Final version. I like this one a lot better but I don't think I caught the likeness. I'm struggling too much with this one and I think I'm done. There was even one more version I didn't complete. I like the image, just not as a portrait. Still, it's me progressing, so it's ok.

 I used a screen grab from an episode of Portrait Artist of the Year to make another portrait while I wait to be able to corral the next victim. I'm trying to keep things as minimal as possible while retaining likeness. I think there is some, but I would never have chosen this as a pose to work from. It's so dull. Then again, I could work on this more and get more of a likeness. Maybe I will. I already see things I'd change. The sketch, though was totally without tracing, which does make me happy.

 Final version of this one. I wouldn't have wanted him to be my sitter, at least not in this pose. His face is not very distinctive at least in this pose. He's a British actor of some sort; no idea who. I redid the whole thing but kept the original skin tone area which specifically did not match the rest, which I liked. Likeness is really hard with something so minimalist but I really like the simplicity. Guess it's not for every subject. Still, it was fun to play.

 Working on a portrait based on a screen capture from Portrait Artist of the Year. This was one of the sitters. I was having trouble with it when I suddenly just cut down the number of colors I was using and then it came together. Not quite done, I don't think but a lot further along than I thought.

 This is the final. There were minor tweaks done to the shadows, the shoulder and the mouth. It is not perfect, none of my stuff ever is. But I like it. It would look best at full size, which is 16x16 or even bigger. But the experiment did what I wanted it to do and I look forward to doing this again with another subject.

 I put out a call to friends on FB to help me get some portrait practice in. I've done tons of me, but I need to broaden my skills. The process I'd want to employ, were I any kind of professional, is to sit a person down with a video camera recording them and just talk. Later, I can go through and find moments that feel not only very much like THEM but which are a lot more candid, real and not posed. With Nick, there was a moment where he was explaining something animatedly with his hands moving about, though barely in frame. I really liked the addition of at least one hand as it helps to break up and balance the composition. The top is the pencil sketch done in Procreate. The bottom is the 99% finished final. I want to go over it for some final adjustments. The shapes were done in greyscale an then I overlaid a couple layers using colors got from a peach faced lovebird, one of Nick's pets. It made a great palette, I think. I'll post the final later but I'm pretty happy with this one.

 Coming up later in this track is another switch of style, though it was one planned all along. I wanted to capture some of the frenetic energy of the "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" song in "Yellow Submarine." It was the only part of the movie animated like this and while it wasn't something I appreciated as a kid, I can find some beauty in it now. And, to be fair, I've been doing portraits in this kind of style for a long time. So I guess it made an impression. Just wanting to do a proof of concept, I took an existing image of Digby, inked it with a technical pen brush and then just kept the brushstrokes as loose as possible, assigning colors after the fact. I got what I wanted. I hope it adds a sense of movement, of dance when its done. Will also likely be looking for inspiration from the "Gotta Dance" sequence of "Singin' in the Rain," which is a part of that film that doesn't fit the rest at all. Time to have some real fun, I think, though the mice were a nice break from the more dreary parts with Silas.

 Finally finished another page. My pacing stinks on this comic. Messed a lot with the colors, so much so that there's almost no reference to the page before. But I want to get some color into this thing and while the mice were flashy, they were in primaries. The background was fun to stitch together and adds enough detail without its being a photo being a problem because of detail. 

 I've not been able to do my actual job in over 18 months. They canceled in-store classes not long after new year last year and since then, I've just been selling stuff. Yesterday, someone asked me to do a painting demo to show customers one of the cool things they could be doing on an iPad. Since I always have mine with me, I was able to use my own brushes and stuff which was fun. Didn't have many takers but I manages a fun little Vincent-like painting in about half an hour.

 This one took three tries. The first sketch was loose and the finished piece didn't work for me. The second one was too literal and felt dead, with nothing special. This one is more distorted and I like it the best. It's based on a French artist I follow on Instagram, Clement Louis. He posted a photo of himself, I grabbed it and decided to play with it. I'm waiting for the takedown notice. :D

 I've been working too much, having too much to do these days and as such, haven't been able to draw much at all. But I want to. So I went through some old sketches and found one that I thought I'd finished but hadn't. This is me, posing for one of Smatt's panels, I think. Makes for an odd but kind of fun self portrait? Playing with colors, I went a little on the wild side. This came together in less than an hour as I trusted the sketch and didn't really edit it  much. I think it's fun and left me satisfied. Wish I had more time these days.

 As I knew would happen, I went back to this page, my least favorite of that song and expanded it. It was meant to be a stop in the song, a hold, and was meant to show the guys reacting to someone else's graffiti. It's what the following verse is about. When we see the final, it's a 2 page spread, obviously covering what was there but before, it was too squashed in. So now there are two 2 page spreads. Who else would make that much noise but the mice?

 Another try. I'd left the shadows out of the first one which did change the mood quite a lot. It fit better with the style I was working with, but not with the subject, at least when it comes to the more melancholy images Rembrandt made of himself. While I liked my drawing, it wasn't "accurate," which I decided to work on for this version. Using a grid, I made my sketch from a gridded, zoomed-in version of the original painting with a similar cropping to the one I did. Once I got the sketch done, I worked it the way I'd done the other; making a new layer for each color then exporting them to the Mac. Once there, each is vectorized and reassembled in AD. I liked the palette of the previous one, so just used that. The final stages always take the least amount of time as, if I've done everything right, it's just a few clicks. There's a lot more emotion in this one and it's much more representational of the original. I still think I'd use a more simplified style for doing a portrait of an actual sitter.

 I added a line. One line. My partner thought the face looked flat and even caved in towards the center. I can't see it myself, but I appreciate his view. I will likely go back to this and try it again. I don't think of it as a failure, I actually love this. But if I can make it better, more appealing to other viewers, I should try to.

 I really wanted to listen to records and draw today, but as is often the case, I didn't know what I wanted to draw. When that happens, I usually either go to a self portrait or Rembrandt. Today was the latter. This style, which is still sort of the "cut paper" thing in that I try and boil the image down to the bare essentials. I also try to keep the color palette very limited as well. When I worked this out in Procreate, there were a lot more levels of gray but that was mostly just to help me keep the layers apart until I'd sent them through SuperVectorizer. Once I got them into AD, the color reassignment came pretty quickly. A last minute overlay brought the whole thing together. I'm pretty happy with it and think this is a very sustainable style, possibly even commercial. We can only see.

 And one more because I wasn't satisfied. I wanted something loose and brush stroke-y. I've done this style before but hadn't done one in awhile. Did it all in Procreate, working in greyscale and then, when I brought it into AD, I got rid of a lot of the color variance which flattens it out but which also brought it better together. Now, I'm done.

 A new version from the same drawing as the last one. I was playing with some ink brushes in Procreate. I do really like thick, textured brushes and simplistic portraits. I seem to be alone in this. More and more, my art is for me alone. So be it. This is another variation and I'll likely do more. Because I like them. And thanks, Vince.

 Had a long day of chores and podcasting but I haven't been able to draw anything all week. I wasn't up to starting on the next page of City Silent, which sucks. Just wanted to do something. So, another self portrait. The text is from one of the last songs of City Silent and isn't meant to be legible, more like tantalizing or something. Played a lot with filtering; the whole image is done in blue with a blue filter of grey writing in the background and then an orange filter over the whole thing. It had unexpected results which I liked and kept.

 So this is the kind of thing that happens when all is "said and done." I woke up before the alarm this morning and had the idea in my head to gently fade the lines out of the mice in this page which transitions not only them to their line-less versions at the bottom of the page but helps transition to the general line-less style for the next song. Well, there you go. That's how this shit works when you don't plan ahead.

 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.