What an interesting path I’ve been on. I started these panels as a way of experimenting with composition and comic book mashup sketches. Each page, though, has been getting more and more detailed, and closer to actual comics. While I completely love the way these pages came out, if I were to plan out a comic project these would be too much work and I’d never get a book done! Going to work on balancing this issue out, and it’s probably time to start drawing on comic book paper, and, you know, figure out words and story and for all these bubbles 🙃
This sketchbook spread contains a satellite view of a river, a referenced picture from a day we had both fall colors AND a thick blanket of snow, tractor, a monster scene where I was practicing foreground framing, and some other doodles. This is the only page so far with actual words!
Sketchbook entries: My dog who we thought was lost forever when he slipped through our gate at night. He is black and blind and deaf and there’s coyotes everywhere. Luckily a sharp eyed teenager saw him crossing a busy street and called us! Some other sketches are from a day at the pumpkin patch, and some mushrooms I found in my yard.
A rock study, a coyote character, a 3 panel fight sequence, some personal narratives while trying a birds-eye shot. Exploring and expanding, what sketchbooks are good for!
New sketchbook page with digital color! While I love the look of black and white drawings, they don’t feel complete without color. The challenge for me is leaving it at “sketch” and not get into fully rendered illustration. Resisting the temptation to add shadows and highlights!
On these pages, I practiced foreground character with dialog, a nature study of what I learned is called Rubber Rabbitbrush (which is practically the entire landscape in Nevada, but I always just called it “sagebrush.”) There’s a cyclops for no reason, a landscape study from a day I spent in the park with my daughter, a waterfall scene to practice environments, a coopers hawk after I saw one in my yard (it might have been a prairie falcon, I’m learning more about native birds), an action scene with a humanoid. Often I’m drawing human-like things as stand-ins for characters I don’t want to invent just now, it’s just a composition exercise. Then I drew a car because I reeeeally need to practice drawing cars and other machines. I still refuse to do proper perspective because it’s difficult in a sketchbook and because I’m making these for fun, and rulers aren’t fun!
Wow what a difference color can make! I did a color experiment with a sketchbook page from a couple of weeks ago and it almost transformed into something else. Had to force myself to stop.
These pages are really just to stretch drawing muscles, and learn new things. Nothing looks as good to me as a comic book page right after inking, and it’s a fun way to sketch. There’s some art journaling, like the acorn in the middle (it’s a non-native oak variety I found in the botanical garden but forgot it’s name), and some practice. For example, here we have a landscape, action, 1 point perspective with foreground framing, and general composition with speech bubble and typography elements. And a drew a skeleton because I like drawing skeletons. 🙃
