I think I will not hang myself today [my visual diary]

Yesterday I did not hang myself because Pip’s lab building has a gigantic fibreglass crocodile coming down the staircase.

A few days ago I did not hang myself because Pip and I found the very top of Brisbane, completely by accident. Note to self: Google maps doesn’t show hills…

Well… this time I do! It’s the first time I’ve lettered speech balloons (or anything, really). It’s mostly a big cheat because I’m not good enough at composition yet to cater for text when I’m drawing. The images are a big hotch-potch of scanned and stuck-together drawings as well. There won’t be any “original pages” when this project is done, just a huge rambling collection of inked panels and disjointed text! But that’s okay because the aim is print.

My process, for anyone who might be interested:
- draw and ink all the images.
- scan the images in and position them on templates I made previously (the templates have adequate printing margins, etc. in case this ever becomes a book. The gutters are marked in, too - it helps that I’m using only three sizes of panels throughout the whole comic, just in different arrangements. Single panels, double-wide panels, and the occasional splash page. Keeping it simple.)
- Then I print these pages! 
- With a pencil and a ruler, I mark guidelines for my text on the printed copies, and rough in some lettering to get a general idea of where words should go.
- I take a sheet of tracing paper, pop it over the top and carefully ink my final words onto it.  To save paper, I ink every sentence onto the same sheet in a jumble.
- then I scan THAT, and I’m ready to chop up the scanned text and copy-paste it where it’s meant to be. Speech bubbles are drawn in underneath (with the text set to a Multiply layer) to eliminate guesswork and cramped text. Joe, you’d already know this but I’ll share it anyway: the single best tip anyone ever gave me for making comics was “draw the text, THEN the bubbles.”

Today I did not hang myself because of the satisfaction of hand-lettering a comic… and because Andrew writes glorious dialogue.

Today I did not hang myself because I am murdering a pillow re-purposing a cloud.

Today I did not hang myself because I’ve finally finished sorting the photos from Jordan. An afternoon or two of editing and they’ll be done!

This is the view up the hill from where we stayed near Petra - it’s a village called Taybet Zaman. The hotel is actually the old village buildings refurbished; those buildings were abandoned when people moved up the hill to more modern housing with electricity and so on. You’re looking at the modern village in this photo.

Today I did not hang myself because thanks to Bridgeman’s Constructive Anatomy I’m gradually getting to know the back of my hand.

liedekijn:

#liedekijn watercolour by Chan Dissanayake - www.chandissan.com

Chan Dissanayake is a multi-award winning watercolour Artist, living in Canberra, ACT. His works are highly sought after in local and regional galleries. He also conducts regular workshops throughout Australia.

(Visit www.chandissan.com for workshop details and more of his amazing art!)

Join us for the liedekijn exhibition Opening: 7pm, Thursday 28 March 2012, at The Front Gallery, Lyneham. 

If you can’t make it (and even if you can) you can pre-order the artbook/exhibition catalogue at http://bit.ly/liedekijn 

This man’s beautiful work is why I’m having exhibition-wall-sharing-anxiety.

SERIOUSLY, BUY OUR ARTBOOK. (Please.) It will be a thing of beauty.