A couple of months ago I started a drawing intended as part of an inking lesson for my students. I started the drawing a little too late in the week to have it ready for Sunday's class so, I left it home and re-created the drawing in class and inked it on the spot. The idea with the drawing was to handle it three different ways and then ink it three different ways. The first would be very loose pencils, the second would be very tight pencils, and the third would be in the middle. One drawing would be inked with brush, one with crow-quill, and the third would be a mixture of the two. That at least was the idea. The drawing sat on my board for a period of time as I had other work that required my attention. when a gap opened up I decided to finish the drawing, but just as a single panel. I'd then ink the drawing for my own practice. For a long time I've felt my inks weren't quite up to where I wanted them and this would be a good chance to test myself and see if I could push my abilities a bit further then where they were. Here's the results of this test:

As a drawing I was extremely happy with the composition, figures, lettering, and the inking. Taking my time with this drawing really paid off in the level of quality that I perceive in my work. As I was drawing this I came up with an idea to continue the story of this panel to an entire page. The execution of that page would be handled the same way, with an eye towards maintaining a level of quality. Here are the results of that:

I am quite pleased with the results of this page as well. The composition of each panel is well executed, as well as the composition of the overall page. The level of quality and consistency stays equal throughout, which I am also very pleased with, especially on the last panel, 3/4 of which was completely re-drawn after a good call by my wife who mentioned that something was off with the panel. As I was finishing this page up, an idea for  a short story based around this page came into my head. I'll be working on that and posting pages when they are completed.

Busy busy busy week.  I've been working on the second mini comic for fables of the flying city as well as wrapping up some commission work that had come in and finishing thumbnails on a 3 Musketeers adaptation.  needless to say I've been putting in the time.  So now it is Friday and I'm off to New York for what may be an extended visit.  I promised a Sketch Monday post and there may be one if I can get back home.  If I can't, I wanted to at least show something of what I've been up to, so here is one of the commissions I finished.

Sketch Mondays

doing something a little different with this weeks Sketch Monday.  I ended up drawing a piece on Saturday that had been sitting in my brain for a couple of days. The drawing came out very quickly thanks to having the idea pretty much right there in my brain so there wasn't alot of searching that needed to be done on the page.  Immediately upon finishing it I started up a second one.  Same composition, same elements, just moved the camera in closer.  Here are the results.

I like both pieces for their differences if that makes any sense.  What I'd really appreciate though is some feedback.  Tell me what you like about them, what's working, and what isn't.