Bim Bam Boom: The Songs of Bim Skala Bim Cover Illos

Scanned the seven illustration elements for the upcoming ska cover comp album. 

Below is the initial rough layout. I was asked to change the text/title panels around (to read diagonally from upper left to lower right, like a tic-tac-toe) so I broke a few of up the illustrations up onto separate pieces of paper. And extended the art to allow room to move things around to fit better in the revised panel layout. So I'm no longer sure exactly what the finished cover will look like when Sarah is done putting it together and coloring everything. To be honest, I'm terrible at working for color most of the time. Unless the initial idea has a color scheme or main color from the outset, I am always taken aback by the final colors, it's always a revelation. Usually for good, but I am so used to Sarah's colors I am always thrown initially when someone else works over my line art, even if it's lovely. To be fair, I haven't seen a coloring job on my art that made me unhappy since the old days of color separation and deadline hell. Fight-Man being a prime example of a color job i was extremely unhappy with. If I didn't push the schedule, we had a different colorist lined up that was supposed to do but had to drop out because of scheduling. Things happen. 

You can also see how I revised things on my own. Panel five loses the dancing feet up-front (recalling the Dance Craze album cover) because I thought it would get muddled with more detail, especially at smaller sizes and thumbnails. This will likely look cluttered as a thumbnail (my work? Cluttered?). I don't know how to plan for that. Hopefully it looks fine. I also cut deeper background stuff in panel seven and extra figures in five and nine. 

It's hard for me to 'erase" elements to allow images to breathe, I fear white space like George Perez, but it often is a good idea to dial things back. I'll learn before I burn, I will. I will! But for those out there with a detail mania, remember this: the reader/viewer (and often the client) have no idea what you've erased or planned to draw but decided against. Either for clarity, for deadline reasons, or both. So you're not cheating. You're not cheating! And even if you think you are (or kind of know you are), so what, cheating isn't really cheating. if you're not screwing with the storytelling of a comic or what's necessary to the image, you're not cheating. It's being discretionary. it's pragmatic, especially if you're overwhelmed and you're not getting paid a lot. Then it's self-care. You've probably done more than is warranted, anyway, perhaps even more than is wanted, weighing down the image. Ease up. Just because I rarely do it doesn't mean it isn't a good idea!