Redline-ville

Currently I'm finishing up the stragglers for a book of 100 Incompatibles that I'm putting together at the end of July. I actually love this point where I've taken my little cro magnon thumbnails and evolved them into page-sized homo sapiens. It’s fun to see the details fill in as this transition occurs. I usually go overly detailed on the redline, but then weed out a lot of fussiness in the inking. I have to keep in mind how the step after inking—the digital coloring—will affect the composition and focal point(s). I ask myself things like: What color arrangement will best reinforce the gag? Narrow the focus? How can I make the illustration interact seamlessly with the caption? Is there too much visual information? Too little? Does the cartoon make intuitive sense when all is said and done?

This is the schizo conversation I have when redlining.

3-Leaf Technique

 

I forgot to post these doodles from church two weeks ago. I did these using a technique where I take three leafs of tracing paper (or drawing vellum) and fold them over to create nested signatures. I saddle stitch them with my stapler and then start doing very loose doodles on the inner-most page. I then turn the page and do a more improved version, and repeat again on the outer-most leaf. At that point I really know where my lines and shading should go. This is a great technique when you want to draw loosely at first to establish proportion (or exaggerate it).

Tips of the Trade 1

 

So I thought I'd post some tips on techniques and materials–mostly so I don't forget what I've learned through the school of trial and error.

Tip #1: You don't have to get the most expensive brushes to pull off excellent inking art. I've owned Windsor Newton brushes in the past (and they are wonderful brushes), but you can avoid the sticker shock of the Series 7 brushes by trying lesser-known brands for your cartoon inking. Princeton's 9560 Snap! series is one example. I use their Round #6 and even though it’s a synthetic brush, it loads ink well and handles beautifully, yielding wonderful thick and think lines.

Tip #2: One big issue in using synthetic brushes successfully is keeping tips intact. I've experimented with home remedies and found that CVS styling gel (which is water soluble and contains glycerin) does a great job in keeping your brush tip in shape. I just wash my brush immediately after each use, then apply a generous glob of gel, making sure to work it into the brush fibers. Then I sculpt the brush tip in the fold between my thumb and index finger. Works like a charm. When I next use the brush, I rinse if off easily with water and I'm ready to go!

Post-It Sheriff

The utility of a post-it perpetually amazes me. Such a nifty tool to document random words and images. Completely non-threatening as it is so small and disposable.

Shower Cat process

 

I wasn’t happy with the initial kitties I did in early thumbnails, so I did some variations (below) before I settled on the final feline. I struggled with two ideas here: 1) a hissing cat, and 2) something that resembled the shape of a shower cap. It felt like one had to be sacrificed a bit for the good of the joke. I let the hissing cat win here, even though it meant standing him up more in an arched shape. This actually made it easier to show his nails digging into the man’s scalp. I did these sketches on different scraps of tracing paper, then compiled them on one page to compare and contrast.

The Easter Bunion process

There actually is a missing step between the first post-it and the second pass. In fact the second pass is a value study I did before I inked the final drawing. I wanted to convey the fatigue of the bunny in his posture. I still think I could've gotten him to sag more into his frame, but it was time to move forward with this one. Sometimes I'm not completely happy with the solution but have to proceed with something that's good. Sometimes I've just looked at it too long. Other times edits can begin to erode the work. Not to say I don't rework things—I do—I just find sometimes you get to the point of diminishing returns when you get mired in the quest for perfection. It can begin to paralyze progress. The fact is there are multiple solutions to any creative work. Have to keep it all in balance.

Nerd Descending a Staircase process

My apologies to Mr Duchamp.

From Wikipedia:
Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 (French: Nu descendant un escalier n° 2) is a 1912 painting by Marcel Duchamp. The work is widely regarded as a Modernist classic and has become one of the most famous of its time. Before its first presentation at the Parisian 1912 Salon des Indépendants, it was rejected by the Cubists as too Futurist. Yet the work was exhibited with the same group at Galeries J. Dalmau, Exposició d'Art Cubista, in Barcelona, 20 April–10 May 1912,^[1] and subsequently caused a huge stir during its exhibition at the 1913 Armory Show in New York. The painting was reproduced in Les Peintres Cubistes, Méditations Esthétiques by Guillaume Apollinaire, published in 1913. Nude Descending a Staircase is in the Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.^[2]

Tarzan and Jane Goodall process

 

I'm sort of projecting my childhood memory of Jane Goodall in this cartoon. I realize I am portraying her as the person I learned about in elementary school some forty years ago. Many 20-year olds probably only know her as an old woman—if they know her at all. She's 81 this year.

Goodall is best known for her study of chimpanzee social and family life. She began studying the Kasakela chimpanzee community in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania, in 1960.^[16]She entered the world of primates back in 1957 after cold calling Louis Leakey while in Kenya.

 

Some interesting trivia from Wikipedia: Leakey, believing that the study of existing great apes could provide indications of the behaviour of early hominids,^[9] was looking for a chimpanzee researcher, though he kept the idea to himself. Instead, he proposed that Goodall work for him as a secretary. After obtaining his wife Mary Leakey's approval, Louis sent Goodall to Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, where he laid out his plans.

In 1958, Leakey sent Goodall to London to study primate behaviour with Osman Hill and primate anatomy with John Napier.^[10] Leakey raised funds, and on 14 July 1960, Goodall went to Gombe Stream National Park, becoming the first of what would come to be called The Trimates.^[11] She was accompanied by her mother, whose presence was necessary to satisfy the requirements of David Anstey, chief warden, who was concerned for their safety; Tanzania was "Tanganyika" at that time and a British protectorate.^[8]

Leakey arranged funding and in 1962, he sent Goodall, who had no degree, to Cambridge University where she obtained a PhD degree in Ethology.^[8][12] She became only the eighth person to be allowed to study for a PhD there without first having obtained a BA or BSc.^[2] Her thesis was completed in 1965 under the tutorship of Robert Hinde, former master of St. John's College, Cambridge, titled “Behaviour of the Free-Ranging Chimpanzee”, detailing her first five years of study at the Gombe Reserve.^[2][12] The rest is history.

Baby Thumbs

Here are some thumbnails redlined on 1.5 x 2 inch post-it notes. I go over them with a Bic ballpoint pen (and sometimes a sharpie) and then finish them off with a quick splash of black watercolor using my Pentel waterbrush. These crude little thumbnails really take care of the “heavy lifting” in the creative process. I am amazed at how close the finished cartoons resemble these baby thumbs. You might recognize three of these panels as they have already been posted as completed pieces (far left/ Torches and Cocktail Forks; upper right/ The Easter Bunion; lower right/ The Shallow End of the Jean Pool).

The View From the Pew

Some faces from church.