Aspect comic from Chugnut
This past weekend I attended my third Chugnut comics weekend. I had set myself the task of trying to draw as much as possible and also stretch the old inking muscles. On the first day, Friday, I drew anything that moved, but after I had drawn everyone I could see I got tired of that and wanted to move onto something else. I was really wanting some sort of idea to strike me and I would then just run with it. It got to 1am in the morning and I still had nothing. I then proceded to have the worst sleep ever that night going through ideas in my head; also having to pee and stomach pains didn't help.
The next morning I decided I would just do an aspect to aspect comic taking in the scenery at the camp grounds. This turned out to be a really good idea, however it ended up taking me all day to draw and ink. I tried a slightly new technique for me which involved drawing in a coloured col-erase pencil (in this case red) I then knocked that pencil back with a kneadable eraser, and defined the image as best I could with a pencil. The penciling was the crucial stage as I have realised recently that I am an extremely lazy penciller. This is partly due to leaving room for energy in the inking stage but in equal parts just lazy. I tried my best to make the pencil stage as complete a drawing as possible. For the final stage I inked the picture with a dip pen and ink. By the end of the day I was really over it, but mostly happy with the result (Ive liked it!). You can see the completely finished and computer coloured piece at the top of this post.
For Sunday I got out a collaborative comic I started with Chris Downes in April last year; yes it's taken me that long to finish. Just the mention of this comic at Chugnut would flair up the argument that I apparently said wordless comics aren't actual comics. I'd have to stop myself launching into explanations about how it's not what I exactly meant. But by this stage it's too hard to live down, so I just have to shut up about it.
I felt nervous going back to the comic, and the poses I had to draw were going to be complex; basically me recoiling as Chris unleashes his mighty fury on me and then drags me to a toilet to flush my words down them.
Even though I didn't get very far with my parts I did get to pencil them in and I should be able to complete the rest in the next few weeks.
It's always a pain leaving these weekends as you just start to get into the swing of it and remember how awesome everyone can be to hang out with.
I'll post some more camp pics in the next few days. You can also see some photos at the flickr group page.
Also don't forget the official Chugnut blog where there'll be some updates from new members.
Ps- the food was better than last year, and last year the food was awesome. Thanks to all the chefs!
Man, I REALLY wish I could have come to this one. It looked absolutely brilliant from the photos that I've seen.
ReplyDeleteYou're aspect comic makes me miss it even more!
Plus, I really want to see what you've done with that collaboration. Nice to hear you worked on it even though I wasn't around.
I already commented on this one over on the Chugnut blog but I really like the more in-depth post here. I thought your self-diagnosis as a lazy penciler was interesting because I'm the opposite; I try to pencil everything in detail because I'm really precise and non-spontaneous in my inking. I've gotten try to loosen up a bit. Great post!
ReplyDeleteThis is fantastic.
ReplyDelete