The Making of Chapter Nine: A Fistful of Inferno

click on images to enlarge:

This is where I work. The table that I draw on is a good sixty years old and was bought at a yardsale back in '92 or so. I've had other drawing tables, but none so easy to move or as spiritual as this one.

This is also the guest bedroom (bed not pictured) and computer center.

Here are my tools. My ink, brushes, nibs, and other assorted shit are kept in a drink and change holder meant for a car. For the following drawing, I used a Bic #2 disposable mechanical pencil, Loew-Cornell brushes (00,0,1,3,5) and Higgins Black Magic ink. Lettering was done with a Hunt Imperial nib. (This is the same nib used to letter Chester's speech, as well as The Kid's. When Chester is narrating, I use the standard #102. Everyone else gets a regular old rollerball or gel pen. Whatever I can find at the time that gives a nice black.) I drew on Strathmore Bristol Vellum (19"x24"). Normally I don't use paper this size, but because I'm going to be doing a few 2-page spreads, I thought I'd use larger paper rather than tape smaller sheets together.

I started out with a rough sketch that I drew at work. Sometimes the final drawing will differ greatly from the initial sketch, but as you will see, this one turned out pretty damn close. (Note the lettering in the upper left corner reads "Chapter Eight". Just goes to show that even I have trouble keeping track of this stuff.)

Because this was such a big image, and I wanted to make sure I didn't screw it up right off the bat, I lightly penciled the entire drawing. I needed to make sure that I was fitting everything in before spending time doing the details. When drawing pages with panels, I work the same way one panel at a time.

Now I add more detail. Solid blacks are defined, and lettering is penciled in. There's no rhyme or reason to what I start working on first. Here the Kid is mostly done while the figure in the foreground is still a skeleton.

Close-up of the face. I was going to try and make The Kid's eyes glow black, but it looked like he was wearing big 'ol eyelashes so I left them out when inking.

Detail of his hand and part of a rock.

Final pencils. Now we're ready to start inking (which I did before remebering that I should take a picture first). This is about as detailed as my pencils get.

The first go through with the brush. I've gotten most of the solid black, the formations of the rocks, and most of The Kid. I'll go in later with a smaller brush for some of the finer details, such as The Kid's face, and some shading.

See how I didn't ink half of the pencils in this picture? That's because I decided I didn't like how they looked. Stupid pencils.

The final drawing. A Hunt #102 fills in the rock shading, as well as some minor miscellaneous details.

Coming soon: More Pages