Finished page 188. Added some details, did some color assignment and re-assignment. Moving on!

 Had a little time to mess around with the next page tonight as well. Wanted to keep it loose, only had a vague idea what I wanted to do but a few photos later and I was drawing. This is what it looks like raw from Procreate. I'll put it through the vectorizer, which will smooth things out (probably more than I'd like, though that's part of the process) and work on it...well, not this weekend. Sometime next week.

 Updated the colors on this one, made them a bit more intense, more saturated which adds to his personality, I think. Greg Davies, British comedian, host of "Taskmaster," a show I like very much. Believe it or not, it came from this freehand drawing:

While it more or less fits the image I screen grabbed, the warping adds a lot to the character and feel. I will likely do more of this in the future.

 Threw this together quickly tonight. I've been wanting to do a portrait of Taskmaster host Greg Davies, but it's hard to find a decent pose. I paused on a video last night and got this, which was kind of perfect. I'm not sold on this, so it's in the 'put it away for a night' category. Weirdly, the original version didn't work. As soon as I warped it a bit, it fell into place. We'll see.

 Final page. Decide to add the bricks for a little texture. What a pain they are. I don't think the whole wall would have helped, would have distracted from the writing but they add a certain something as they are. Still, makes my hand all weird. Also made Silas a little smaller. Moving on.

 Worked on this tonight and it came together remarkably fast. Thing is, I'm not sure if there should be some kind of texture or some other detail added or not. Going to sit on this overnight just to see.

 I was looking through Instagram and came across something by Sainer Koloor, a painter I know almost nothing about. But I appreciate his very bold use of color. I've done some bright things in the past but I don't think I've had his kind of control over what I was doing. So I decided to try and keep the palette narrow but bright. And I think I really like it. One other thing I did was to not texturize the background at all, and I think I like that, too. Just glad I still like to experiment. Though really, it's all down to me getting bored.

 Forgot to upload this the other day, a portrait playing with that more stretched, painterly style. I kind of like it in black and white. Don't know if I'll color it or not. I even like the plain background which I usually don't do. Might tinker with it a bit.

 Last minute update: changed the color of the text. It just wasn't prominent enough.

 And finished. It's a low key page, echoing the page that started this song. It's meant to be a little dream-like. Had to throw in some tags by the rotten mice. They get everywhere.

 Sunday is usually podcast editing day, and so it was. Later, we're heading off to friends for dinner. But in between, I managed to squeeze in a little time for this. Still playing with the colors, but this one, so far, makes the figure stand out enough that I think it works. The hard part is going to be to get the text to fit. We'll see. That's the trouble of working without a plan. And the fun.

 Decided that the last page was done and posted it. Worked all day, but had some time this evening to throw some things together. As it turns out, I'm pretty happy with this first pass. The Silas was the second inked version I did the other day but painted, the background was from a ref photo I took in Boston a couple years ago. I can keep things rough but still representational. Needs adjustments but I'm happy so far.

 Had a little time tonight and took some time with this. Might be done. I want to sleep on it, but I like the change in style a lot. We'll see. Night night.

 And I got started on the next page. Keeping to the style from the earlier pages, though perhaps pushing it a bit further, I really like how this is starting. It feels like a batik print and I will likely try and do the spray paint, not in a spray paint brush but using the same brush and making it feel like what I've already done. We'll see.

 Lots of adjustments on the text, added an outline to Silas, had also added a shadow on his back but took it out as it only added complication, nothing else. I'm good with this. Almost feels like he's about to walk out into Oz. He's going to be disappointed. Page 184-ish.

 Felt lazy but I guess I did a bunch of things today. Went and bought underwear (big deal), did the laundry, watched this week's movie, wrote this week's script, threw this page together and still managed to play some Zelda, listen to a couple of records and nap. Trust me, though, I am a lazy bastard. This page came together almost too easily so I'm going to sit on it over night before posting it just in case. But I like the idea of him walking through his own sketch/scribbles of testing out signature after signature. I wonder if we all did that, graffiti artist or not, in high school. I know I did. I even tried to change my handwriting then right after I stopped using my first name. Didn't last. Was too much a pain in the ass.

 Did a little experiment today, something you can't really see here. I bought a texture screen cover for my iPad, meant to give it a feeling more like drawing on paper. It doesn't feel like paper, but it does slow me down and make me feel like I have more control, especially when making thinner lines. The top image was done with the cover on, the bottom was done earlier before I got it. I know the top one was warped but I still feel there's more control, especially where lines need to change width. It will likely sand down the tips of my pencil, but they're not expensive and it's worth it to get a better result or at least a better feel.

 Finished. This is the new page 183. The old one was so dull. The whole point of act 3 is for Silas to get out and shake things up in hopes of making a splash in the 'art world,' so it seemed silly sticking to the old style and having things so staid. I will see if I can continue to use this for at least this coming track.

 This was started as page 184, a silent following of the previous page's lyrics. But then I wondered if it might not make a better solution to that more boring layout on 183. So I started down that path. If it's going to truly fit, there'll have to be some line work done and I need something to fill those annoying, blank spaces. But it's a lot more dynamic. We'll see.

 One last distraction of the day. This feels like one of those styles that I really like and no one else will. Still might show up again in the comic.

 Not the most interesting page of the comic but after the craziness of the end of act 2, I thought maybe a quieter moment as Silas tries to psych himself up to start things anew would work ok. Let's hope so. Page 183-ish.

 Distractions! I was looking through old City Silent stuff when preparing to get back into it and I saw some distorted images I'd used of Digby a couple years ago. And I really liked the approach. So I wondered if I could push it a little further. I did a Smatt. I distorted the ref photo, then distorted the pencil sketch and distorted the final image one last time to get some more movement and attitude from it. Then I wondered if I could apply this approach to portraiture. I took an old ref photo of me and did the same thing. While I don't think it's good for every portrait, I like the ideas enough to want to play more with them. Which is not helping me get the comic done.

 Sunday is usually sound editing day for the podcast, so that comes first. But after that, before we take a little trip to visit the in-laws, I managed to get some work finished on the comic. The top page was bothering me because the angle of Silas and the bed was just so off between that page and the one after. So I removed the drawing I originally had there and copied the color fields from page 181, shrunk them, fiddled with them and now it makes more visual sense. Trust me. Page 182 was easy enough to finish as it just needed some shadow and highlight work done. I suppose I COULD add the book and cans into the preceding pages but the jump is a common enough cut in comics that I think it works fine, and adds to the slight wonkiness one feels as one gets up. And as Silas is sort of struggling to get out the door, there will likely be a bit more of that. So, five pages in two days. Not bad. Wish the schedule was always this good.

 And, with a little time before log off, I managed to get the next page started as well. Amazing what you can get done when you don't have to work that day. Working is stupid. There has to be a better way.

So it's cheating, in a way to call this "four pages done in a day," as the top two are variations on the same page using elements I've used many times before but hey, I'll take the page count. Of course, I have no idea if the page numbers are even correct because THAT is all fucked up. The full page count is over 190 but it includes the curtain pages which aren't numbered and...well, eventually I'll figure it out. And eventually I'll have to go back and fix the pages with the curtains being pulled as the graffiti 'magically' disappears (i.e. I'm too lazy to warp it and, to be fair, those tools did not exist when I started). But, four pages is four pages. So good for me. I hope I keep up the interest and pace.
 

 Got some work done on the next page for "City Silent' today. It's not the first page as I didn't decide exactly what I wanted when the curtain opened until I started drawing this. Still, it's a start. The colors are not final at all but might be in the right direction. One of the things Scott McCloud told me was that I wasn't drawing enough attention to Silas' head. And he's right. As it stands, the eye is drawn towards the orange. So while I want to keep a brighter night sky, I need to do something that pulls you back to Silas. And there's lettering to do. But I started, I feel good about it and that's important.

 Haven't touched the comic in months. I also came across an old post on FB where I apparently gave up comics for good four years ago, citing a lack of drive. Well, that didn't work out. I did finish the first half of "City Silent," so I guess I'd better finish it. Every year, the holidays take a little more out of me and it's harder to bounce back creatively. I did a couple portraits here and there but really nothing major. Last night, for the first time in awhile, I sketched some Silas stuff. It's not much but it's inching in the right direction. I got a surprise day off tomorrow so I'm going to try and at least start act 3 and get this thing going again. There is no way I'll finish by my original goal, before I'm 60 but that doesn't matter as long as I actually finish. Looking through it again, -I- like it and I can honestly say there's nothing else like it out there. That has to be worth something, even if it's only to me.