Art Magic
Plus an announcement
Old friends have changed and wisdom has been imparted. You leave once again someone elses sanctuary so you can travel into the known unknowns. Fate drags you unwillingly along by the tail, and all you are permitted to carry is your cunning and your imagination. You can picture what doesn’t exist. What you can draw in your new book, you can make real. You incant. You dance and bow to your vision. You take the wisdom of your old friends as your own. Suddenly, what was once a jesting fantasy is now your performative reality; what once felt like bad fortune has been replaced by a chosen destiny.
That is to say, our gang of recalcitrants have moved a step closer towards fully claiming their agency and self-respect: our knights now wear their own armour, not that of any kingdom, and our lovers have now declared themselves the Witch Queen of the Sea and the Witch King of the Sky.
A couple of notes for this episode.
Firstly, our knights Albert and Patrick’s new armour.
This armour is easier for me to draw easier for them to wear. Full face covering to protect them from black eyes and less-rigid protection around the waist for comfort when riding their steeds. There’s a lot of little references in this armour; our boys are a sentimental lot and they are all about the honouring: horns for Robin, buttercups on the brestplate to give a punchline to a long running joke, the sea and the mountains on the pauldron, and the tunic they wear underneath is a similar design to our Witch Queen Frankie’s coat. The actual colouring, a verdigris bronze, is in reference to Albert’s original set of armour. One thing I always wished I’d emphasised more is the fact that the armour of Wrack has always been a bit degraded, compared to the glistening bronze of the other kingdoms. Wrack has always been an island that has never looked after its gifts.
Secondly, we have this scene. Our Frankie casting a spell for her and Rhys’ future. There was something I did differently for this scene that I enjoyed so much I’ve used it for every subsequent scene I’ve drawn.
After reading Oliver Burkman’s delivering of his newsletter The Imperfectionists, entitled “The Unproductivity Challenge”, the section about psychologist Robert Boice really stood out to me:
Because what’s really going on, in that moment when you reach the end of something you planned to do, but then plough onwards anyway? I’m not denying the answer is sometimes that you’re in a transcendent flow state, and if you are, please don’t let me interfere. But much of the time, as Boice observed, the urge to push onwards “includes a big component of impatience about not being finished, about not being productive enough, about never again finding such an ideal time” for the work. It’s the urge toward completion at all costs, based on the idea that it’s imperative to get the work out of the way, to fulfill your obligations to others, and thus reach the sunlit plateau of no longer having anything you need to do. And behind all that is generally a self-worth issue: the feeling that until you get it done, you aren’t a fully adequate human, and haven’t quite earned your right to exist.
That hit to a core part of me, echoing my ravaging perfectionism, so I looked into Boice, buying the only book of his I could afford, Professors as Writers: A Self Help Guide to Productive Writing. While I’ve yet to finish the book, I’ve been utilising some of his techniques, particularly the idea of first free writing for 10 minutes on your subject (in my case, the scene I’m colouring), and then spending some time afterwards drawing connections between what you’ve written, repeating as often as you need to.
I first started this technique in the colouring stage of that above scene, where Frankie casts her spell of sovereign intent, knowing that I wanted it feel a bit more special compared to the rest of the episode, but not knowing quite what I wanted it to look like. So instead of throwing colours down and messing around with adjustment sliders, I wrote down what I wanted it to feel like, all stream of conscious, atrocious handwriting. Ideas I hadn’t consciously thought of flooded out: the shadows are detailed, the light is blinding, the heat is dangerous.
That, my friend, was a technique so useful and enjoyable and enlightening that I’ve continued on with it since. By episode 99 I was using it in the writng process itself, before even working out settings and choreography and dialogue. For me, it cuts through to the emotion, the atmosphere, and the view point I feel I want to present (feel I want to present, not logically think I should present). Plus, having this decided way before I start drawing and colouring really lowers the stress of it all.
If it sounds intriguing to you, I’d recommend giving Boice a search and trying it for yourself.
Episode 97 acts as a kind of state of affairs, a catch up between parties: we have our gang working through their hang ups, particularly Frankie’s fears that the Sea King is sending unlucky omens to her, and the Sea Realm, who actually do receive an omen, that being our knight Patrick’s scant letter informing his kingdom that he has found the missing princess Frankie.
This is one of the fun episodes to write. I like to think of Bob Dylan’s Idiot Wind for these types of scripts: “What’s good is bad/what’s bad is good/you’ll find out when you reach the top/you’re on the bottom.” It’s a funhouse mirror reflection of each other. Frankie, scared and a bit paranoid, listens to her friends and has her fears assauged. The Sea Ream, however, starts off a little bit more confident, but then lets fears and lies take over (there are a few hopeful moments though, especially from the displaced seals of Wrack).
As I said earlier, this was a much more calmer episode to write and draw, and I utilised Boice’s technique before the inking stage, giving me more insight before the bulk of the inking and colouring.
Episode 98 of ill fame is out Monday 3rd of February on webtoon canvas. The following is a little preview:
ANNOUNCEMENT:
A now have a Patreon, where you can read ahead episodes of ill fame before they appear on webtoon canvas. Currently you can read up to episode 100. I also plan on showing more painting diaries, snippets and tidbits releating to ill fame, and previews and exclusive comics. It’s in its very early days at the moment, but it’s an exciting space to work in.
Other stuff:
The passing of David Lynch has had me reflecting a lot on what I expect from art, both from what I take in and what I make. The last couple of months I’ve started a rewatch of Twin Peaks, and it is still so enjoyable and mysterious, dark and antagonistic, and it’s so exciting because of those things. I appreciate Lynch’s obsfucation of his work, trusting in the arts ability to speak for itself, and of course, the oneiric and absurd qualities he brings. I think I will be learning from him for a while.
Books: Jude by Elin Heron (loved how this book kept making me feel like I was certain about something before dashing it completely), The Birds Nest by Shirley Jackson (enjoyed the love/hate relationship with Betsy), An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter by César Aira (finally read some Aira, and this book took such a wild turn in the middle, very enjoyable)
