Page 110 finally came together, though I managed one last big mistake before I could call it done: the text originally said "track seven," even thought "end track five" is RIGHT THERE. Twice. Easy enough fix, if annoying. Then again, working with elements makes things tons easier. I just edited the original pencil sketch for the lower figure on the iPad without having to redraw it and then, with that, was able to "re-clothe' Digby without having to make him all over again. The final result is kind of a jumble that still leads the eye down to the lower right and, to me, has a feeling of a graffitied wall as well as a comic. And that's the point. Moving on.

 Already re-drew the main figure as I really just didn't like the old one. Once details are in and a few things are re-arranged, this will work better. And hey, why the HELL didn't I notice that the lower, dropped in figure was wearing TOTALLY DIFFERENT CLOTHES?!! So that will have to be redrawn as well. So will the track text. No big deal, really. This is why I like working with elements and layers.

It was podcast and grocery shopping day but I managed to get some work done on the next page of City Silent as well. I started with what I'd done before, knowing that I wanted it in the upper left hand corner. Then I did some photo ref and drawing. When trying to place the new, multi-limbed figure, I realized it wasn't going to fit, so exported it back to Procreate, warped it, sent it through Supervectorizer again and got more or less what I wanted. From there, it was placement, moving around, text and fudging. I think it's mostly done but I'm not sold on the colors. It needs....something. I think there's some nice movement in it and it fits very well with the previous page. Best to sleep on it and look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow.
 

 Just getting started with page 110. This is the first 'panel,' whatever those are. Turns out I had another shot of that storefront from a different angle, so why not use it? I want to introduce a lot more color, the way I did with the mice but I think I want Digby to paint over the "End Track Five" part first and then write over that with the track 6 information. I also think that he's going to be doing something more than just painting as that's dull. It's all the other characters do. The next song is more about dreaming, in a way; dreaming of 'making it,' whatever that is. I have to be careful as there's a track coming up that is all about branding and I don't want to overlap with it. Maybe I can juxtapose Digby's actual designs over the shapes of his body, have him living in his own art somehow. If I'm careful, I can show two sides of the art world coin; Digby who's more sincere and whoever comes next being a lot more cynical, in it just for the fame and money. They are two real sides of the graffiti world, just like the art world, especially in these days of the ridiculous NFT. I can't even conceive of what stupid thing will come next.

 Not quite ready to start track six, or seven if you count the overture. So I was playing around with Digby some more. The style of the top image is the one I've been using but I like to experiment. The bottom one is cool but too cartoony in comparison with the rest of the comic. But I learned some stuff. The background on the bottom is made from text samples I was making for word balloons piled atop each other and a window from a random photo I took. This means I can make up backgrounds as I was hoping and they should work. The top image's background was just a photo I took with the colors turned way down and shoved through supervectorizer. In general, I like where this is going.

 So, Act two, track five is finished and published on the Gumroad store. So now the bucks will come rolling in! Well, no, but some downloads would be nice. I think this track is the most dynamic, loud one of the comic so far. I think the mice's attitude comes through really well and, while experimental, isn't so off that it throws off the rest of the comic. https://tblue.gumroad.com in case anyone out there forgot. As always, there was a bunch of stuff that needed to be done to get the PDF in shape. I had to make the cover above, edit the intro and copyright pages and re-export all the pages as I don't like the copyright tags on each page as it's obnoxious. There were also some pages that needed a little seeing-to so that it all flowed. But it's done and I can move on.

Smatt's cap is the current symbol for the cover. Don't know if it'll remain the symbol for the whole act. Eventually, everything will be under one roof and these will go away. I just wanted something to feel different and specific to someone other than Silas.

 There's been a lot of work since the last entry. There are tons of elements in this one, some of them photographic. What I needed to do was transition away from the mice, get them off stage in a way, and get to the lineless style I'll be using with Digby's chapter. There he is, lurking in the background. There was a lot of poking around with this one, shoving things here and there. It's busy but I think it works. Elements aim the eye to the lower right corner which is what I wanted, the mice are strutting, Digby is ready to take the stage. So now to continue on, after I take a look at the whole track and make any edits. Then, I'll collect it and put it on my Gumroad store, just to be consistent.

 Things haven't been so great lately. Work shifts have been longer meaning I don't have time to do much in the morning and I get home and I'm worn out. I haven't been doing my exercises, haven't been playing my ukulele or really drawing anything. The comic has been gathering dust and it's a page away from having its latest track done. Honestly, I'm utterly done with retail. I feel like I'm wasting my life. But what's a guy to do when those are the only skills he has to offer to make a living? Today, a day off in the middle of four days of long crap, felt closed in and exhausting. But in the end, I really just WANTED to get back to this, to draw something, to move forward. And I did. The ref photos are taken for the top half of the page and the first drawing is made and inked. So, it looks like nothing perhaps but it's movement. And for that, I'm happy.

 Just a bit of fun as I still manage not to get anything of importance done. Lead with the sword; that's a good idea. We'll see if he makes it to 2nd level.

 Just another bit of fun. Smatt as a barbarian warrior in his underpants, which is how they all fight apparently.

 Again, more play. This time, it's just me. I think there's still likeness in simplicity. It's not exactly my nose but it's still me in there. Again, just some fun.

 More playing about. What is fun about vector files is how you can come back and reuse them without much fuss. The background for the top image came from one of many Ghiroy development sketches from about six years ago. Beats the crap out of redrawing the whole thing. I really wish that comic had worked out. I still want to do something with fantasy but that comic and Delve Deep, which was its predecessor never gelled, no matter how much work I put into it. And it was a lot.

 It's one of those things where I happen upon a style I haven't used in awhile and am just having fun. At least I can recognize that now and let myself play instead of considering using it in the middle of a comic that's a totally different and clashing, established style. Drawing can be play and right now, I just feel like playing. Going through my old stuff, there are so many damned styles, most of them distractions that lead nowhere. I don't look down on them any more, I just see them for what they were; play. I like to play. It's not productive exactly but it is fun. And that's important, too.

 I won't be using this style for the comic, but I wanted to play. What I will say is that the background worked a lot better than I thought, looking a lot more like a drawing than the photograph it is. Just back from vacation, where I drew nothing, and it's slow getting back up to speed. Sometimes play is good for the soul, so this is just play.

 Another stylistic sketch. I think I have the look I want down except for the word balloons. I want them legible but more different from those used by the mice. And I still have to get those little assholes off stage. Dragging feet and having fun.

 Another quickie as work is kicking my ass. No background, just more playing with the character to see if I like what I see. So far, so good. I want his word balloons to feel different from the mice's so might adopt a more flowing style. Not totally sure.

 This is a quick and dirty test of sorts. The background is totally made up. I took a photo I had of a brick wall and one I have of a cinder block wall, put them in perspective to form a fake corner. Then I made graffiti in Procreate and put that in the same perspective as the walls I'd just made and layered them on top. I had to adjust a little transparency so it looked a little more like the graffiti wasn't just sitting there. Then I shoved it through SuperVectorizer. I spent very little time on this but it did what I wanted to. There might be one too many colors, and I might avoid TOO much texture in the future but as a proof of concept, I think this is solid enough to move on with. I threw yesterday's fox on top just to see how it worked and adjusted the colors. What will matter is the details, such as pipes, wires and the like, so I'll need to take more photos. I think this will work.

 Another one done for the day, and something that will, I think, prove the concept. It might be almost TOO solid a kind of background for the comic, but we'll see. The background  image is a photo I tool of some graffiti while in Italy in 2012. I think it proves my concept idea, that I can mix and match textures, background set pieces and graffiti to 'build' a set for the comic. The one thing that worries me is that this will look a LOT more solid than the rest of the comic and will make it look kind of shabby in comparison. The only way to know for sure is to just do some pages and see. So far, I'm happy with how this is working out.

 Still playing about with this mix of lineless shapes and photo backgrounds. I think it works and I was damned lucky with that "Dogboy" tag; it was in the photo all on its own. I did have to change the position of it and the graffiti below so "Dogboy" would show. Not a big deal, and SuperVectorizer helped hide a lot of the very fast and bad photo editing it took to do that. Thinking on it now, I might use elements from various photos and kind of 'build' a photographic background which might look more interesting and make me feel less guilty about directly using photos in my work. Thing is, while I like it a lot, I still don't know that it would work for City Silent. It's SUCH a diversion from the existing style. Then again, the mice's section doesn't look much like Silas', either and not much like Howard's. Hmm. Maybe I'll give a few pages a try and see how it goes. Otherwise, I had fun doing this. I need to take more photos as I'd really want to use my own, Pop Art be damned.

 One more last minute test image yielded a surprising result. The character is done only in greyscale. There's a red-orange filter over everything with a harsh light chosen for the layer. Makes it look like he's done in color, since he's a fox. Again, don't know that this will work for the comic it might for various illustrations.

It's a morning of character and style design. Digby, my fox character who was supposed to be in a comic that never happened is going to be the lead on the next track. He might have a partner, I haven't decided yet. The style of "The City Silent" changes because I change and have a real problem with consistency. I get bored and, I hope, I improve. So it means that, over the length of this "graphic novel," things will not look the same at the end as they did in the beginning. The thing is, how far can I push that? I did some quick sketches in pencil, took a photo in Procreate and inked as usual. This is the top image. Then, after vectorization, I did some coloring in AD. That's the second. I played around with the palette, starting with a more or less "realistic" version in the upper right, changing to something utterly off-key next, trying some bright versions of the "realistic" and finally just greyscale. Of the four, I like blue/purple and the greyscale versions the best. Then I tried another inking style, which is the fourth image. (I actually tried a few different brushes but didn't like any of them.) Fifth image has me scanning the original pencil, vectorizing that and using that as an "inked line." While I like the effect, I don't think it works for this comic. Next, the inevitable lineless version which, sadly, I like a lot. Finally, I decided to take a random city photo I'd taken, throw that into the vectorizer and place it below the lineless images. Now the greyscale really stands out. Again, will the comic withstand such a dramatic shift in style? Probably not but the inked version is just starting to look 'old' to me. Well, that's how it goes. I'll keep pushing to see where I can go.
 

 Just a little fun this morning, playing with the shapes, using an older drawing to mess with. Also played with filters at the last moment and got something kind of glowing, kind of autumnal. Could probably have been better balanced but for a quickie it works ok.

 So, I kept the double page spread, more or less kept the characters where they were and what size they were, redid all the paint cans, added some texture (which was dead easy; all I did was take photos of my driveway and then shove them through the vectorizer), added a spotlight effect and just messed around with it til it was feeling done. All that said, it doesn't feel at all as dynamic as the rest of the track which might be a problem. Thing is, if it was anything but a straight on shot, the whole point of the mice having painted over someone else's graffiti would have been lost. So, it is what it is. Just means that the last page will have to be wild and distorted. I have GOT to get the damned mice off the stage.

 Update from late night: Looking at it again, the characters were too small. I think they need to be redrawn as their poses aren't quite right but this is a step in the right direction.

 This was what came out today. I like the wider size and ratio and the sizes are a lot better for scale. But it seems so...dull. There's still some detail missing, such as the cinder blocks, empty paint cans and such. I'll sleep on it. So annoying that a page where nothing big needs to happen is kicking my ass, especially when I'm so close to the end of the track.

Slow progress. This page has been a pain in the ass. It started with just the graffiti the crew was painting over the piece they found. But the straight on angle was boring. So I stretched it out and put the guys in front of it. It worked better until I looked back and realized the original piece was a lot bigger than was shown originally. And again, the guys, who have done 'singing,' look kind of boring. So I warped them, redrew Rooster and re-imaged the graffiti to more match. Still having some trouble but I guess it's progress. Just have to get the little bastards off the stage and I can move on.

 

 Once in a blue moon, you find someone that just happens to resemble a character you made up from nothing. This guy showed up in my tumblr feed today and if he isn't a slightly older version of Crow from Ghiroy, I don't know who is. I mean damn, look at those freckles!

 Another one of these, done between chores and working. If I was doing advertising, I think there'd be mileage in this style.

 Came across this nice artist from NZ who is making quite a little career illustrating people's D&D characters using lineless, vector art. It reminded me of some of my stuff when I turn the line layers off. The mice, in their track suits, are exceedingly good for this. I often wonder about my art and whether the lines should or shouldn't be there. Without wanting to go back and change 107 pages of comics, I can only hope to get this out of my system, fast so that I won't second guess myself as I always do. So, here's some mice and Howard, lineless.

 It's been a minute since I made anything. First, my sister was visiting for a week which is nice. I took some time off, we had fun. Then it was a little hard to get back into the swing of things which is only annoying as this is the last bit of the current song. There's a couple pages to do that resets the scene and has the mice exit. Then, this track is done. I'll go over everything, make final edits and then move on. But then, we had a very severe thunderstorm come through. We weren't home at the time but neighbors called to say that the very huge, old oak tree right next to the house had developed a crack at the base and, oh, by the way, it's hollow. So, instead of running the risk of being crushed in our sleep, we moved out for a couple days before we could contact the Very Expensive Tree Removal Service. We're hoping everything should be back to normal tomorrow evening. In the meantime, I snuck back in and managed to finish this.

 This is a valuable tool; being able to make thumbnails of the current pages and display them together so I can see how things are going. This is the most chaotic part of the comic so far. And that's ok. Vince said it looked like graffiti and, well, that IS central to the story. It will allow me to help design the final few pages and, when it's time to do final editing on the track, this will be invaluable.

 Already starting to edit the sequence. Because of the way it was put together, it wasn't hard to make these two versions of the original opening page as all the elements were already there. I wanted the sense of place to be better shown and also wanted to add a sense of animation to the bit. There will also be the opening shot of the alley with the curtains opening. That being said, it throws my page count all to hell. I have no idea what the actual page is I'm working on now. The numbering will probably be the absolute last step somewhere down the road.

 Page 106. The mice are very loud. Wanted to suggest a bit of rivalry between Rooster and Smatt. Terry doesn't really care. He's the "laid back" member of the cousin crew.