Long John

As mentioned in the inking video for this page, I tried to really push the depth of field in my panel design in this chapter. It can be a bit frustrating as it makes you basically decide which art you want to cover up with more art, but the results are always very rewarding.

I pushed my art a lot with this chapter, and this page was a battleground as I fought with the composition as it related to not only the primary image in the panel but with the items in the extreme foreground, but also with the last panel, something I drew and the completely redrew (not an uncommon occurrence in this comic) and pasted over the original drawing.

Despite how frustrating this page was to draw, it ended up being one of my favorites as a result. For me, I see the hard work I put into it and I like how it looks. Of course, I still see mistakes, but I’ve learned that there is an acceptable amount of mistakes per page before I think it’s really a problem. I actually think leaving mistakes makes art more of a snapshot of the moment, marking the time and place it was drawn as much as it acts as a piece of the story being told in the book.

The original thumbnail and writing notes for this page. This is basically how I write Long John. Click to enlarge.