I lied. ONE more change. Looking at page 30, I liked the way some of the graffiti bled off the image into the frame. I didn't have that in page 31. It should have been an easy fix, but because of a time saving device I'd added, it wasn't. Still, I like the continued detail of graffiti or something coming out of the image. It breaks the perspective even more than it already is but also gives the feeling that someone's been writing all over the comic itself.

Changed my mind. I didn't want to just throw in a page between these two because of some missing text. That's not how I planned it and I felt it would slow things down too much. So. I added text to page 32, making it page 31 again and adjusted the colors over all so that they're a good deal more 'glowing,' mostly because of that line, "touch of amber light." Things were looking too washed out and I felt I was getting away from that safety light orange that I like so much. This did cause me to have to do a lot of fiddling, but was far less work than making a whole new page. So. Moving on.

City Silent page 31. Except it's really page 32 because I forgot that I didn't finish the first verse in the last page. So, gah. Means I'll have to go back and make something up. It's annoying but I didn't want to shove the last two lines of the first verse into this and then try and cram the whole eight lines in as well. Messy. Oh, well. Included the images from the iPad of the background graffiti. That pad has become vital to the making of this comic. What amazes me is that SuperVectorizer does such a good job turning that stuff into vectors that read almost too real for the rest of the art. It helps add more organic feel to the comic which is why I keep inking with a dip pen, though I set a new record for smudging on this page. Gah, again. For what it's worth, this page has many elements; the background lines are on one page, the foreground lamp pose is another. Silas was drawn separately and each piece of graffiti was done on its own. The stanzas are two separate piece so I could place them and move them around as I saw fit. I'm pretty happy with the page, moreso since I did this one start to finish today. Usually I have something started or get part way. Thought sure I wasn't going to make it but once I had everything scanned, even last minute graffiti stuff took almost no time. Hope to do this again later this week. Scheduling with work hasn't been helpful lately.

Got a chance to do a little more graffiti experimenting at work while doing a demo. It's far from perfect but, I thought, with no planning, it was at least kinda neat.

Little late night graffiti iPad practice. A little rough but ok.

Oops. I totally forgot to put the railing in before finishing. I didn't draw it into the original background as I knew it was going to overlap Silas at some point. So here it is. Also toned down the color behind the text as it was just too white.

Another page down. Had a lot of fun doing the tagging on the iPad and Procreate. The way that SuperVectorizer makes that stuff into vectors is a perfect blend between a bitmap and vector, to my eye, giving just enough of an organic feel without making the stuff stand out. Don't know how I would do this comic without that combination. This is the first page that really feels like what I want most of the comic to feel like. The graffiti isn't mean to follow forms; I'm trying to emphasize the feeling of how it can take over an environment and disregarding perspective and planes is the way for me. Later on, there will be points where whatever background color should be there simply isn't and all is more or less defined by what's written over it. It's going to be a hard balance to keep, as this one was but worth it.

Shoutouts here to some of my previous aliases, including my old graffiti 'handles,' The Black Graphite and SFX. These are from high school where a group of us pretty much invented trolling and message boards, we just did it on the bathroom walls. So I guess I get credit for vandalism for that stuff? Also there's 'Kamen,' my first artist nom de plume and finally, Max, my best friend. Don't want to overdo this kind of thing. Other characters will get their say.

Been awhile since I managed a page of this. Vacation and other things like work got in the way. Page 29 of The City Silent. Did many versions of the text to get it to feel organic. The iPad has been working really well for this part. Glad it's part of the team.

It's been awhile, mostly because I've been on vacation to snowsberg, otherwise known as Boston. Did this as a demo yesterday at work, trying to play a lot more with color and layering. Just a bit of fluff.

Been a slow week for art. Working longer hours, tired when I get home. Was going to do this as a demo at work, but didn't get the chance. Only managed to take the reference photo. This is a work buddy, Joe. Another quick and dirty? Procreate portrait. I generally really enjoy doing this and am glad that Joe pushed me a little by making such a strong expression. At the very least, he liked it.