Finally finished page 132. It ended up better than I thought it would, after the usual messing about with color, placement, etc. Just for fun, I threw in a screenshot of how much information did not make it into the page. Everything outside the white frame was rendered but unused. This happens a lot, especially when I reuse background elements like I did with this one. I might indeed use them again. A lot easier than drawing something again from scratch and is one of the joys of working digitally. In a lot of ways, I'm a traditionalist. Not when it comes to making art, though I don't know half the things the software can do. I have my process and it's remained more or less unchanged for a long while. The iPad is the newest addition and it's central. Anyway, another page down.

 Distraction! To be fair, this was done from a sketch I made at work as a demo. I had the pencil done already and was just 'painting' for anyone that wanted to watch, something I haven't done at work for over two years. When done, I had the gray scale version at the top thinking I'd take it home and see what I could do in AD to finish it. Last night, as I poked about with it in my head, I wonder about doing something with very low contrast, something I pretty much never do. The middle version was my first go but I wondered if I could push it even further. The lower one is that result. I like it, too but it's not for general consumption, I think, as it's just TOO hard to see. I don't even think it's printable. In a gallery, people would mostly pass over it, thinking it just a flat, brown canvas. Part of me likes that about it, but I wouldn't print that one, I think. The middle one is hard enough to see. Anyway, back to the comic.

 This was a big week for the podcast, and for work. Work is kicking my ass and I am honestly utterly tired of it. The podcast got to episode 200 and Max and I spent four hours recording an episode just on Batman that I'm not betting anyone will listen to. That's ok, we had fun. With all that, I had time to start on page 132 but that's it. And I won't get back to it til sometime next week. I want to up my page rate but so far, that's not happening. Still, I'm getting what I want which is something that feels like a spray painted mural in the context of my comic. The vectorization takes out a lot of the texture but as it's done that all along, I'm ok with that. The colors here are not at all right, and I'll likely go back to a grey scale under image and overlay. Still, I think it's fun and will look like what it's meant to be; Digby trying for a bit of branded immortality. There's a lot of steps in here, but so far, these are the only ones I have records for.

 Was on vacation last week, a very much needed trip home. Managed to get some more reference photos though not as much as I'd like. Then again, I haven't decided the background style for the next track, so it might not matter as much. Using photos directly has made things a LOT easier but I worry that there will be too much contrast with the first whole chunk of the comic. So I might limit that to Digby's little trip. This wasn't a hard page so I was able to slap it together yesterday and today. Used a fisheye lens on my phone to get the nice warp but I sketched freehand, inking in Procreate with the HB pencil tool. Then the usual bits of spray paint and text with a chisel marker. Digby's track is nearly done.

 Played around with colors and tones a lot with this to get it done. I also had to decide how Digby was going to appear in this, how to show the wall, the Silas piece and make it all fit. Looking back at the previous page, it was obvious; he was looking through his hands at the end of the page and at the top of the following page. So it seemed to make total sense to take Digby's point of view when looking at the piece. It adds enough of an oddness and an angle that I think it fits between just fine. Now, I can move on.

Working on backfilling a page I've needed to do. Digby is supposed to see someone else's work that sends him off on a tangent, makes him momentarily doubt his skill before painting one of his big logs. I wanted the piece he sees to be one of Silas'. It's one we see him working on way back in the opening though it's further developed here. We never actually see him finish it and it's one of the pieces that the city sent to him in dreams. I didn't have a photographic background to match the one I drew in that earlier sequence so I made one using elements from different photographs. Though the door has been cropped out, the brick wall is actually my tiling of one photo about six times. There's only one window which is copied and pasted on. I think, once it's been shoved through the vectorizer, it's pretty effective. I wanted some ghost graffiti to show through, so pulled some tests I'd done, the "spaz," and "sorta" from above. I then matched the overlay color and now just have to get an image of Digby in there that will tie the color palettes of the two pages together. That's what happens when you don't plan ahead!

 

 Had some time to develop the sketches a little further and I like how they turned out. Looking at the song to come, I'm not sure if he's the best fit, but perhaps I can actually show a softer side of him? We'll see. I think I've come too far NOT to use him and, technically, he has already appeared in the comic. He was in the coffee house in the overture. I'm sure I can figure something out.

 Haven't finished with Digby but I do have to look ahead. Ricci has been a little tough for me, mostly as I was cleaving too close to the reference and not chonking him out nearly enough. This morning, I did that head and hand and it just clicked. That's what I want. That big, round head was exactly what I wanted. I just did the one on top which is more of a figure and that's pretty much what I'm going for. Why is he singing into a spray paint can? Why the hell not? Anyway, progress. Sometimes I just need to take steps back and away and come at it fresh.