The first stage was to do a rough sketch on plain copier paper — since the parameters given by the gallery included that the piece be 8.5 x 11 (not a standard comic size, but I included generous margins so I could trim it to the right proportions), this paper was easy to start with. I use 24 lb stock, a bit heavier than the usual, which is good for printing both sides without showing through, as well as for cheap sketch paper. I used blue pencil, which a lot of illustrators use for rough sketches, a holdover from the days when it didn’t show up in the photo-repro process. After I scanned the sketch, and pumped up the contrast a bit so I could see it, I popped the jpeg into Pages (the Mac equivalent of Word) and put in some lettering..

On my light-box, I traced the letterforms and then played with them a bit; I want the whole thing to be hand-drawn, including the lettering. I’m not too good at freehand lettering yet (working on it!) so it was good to have the guidelines. I used Herculaneum and Marker Felt. After tracing the letters, I turned off the lightbox and did a bit more refinement of the sketch.

I cut a piece of Strathmore Windpower Smooth Bristol paper to size, and put it on the lightbox on top of the blue sketch, and traced it with an H pencil, then added a few more refinements; there are still more to be done. Then back to the scanner and Photoshop, and again I hit the auto contrast so it wouldn’t be too faint to see. If I were going to finish this digitally, I wouldn’t need to ink it; the pencil lines are mostly clean enough to stand in for ink. But I’m going to do this the old-fashioned way, at least for the show, so tomorrow it will be inking and painting for me!