i spent aaaaages colouring this, and it was a mess of pink and orange and blue. and then i worked out that too much flat colour looks, i dunno, tacky or cheap or something. or maybe i’m just picking bad colours. sigh. so i’ve gone with another monochromatic scheme, and it seems to have worked ok, but i don’t think that it is any better than just a black and white comic.
also, due to popular demand, i have completely handlettered it, and i don’t know that i prefer it to typesetting it in, um, postproduction. except the WAH! in the last frame of course.
and, hmm, now that i’m looking at the completed strip, i am no longer sure that the last frame makes sense. it seemed to when i sketched it, really.
so. the kid likes the idea of school, usually right up to the bit where i stow her daybag in her pigeonhole, and then it all goes awry. actually, she’s recently started saying midweek, “but i don’t want to go to school,” days ahead of her one friday of daycare.
i wonder if it goes beyond your regular, garden variety separation anxiety, and if i’m contributing to feelings of abandonment and neglect which will surface years from now to bite me in the ass. remember that leunig comic, about the baby in childcare? i am feeling that guilt that caused mothers everywhere to savage him. perhaps it’s because i often spend those precious childfree friday hours in the shops, or at the movies instead of working… well, this week i did spend it drawing this comic!
also, my pen is really pissing me off.
may i ask what size everyone else is drawing their original art? each of my frames is 6cm, and i generally like working small, but i think maybe this is too small to get all the detail in without it going blobby — see frame 3 — even with a “micro” rollerball. perhaps cheap typing paper is not the best medium either. 😉
Tags: Bowb
Comic Artist Rehab 
November 9, 2007 at 10:46 pm |
This is so great! I totally understand what’s going on. And I”m so pleased that one of the rehabber’s kids has finally made it into a comic. As far as I know we have five between us! That’s a lot of kids… secretly I suspect that the kids contribute to the fact we are in rehab – yes?!
Ella does this routine too. Most preschool days one of the teachers has to prise her from my leg, screaming and carrying on, while I run out the door. Apparently she stops as soon as I go and proceeds to have a great day. It’s so nice to know that she’s doing it just for my benefit. I don’t feel too much guilt anymore. I know that we would both go crazy if she didn’t go.
Onto the comic… LOVING the blue and SO LOVING the handwritten texty bits. Laughing at how the baby is watching in disbelief as the big girl loses it. Love how the WAH goes outside the panel.
My panels are small too. 6cm across and 7cm long. 4 mm in between.
November 10, 2007 at 4:13 pm |
I like the blue, the last panel totally makes sense, and I definitely think the hand-lettering is worth the trouble.
November 12, 2007 at 11:27 pm |
A brand new set of 5 Unipin markers never goes astray. If you pencil with an H pencil and scan in pure black-and-white (at 300-600dpi), you never need to rub anything out either, so no greying of lines from that.
This is a beautiful piece, telling more about the human condition in 4 panels than many graphic novelists manage in a whole book – seriously!
I love your colour choice and placement as well – a totally pleasing strip.
November 13, 2007 at 6:29 am |
I can feel every drop of those tears! Love the big eyes in the first two panels, so very earnest, like she’s trying to convince herself.
September 14, 2009 at 12:33 pm |
[…] tonight? not work. blog — well, i could write another post, but i won’t. i posted a comic today, so i won’t have to again until wednesday. […]