Outtakes

I haven’t had a chance to do part 4 of my clueless story as I have been busy working on paying comics. One of the jobs I am doing is for a paper company, and my comics are going to be printed on fancy paper. Here is a sneak preview of a couple of characters involved:

I’ve made 4 separate comic strips, and I drew about 12 in order to settle on those 4. Here are a few of the rejects:

This was to be printed on paper that felt a lot like skin, and it was inspired by Fiona Samuel’s ‘Bliss’ film, based on Katherine Mansfield’s life.

‘The Alchemist’ was intended for a shiny gold paper, and Jonathan helped me write it, but then he complained that I hadn’t drawn enough decent pictures to go with his words.

This comic was to be printed on pearlescent paper. Recently I met a woman who was descended from Lebanese pearl fishers, who came to Dunedin in the gold rush. She said the Lebanese community remains strong down south. I never knew that!

This comic was inspired by the brilliant pea green colour of the paper, which you may or may not appreciate on screen. Actually my sister tells me that all my comics look fuzzy on her screen, although they look fine on mine. This is the risk of digital publishing. I can’t control what you see.

This comic is actually inspired by a far more brilliant and concise one by Ace Hammersmith, which someone handed me in 2002. They gave me a photocopy of it, which shows you how much has changed. I found it on the internet here – you can see how much better it is than mine!

One thing I found interesting as I redrew all my roughs to make them look slick and designerish is that I felt like something was lost – an energy. Also I think I’m a better drawer when I’m not trying to draw well – when I start to think about it, that’s when all my proportions go wrong.