Sheltering in place for four months means upping my food presentation skills.
Happy Saturday.
Journal
This may just be a “cartoonist”-specific thing, but I could never truly relate to the whole “Thank God It's Fucking Friday” thing. It usually just means that the week is already over before I could finish all the things I wanted to finish.
Inking a page's worth of material today before including it into a a page I'm finishing colors on. Inbox at 15. Still haven't decided about tomorrow's newsletter. I hate skipping weeks, but I also disdain the notion of filler issues.
Insomnia hit yesterday instead of the weekend, so I found myself up till 3:30 AM. Not working exactly. Given that I typically start my day at around 7:00-8:00AM, I can seldom function past the 2:00AM threshold, but my mind is still abuzz and much thinking tends to occur.
Woke today at 7:00AM and have been a zombie since, despite the 4 cups of coffee I've downed. Still getting some penciling done, but it is a slow drifting affair. Not full pages or anything, just bits and pieces of additional material that need to make their way into the chapter. It may only be a mere 20 pages, but it's a dense bastard, with some pages including 3-pages worth of material in them.
I suppose that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, unless you see the sneak peek I posted a couple days ago.
Good morning. Off to pencil and ink 3-5 pages worth of additional material for a chapter I thought I'd have finished by yesterday already.
Energizing music and podcast recommendations very much welcome.
I think it's fair to objectively state that THE SOLAR GRID is experimental comix. Not because it's what I set out to do as much as formal experimentation is one of the things I just really get a kick out of. But even still, I'm also accustomed to doing just the right thing for the task at hand (or so I think), so all the storytelling choices I make—however unconventional they may seem—are devised specifically in service of the story, and not just because they'll “look cool”. It just so happens that the story I came up demands a lot of creative solutions. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Although the limits of pictorial storytelling are amply pushed throughout chapters 1 to 4, I think chapter 5 (teased above) is shaping up to be my most experimental comix to date.
I think I mentioned how little I enjoy the process of digital-coloring, but today has been a joy. Likely aided by my glass of La Fin Du Monde and the beats of LCD Soundsystem (Losing My Edge is very much speaking to my soul these days.)
Notice anything wrong with this page?
Bottom tier. Second panel from the left.
Missing. His. Fucking. Shoulder. Bag.
It is for this reason that the making of comix should be reserved only for the young. And also why having an editor is a good idea.
FML, back to the drawing board.
(Actually, I just noticed another missing thing from panel 1. FML x 1000.)
Received a mysterious envelope from Crabapple containing a folded piece of orange paper and instructions for participating in a game of Exquisite Corpse.
Behold:
From top to bottom: R.J. Rushmore, Molly Crabapple, Ganzeer.
Will spend the day doing much less fun things though, like digital coloring and email-responding. Inbox now at an unruly 41. Homemade cheesecake and black coffee for breakfast.
I have now reached the age where I require a regular injection of coffee into my bloodstream just so I can function. Three cups today. It was only ten years ago when I barely needed one.
Another 12-hour workday here (so far) and I'm still not done. Would really like to finish this thing today so I can return to TSG duties come Monday. Trying to finish Chapter 5 before the arrival of child into the world.
Aside from regular house chores, I'd like to spend the weekend reading. My delicious to-read pile grows by the day and it's been a while since I reviewed anything. Skipping tomorrow's newsletter. Hoping to have something for it next week.
Also, Godzilla Cloud apparently.
Accounting yesterday, and today I work on this single-page illustration for a book out of France. It's my tradition not to share finished works until they're officially out in the world, so the above preliminary sketch is all I'll be revealing for a while.
Sky is an overcast gray tricking my brain into thinking it's not even 7:00AM yet, but it is actually past 9:00.
Coffee should help.
And that's a wrap for Chapter 5!! Well, almost. Finally done with color separation sheets (12-hour work day today!), now to apply noted colors in Photoshop, followed by lettering.
It feels like I shout “it's a wrap” 3-4 times in the process of creating these chapters.
Sometimes the only reason I want THE SOLAR GRID to do well is so I can afford to bring outside inkers/colorists/letterers on board, that's all.