Chapter Four Pencilling

Quick update this week because I don't have a lot of time and I think we would all rather I get back to drawing. I am elbow-deep in pencilling and so far my predominant thought is: why is Alexandra's dad so hard to draw?

I do not know. He is the one I have the hardest time getting right.

I look at my reference sheets and think, "that shouldn't be so hard to repeat," but dear reader: he is.

I'm reading Kat Leyh's SNAPDRAGON right now and am impressed by how plastic she manages to make her character's faces, yet they always read well and are perfectly recognizable. It's a tricky skill!

Anyway, I'm probably just finding my drawing legs. It's always like this, switching from one discipline to another. It's been long enough since I drew Chapter Three that I've become lubberly. I guess this is the downside to finishing each chapter as I go. But I'll find my legs. And I can touch up my early pages when I revisit them during inking. :)

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The pirates need a treasure chest. Not wanting to draw any old traditional fish-tank aquarium bubbler cliché, I went looking for reference images and discovered that this treasure chest supposedly belonging to George Washington…

…looks an awful lot like the treasure chest in this (famous?) Howard Pyle illustration.

I know we're all thinking it, so I'm just going to ask the obvious question: how did Howard Pyle get access to Getty Images?

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Speaking of treasure, Patreon has introduced a feature called "Collections" which lets you… collect… posts together in groups. I poked at it a little, and the result is that there are now Collections for each finished chapter of Practical Defence.

It doesn't make it a LOT easier to read the comic on Patreon, but it's a step in the right direction.

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September, September, why is it already September??

But hey, at least the month seems to be offering a bunch of work days.

A quick guesstimate suggests I should be able to pencil between 25 and 35 pages, getting us at least half the way through Chapter Four. Those "question mark" days are preschool half-days for our little ding-dong, and I'm not sure yet whether they'll offer the half-day of work that I'm hoping they will. And really, those weekend days should have question marks too, on account of it would be wise of me to spend time with friends and loved ones.

There are enough work days this month that I might actually get to quickly cut together the inking video I shot back on Chapter Three. Maybe I can do that in time for INTERNATIONAL TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY, when the last pages of Chapter Three drop for civilians.

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OKAY DRAWING TIME. See you next week!

Until then,
I remain,
perfectly recognizable,

TC