Saturday 5 September 2015

Use the Knife

There was a period of about a week between doing drawing #1 and doing the inking (#3). On the same day I inked the final, I did another rough - drawing #2.

I did drawing #2 because I thought the initial concept (which, incidentally, didn't change much between rough and inked) because I thought the woman was cruel and the whole cartoon was mean. I showed it to my editor (my Christine) and she liked version #1 the best, so I went with it.  True, I didn't have the kid's word bubble/joke worked out, but it would have been something like "How do you like my orchid-chain tiara?"  Not much funny there.


One great thing about working on these is that I think I am learning how to be funnier and I can see that this one works and is funny because it is mean. Sometimes it is satisfying to see someone doing something awful, something hurtful because sometimes we want to be mean and hurtful. Odd business this humour thing!

I think the man's hands should have been raised, or somehow out of the way of the orchids to better show their lack of blooms and perhaps I should have pushed the woman a bit to the right. That would have made the composition a bit more balanced and less crowded up around the word bubble.

I like the woman's hair and her more feminine hands. The style is really solidifying. Thanks for the help with this one, CC! And also thanks to Mr. Illustrated Ghost, who said my inking (with its thick and thin lines) reminded him of the American Denis the Menace cartoons. That comment has helped me to explore the line work more, to great effect.