Author: pj

Forgive me father, it has been two weeks since my last confession.

This sometimes (no, I mean, this frequently) happens. My record keeping gets sloppy as I slow down and things are a little less structured and more chaotic.

Let’s take the 13/March – 19/March Dred Judge Dredd strip for Rob Williams, episode 1 (of 8) decided to go analogue with the inking of this… that was, it turns out, a bad call. Pure greed on my part. I can sell Dredd pages. Unfortunately I’m just no longer equiped (literally, physically and mentally) to draw on paper any more. I just wasn’t happy with the results. I was getting no-as-good-results drawn much slower and for no real positive outcomes. So, two pages in I abandoned it and went back to digital. Monday/Tuesday I managed to do two pages, like cleaving the art out of stone. One page of inks per day. Then Wednesday I inked three pages digitally. Thu I finished it. But then had a whole bunch of corrections to do to Bad Magic – a hat band that had got progressivly larger as the strip went on, needed to be pulled back a bit.

Thursday I had three scripts on my table and I had no idea which way to proceed. So I planned out which I’d do, then abandoned that plan immediately, and instead started on another episode of the Leopard from Lime Street. 

I think I have two more episodes of that to draw then it’s on hiatus, sadly.

Outside of that all, we had a wall yanked down and replaced with a fence. I bought a house and this is the start of me trying to make it my own. I’ve wanted to do this since we bought the place, and as my wife likes to remind me, I was out chatting to those guys all the time (I thought they enjoyed it! I just needed the company)

Nice to watch people who know what they’re doing, do stuff I know I’m not even remotely capable of!

WE BUILT THAT WALL!

Anyway, also had visitors to the house that week or so too. So in all bit chaotic.

Total completed that week: Inks 1 page, pencils 9 pages.

The next week – 20/March/23, the builders were still building and I’d got in to a slow, but reliable pattern. Really I operate on a two page thing per day minimum. Two pages of pencils or two page of inks. That way I can reasonably say I can do one completed page per week, and I can predict about six completed pages per week. OF COURSE, I’d like to go faster (and often do) but also life throws the odd random factor in your face and you’ve gotta dodge it.

This week has just been me finishing the Leopard from Lime street, and starting a new 10 pager for Ahoy with Paul Cornell. Featuring goofy cryptids. 

I didn’t find time this week, though I should have (and might do so tonight) to sketch out some character designs for this image pitch I’m planning on (which I’ve had to scale back from 16 pages – a full story – to doing six pages – a “pitch” amount, because… well… time really)

This week’s work was Inks 6 and pencils 9.

This month to date, I’ve drawn 37 pages of inks and 21 pages of pencils. Which… wow, slightly surprised by.

Year to date: 107 pages inks, 115 pages of pencils.

Putting me on course for 428(ish) pages this year, if I can keep it up. (I don’t think I can)

Anyway, next week’s plans are: finish this ahoy strip, and see if I can find time to do this Image pitch and then MORE DREDD.

(SHH! TELL NO ONE… I have a story about the below first page – which won’t see print for blooming ages, so please don’t spread this around – but I’ll tell it to you all next week.)