Ok, finally, FINALLY done with this five page sequence. Had to go back and fix what is now page 238 (second one in frame) because no only did it not match the series before, the missing middle tail feather on Silas was driving me nuts. Originally, the title for track 11 was on the back of his hoodie so I justified its being missing on that. With the title no longer there, I had to either draw it in or move him back down to the level he was in the page before. So I did the latter. There's still a little bit of a jump from 238 to what is now 239 but that's ok. It's far less jarring than it was, and this isn't animation. All of this messing about really screwed up the page numbering and I had to go back and forth to get it finally right. Since I don't feel like going back and renumbering all the relevant files, this is going to be a nightmare when it comes time to put the comic together. I'm not sure there actually IS a page 234. Somehow. Whatever. But here's a screenshot of the sequence as it is now and I think it works. Gah.

 Not much to show because I worked an extra long shift yesterday but at least all the pages of the new track that have been done have now been redone and fit the mold. So that's something.

 More back and forth. Because I like the style of the page I'd just done, I had to go back and add a page between the one with the title on Silas' back and what ended up being the new title page. Then, I re-inked the page after tat, re-lettered it and am now in the process of re-lettering the page I posted yesterday. But FINALLY the whole things looks cohesive.

Here's the current four together. I think they go together much better than before.

 And with the work on this page tonight, I've gone in a different direction again. Which means I'll probably have to re-ink the previous pages so that they fit better, re-letter them as well. Which is fine. I'll sit on this overnight to see if I still like it, but so far, I'm happy with the roughness of this and especially like the expression in the top Silas.

 Not the smoothest transition in the comic but I had to get something in there or be stuck for far too long. This would be a bigger number in the show and he should perhaps burst out from a quiet moment. I'm going to go with that and if it continues to bother me later on, I'll do something then. This project has gone on so long, I really just want to go on as smoothly and quickly as possible. So for now, here's the beginning of track 11.

 Did this little self sketch tonight. Nasa posted a photo of Mars with uncorrected light and color and I was fascinated. I took the photo and made a palette from it in Procreate, knowing I'd want to do something with it. Turns out it was this. Just a quickie, no drawing, just 'painting.' I think it came out reasonably well.

Managed this today. Finally figured out how to both get Silas where I needed him to be and get the whole mural shown as well. This is more or less what I did with the Tamino mural, which makes a good bracket. I think the next page, the one with both murals will be from Silas' back and will have the track title on the reverse of his hoodie. And then, THEN I can move on to track 11 in full. I make my own problems.

 

 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.