Process: Figuring Things Out

Shhhh. This is all secret-like for the time being. 

Okay? Okay, good. 

Read on. 

Okay. Here's where that fly guy drawing I posted a little while back is going.

I wasn't looking at any reference other than drawings of the character when I did the first rough (above). It was a very quick proof of concept sketch, something to send an editor or art director to basically say, "Here's the idea, is this okay, can I continue working on it?".

I think I've mentioned here before that after years of doing what some would consider finished pencils for cover or gag panel sketches, I was (mostly) cured of this time-wasting, overcompensating behavior through my time at MAD Magazine. That's where I learned that the people who hire you do so with a prior understanding that you can, apparently, draw okay. Otherwise, they wouldn't have hired you (either that, or you're related to someone or something icky is going on). They want the idea first, the draftsmanship and the bells and whistles come after the idea's approved. 

So, this is a crap drawing, all well and good. I knew I drew the character's head too small, the fly face details were non-existent, the anatomy was blocks of wood, etc. Because that stuff didn't matter at the time, wheeeee!. The bad parts of my brain, the self-destructive notions, told me to fix everything before sending it in. I didn't listen to them. I will, later, because I'm still a mess, but not now. Later. 

But, when I did a second "rough" sketch, I kind of spent more time on it than I'd planned to. I took the crappy first rough, scanned it, printed it out in sections to enlarge the figure, got out some reference, messed around with stuff, and ended up with a cover-sized rough on a piece of Bristol. I was hoping to get a layout for the actual cover pencils but realized I was better off farting around with the blue and red pencils and not worrying about finishing things here, just working things out without worry or hitching. 

So this (above) was my second rough. It's not "later later", but some "later" trepidation crept in. If that makes any sense. It doesn't matter, don't worry if you're confused. That's just me putting you in my creative mindset. Draw all the compound eyes! Y/N? Y! Confused? Wheeee! 

Anyway.

Two images were running through my head while working this up -- Shawn Kerri's punk icon "Skank Kid" character (ripped off by the Circle Jerks, as it turns out, and not drawn expressly for the band as most thought, myself included), and the cover to the Pirate Corps$! Special with Mr. Blue jumping in the air in a leather jacket. So a little skank action creeped in that was only implied accidentally in the first rough. Makes sense, given the character's music interests and manner of dress. Will Mr. Fly Guy Man keep the Dead Kennedys shirt? Maybe, maybe not. I only erased that and redrew it a few times, wholly unnecessary behavior since this is still a rough sketch. Ha ha. 

I scanned the new big sketch and played around with the sizing while printing things out for the lite pad. Most folks would do this stuff in Photoshop -- if not all of the job --  but I'm not most folks, I'm a goofus fumblefingers, and it's a goddamned miracle that I can even scan stuff and print it out. You do what you can. I enlarged the head and shrunk the body slightly and assembled the figure like a paper doll and taped everything to the lite pad and started round three in order to walk the pencils into the bullseye (To quote Milt Gross, "Is dis a system?").

The pencils are almost done, actually, but I don't want to show that off yet. I know a lot of people could just toss the second rough I did on the light box/lite pad and ink on another board, but I'm too nervous to do that. And not expert enough. if I don't have every detail in the pencils down to a decent degree and try to delineate in ink directly, I will most screw things up. Badly. My inking brain simply isn't up to that task. I need a very solid foundation/skeleton under the inks, unless it's something that has more "give" (or "who gives a fuck?") like a basic Milk & Cheese panel or a quick gag comic with loosey-goosey figure work and minimal backgrounds. I can screw those up, too, but I will attempt doing them with looser pencils pretty often. COvers, or merch art? I freeze up and work slow.

I should finish the pencils some time tonight, get to sleep, and, tingly fingers crossed, ink everything before I go to sleep Monday morning. I ink very slowly nowadays, between stressing and the hand stuff. But I think I can do it in one shot (the compound eye circles are going to be a goocher). I removed the background elements in the final pencils, the other flypaper strips, I don't think they're necessary. I tend to always add rather than subtract things, worried I'm not selling the idea or doing enough work. I bit the bullet and erased them, I think the main image is strong enough and sells the flypaper bit. I'm still keeping the sweeping texture stuff doing a sort of halo around the figure*, I think it makes things look dirtier and gives a sense of there being more flies, like swarms. Or maybe I just like laying in those scraggly lines. Or both. Anyway, I almost never erase anything, so, maybe therapy works. 

Then again, most people can ink a cover with tight pencils in a few hours. Ugh. Thank goodness therapy is Monday! 

Anyway. Back to the drawing board.

More, soon, later.

*Fun Fly-Related Trivia: Tom Hazlemyer, singer/songwriter for the band Halo of Flies, was the founder of Amphetamine Reptile Records, and (under the Flame Rite banner) put out a collection of artist Zippo Lighters, including the Milk & Cheese, Devil Puppet and Georgina Riley/Murder Family designs.