, well, other things. Also, his character is well outside my norm, being much bigger in frame than I usually draw. I more or less had an idea for the pose but went through one of my oldest reference books and found one I liked better. That guy is pretty thin so I had to bulk this character, Roshim more than once to get even close. Top image is the final, second is the pencil sketch. Then, I did something I pretty much never do; red lines. I generally know my own characters well enough that I don't have to do this sort of thing. Since I wanted to do a good job, I took the extra time. He hasn't seen it yet as he lives in Finland and is asleep. Here's hoping he likes it. I think it came out well.

 Another page done and it's the end of the track more or less. I have to transition to him waking up and the actual finished piece being painted on the wall which leads into the next track. And next track is going to be a lot more detailed so won't go as quickly. Glad I could make some progress early on. More than half way done but there's still a lot to go.

 I took that five minute self portrait I did awhile back, vectorized it and added some color. I think it came out pretty well, all things considered. Five minutes is no time at all. Wish there had been at least a chair. Maybe next time.

 Got this done this morning, mostly because I had drawn and inked the figure a couple days ago. That being said, I realized I had misnumbered the last few pages which is annoying. I thought this was 225 when it's actually 229. I really should go back and renumber all the files from the previous six pages but I'm not going to. Their folders are numbered correctly. This WILL come back to bite me in the ass, but I don't care. As long as I know what order they go in, I should be fine. 

And the next three pages. Almost done with this track, though it will get a little more complex in a page or two as Silas 'wakes up' and we have to see the actual product of his dream planning. There is some lyrical editing as I go along. And sometimes I even think of ditching songs. So far, I've only added. Somewhere, I made a list of who's supposed to be singing what song. While the next one is Silas again, the one after isn't and I can't remember who is supposed to be on stage. That's what happens when it takes you 8 years to get this far.

 

Fastest six pages ever. Ok, sure, it's because I use the same elements, a simple background, few details and limited palette but hey, it's six pages! And I think it does exactly what I wanted it to do, flows well, etc. Dreams are like that. I think. Anyway, up to page 225 and only one verse in the track to go.
 

All good plans...while I was in Boston, I hoped to shoot some footage of the routes I used to walk to school. But I got sick and shot nothing. I'll be back in July so will have to wait til then. I've felt shitty most of the week and had to fly back in a snow story (and we have another one coming tomorrow) but tonight, I did manage to get three pages done, most least of which because I got to use the same figure for all three. This is a dream sequence so things are meant to be hazy, fuzzy at the edges. And the fading of Silas is him  coming in and out of sleep. So, a week off, then some progress. That's how it goes.

 

 Possibly the quickest made page of the whole comic. The dream sequence is making things easier, which I need. Progress has been slow, but there's been portraits and stuff in here, too. For now, I'll take the ease when I can get it.

 Came across this color scheme by accident and now I can't decide which version I like better. Think I'll show it to the unwitting model and see what he thinks.

It may not look it, but I spent a few hours on this today. There were things that just weren't working, one big thing I got very wrong and a lot of details to work on. As it is, I think I'll wait overnight but that the tonal version of this is finished. What I'm going to do with the colors remains to be seen.