Today’s page… Note several new tricks I’ve learned since yesterday!
Text control - it’s better - more or less in the right place and sizes changed without running off the page.
The speech bubbles are oriented correctly AND they now have a background colour (and the TEXT has a colour).
Speaking of colour, I changed the colour of the whole background.
This is the next page, btw, in the sequence describing the day Dad dropped the news (on the phone, during COVID lockdown) that he was going blind. If you’ve missed the earlier posts, consider A) subscribing so you don’t miss any others and B) reading from the start either on the website or on the app. I’ve gone back and opened everything up so it’s all available for all to see. It’s easy, click the blue button.
A bit of behind-the-scenes process work:
Started with this script on my phone (in Notes)
You’ll see that the actual text being used in the various draft panels is not the same as the original (and will change again before I’m done). You’ll also see that I defaulted to text spewing (the writer rears her ugly head) by the end. I’ll do some drastic modifying for the next few panels.
I went back to my sketchbook for the original drawing of Dad sitting on the edge of his bed.
3. Next up was a quick snapshot with the iPhone and a trim down to size:
I’m not bothering with edits or anything fancy - just trying to figure out a rough process that will help assemble my thoughts more or less where I want them.4. And, finally, using my new skills from yesterday, added the text boxes, etc.
The eyeball in the bottom half of the page was done quickly in Procreate. So, a bit of a mish-mash of things going on, but in the end, it felt a little less horrendous to be putting things together.
During a break today (I’m hosting a Writers on Fire mini-retreat in Banff this weekend and was also working on a book proposal for a completely different project involving farming - not at liberty to say more quite yet - no drawing involved), I read The Red Diary an experimental graphic novel/collaboration between Teddy Kristiansen and Steven T. Seagle. LOVED it. Very cool Read it from front to back and back to front (which, if you know the book, you’ll know exactly what I mean.
When it came time for a longer, outside break, I took a lap around town and stopped in at the library where I found several good-looking books on the subject of creativity/artistic process/and mixed media design. I haven’t had a chance to do a deep dive into any of those yet, but the retreat isn’t over yet…
Curious about writers on fire? Here’s the link.