I’m only on page 9, but that’s okay – I spent much of my time yesterday getting references for a panel I needed to fill in on a previous page.

And boy, do I feel bad.

I don’t mind tracing. It’s a good way to learn, and I often trace my own work when I’m drawing similar panels. But this time, I traced part of a photograph: the back right of a car. And for some reason, this bothers me. I mean, it’s not a special photograph, I’m rendering the thing my own way… I just traced the basic structure and that’s it. But I, for some reason, feel guilty, as if I didn’t do something right. As if I cheated. As if it would’ve been better to draw the thing by eye.

Tracing is a common trick, I believe. I’m sure Brian Bolland has done it with some of his covers (tracing a rifle, for instance). But is tracing a photograph art? Or should I be looking at the bigger picture, since the bigger picture (the entire graphic novel) is the art itself?

In other thoughts, my goal is to be able to lay out and do a full page of pencils in two days or less, since I only spend about an hour and fifteen every morning drawing. If I can meet this goal, hopefully my speed will increase I can get more work done within the same time allotment.

This weekend I’d like to up the page count by two, post some pencils here, and write a bit (prose, music, and otherwise), and start a site redesign (more on that later).

Like an idiot, I missed my scheduled posting last Friday. I fail.

I did, however, maintain my comics schedule. In fact, as of today, I have 7 pages penciled, with the exception of a few panels that either need references or other special handling. In the coming week or so I will be posting some of the more complete pencils.

So far, I’m having a lot of fun drawing, even though I have to get up early to do it. I’ve found that some of the simpler pages take longer while some of the pages that I would’ve thought more complex take less time. I’ve also found that I’m not dreading or becoming bored with the slice-of-life type story. Although I really want to do a fantasy/sci-fi epic, this story is satisfying me right now. Perhaps because it’s fairly complete, plot-wise, and I have no shortage of scenes that I know will be included. I pretty much know how the story will progress, what scenes will come next, and how everything will end. Sure, there are some vague points, but I have no doubt that I will be able to plow right through them and onto the next “landmark.”

As for the drawings themselves, I have to say that even though there are some things I don’t like, there are a lot more things I do like, and that’s a good thing. It makes it easy for me to move forward without harping on the work that’s already been completed.

So far, the schedule has been working out and I’m overcoming some of my past problems.

As part of my post-rehab regimen, I’m updating my comics progress on a weekly basis. Fridays will be post days, though that doesn’t mean I can’t post during the week if I have something to share.

I had a good week. I have four pages almost completely penciled; I say almost because there are a couple things that didn’t get completed: things that need referencing, detail, or some other work. But, in all, four pages have been penciled. Plus, I started using two-page thumbnails to figure out what I want to have happen. This has been useful since I’m working from a plot (and not a page breakdown) and, with the thumbnails, I can figure out what I want to have happen on a page, in what sequence, and about what I might want to draw. When I get to the full-size page, I sketch everything out like normal, tweak the layout, make changes to what content I want on the page, and then finish the pencils.

My goal is to be able to pencil a full page in an hour-and-a-half. Today, I almost accomplished that feat. I do realize time will be determined by difficulty, but I do want to average a full penciled page in that timeframe.

I think I’m making good progress so far, and I really like the work… inasmuch as I can like my own work