Hey, Everybody!

I just finished an entertaining and inspiring book about the writing process (though it applies to other long-form art projects as well) by Peter Turchi. He explores writing as a form of puzzle-creation, which accurately describes my feelings as I put together this memoir in drawings.

Now that I've completed 50 of the approximately 75 sections of the graphic narrative parts of the book, I can start to arrange them visually on a bulletin board, reading left-to-right, balancing chronology with narrative logic. I can also test for continuity and see where I need to insert sequences for exposition or to develop themes. Spaces on the board indicate where I've yet to draw.

I chose to draw the sections out of sequence for several reasons. When Robert Crumb illustrated the Book of Genesis, it took him four years. By the time he finished, his drawing style had changed to the point where he had to go back and redraw the beginning of the book so the styles would match.

I assumed my drawing would change over the course of the year it's taking to draw all these pages, so by drawing scatter-shot, building up the entire book at once (similar to working all over a painting) there would not be a slow transition from one style to another. I also had in mind Daniel Clowes' WILSON (composite sample made from different chapters, above), where each section of the book is drawn in a completely different style, yet the narrative holds. With that example in mind, I felt free to experiment without worrying about losing the story. 

The graphic section of the book (there are also text-based passages, Urban Sketches, a How-To chapter and little essays planned) has three main narrative threads. Originally there was a fourth, but in assembling the sections I saw that two really went better together as one, and the thread about my brother became more and more important as I drew. You can see a higher resolution of the following one in my comics section: https://stevenreddy.com/page/6477/four-wheelin

I spent this morning roughing out another six-page story:

It'll go through many rewrites and drafts before it's finished in a week or so. These "comics" take a lot longer to complete than an Urban Sketch, so it's nice to take a break occasionally and go whip something out quickly, as I did on Friday with the Seattle Urban Sketchers. We met at the Museum of Flight where I drew the Lunar Rover.

Thanks for reading. If, like me, you find these behind-the-scenes peeks at the creative process interesting, I hope you'll tell a friend.

Now, back to work,

Steve