Ep. 21, Page 41

smbhax on Jan. 29, 2014

As I found myself creating and erasing multiple drawings trying to get the layout for today's page right, I figured I might as well photograph them since they weren't all bad, just not exactly right for what I wanted. Starting with the second and going up to just about the final pencils:




That third one was the result of trying to do more of a head-on view of the shot, and some experimental clumsy play-acting in my bathroom mirror–and I kind of like the drawing that came out after that, but the stroke of the racquet wasn't quite dynamic enough. So I ended up going back to pretty much the layout of the second one, but I guess I had finally tricked myself into drawing a little less cartoonishly. Also I'm glad I took that last photo because, looking back at it and liking the dividing lines of shadow, it made me try to put slightly darker strokes along those edges–since the darkest part of a shadow, particularly on a rounded surface, can occur just along its edge–which seems to work pretty smoothly in watercolor. I'll hafta remember that trick.