📝This archived post is originally from my old comics focused Wordpress blog from 2011-2019. That site was a space to publicly commit to learning the art and craft of cartooning and self-publishing. These posts are full of a naive enthusiasm that though at times embarrassing, I'm proud of. I hope you find them useful in some way.❤️

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTbNVAkVeC8

Here’s a video of  a non-standard comic that I’ve been working on and off on since the end of August. It is non-standard in the sense that it’s wordless and that there are no panels, but it has a planned sequence of reading.

This is the first attempt at printing, so it is a bit wonky. I need to align properly. Additionally, I need to find a printer that is not running out of ink…

In terms of the process. The first step was to draw the figures, then to make sheets of watercolor washes which would be used for the silhouettes. The silhouttes were created by cutting along the edges traced drawings. From there I worked through one iteration. The computer was  only used in scanning and color correcting so as to mimic the physical artifacts. As it stands my room is lined with these couples. It’s quite nice.

In terms of a plan for this comic, when I started. The kernel of inspiration that drives this work was a Japanese bedside book from the late 19th century. A small, portable and privat form of erotica. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted. I started off with an attempt at creating a kamasutra of sorts but there wasn’t enough cohesion in the images.

In Balance I attempt to play with color, something that if you’ve read this blog and seen my work over the past year, I hesitate to do. It’s too hard to reproduce! Here, I approached the task with knowledge that it was going to be reproduced and made the appropriate design considerations to assure that it would be reproduced well.

As it stands, I’m fairly satisfied with the direction that the little minicomic is going. I hope to find a good printing solution that reproduces the intended colors well enough.