Homework: American Way Page, Mark I

[zelempa]

My next homework assignment was to do straight-up black brushwork, no diluted ink to make shades of gray. (Variations in the level of black on the image are due to my bad scanner.) This is a scene from the wonderful American Way by resonant8.



I thought that the black blacks would be easier than the grays, but in fact it's a lot harder to be confident about placing shadows when you can't experiment with lighter shades before you commit to dark, and I think the stickiness of undiluted ink makes it more obvious that I can't control my brush.

Dialogue changes were due largely to making this a self-contained page that anyone can follow without knowing the context (you should read the story if you haven't, but I was thinking about my classmates). I also wanted to set up Fraser and Ray's usual body language before I twisted it, but this may have been a mistake.

I'm doing an edited version for homework this week (I'll probably post tomorrow), which is better in composition I think, but possibly slightly worse in execution.

Still! Valuable learning experience, and it's one of my favorite scenes, so I was happy to work with it.