Tag / Swan

by Andrew Pilcher

Smoke signals

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After whinging about the placement of objects in the last strip, this is one where everything went right. I was essentially drawing an abstracted version of the view outside my study window, looking over the St Helen’s estate and St Helen’s wood up to the top of The Ridge. Rather than cut and paste the drawing three times, something I only do when really pressed for time, I used tracing paper after pencilling the backdrop the first time and then transferred the scene to the other two frames using a graphite sheet. Then I inked in each frame separately. This ensures the backdrops look the same as each other but there are variations in the inking in each one, which stops the strip looking mechanical. I draw with a rather wobbly line so when they get repeated over and over again in one strip it can look a bit obvious.

The colouring is just right as well, mainly because I was colouring from life. I’m letting the snow melt as well, ready for the next round of strips.

by Andrew Pilcher

Craze

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I’m not too sure about this one – with hindsight I can see that the bush in the background is in the wrong place and impedes the easy comprehension of the drawing. I only put it in because in was in the background of the previous strip, but I should really have followed the rule of ‘if in doubt, leave it out’ this time round.

by Andrew Pilcher

Swan Lake on ice

smith-pilcher-912-150205Humphrey Earthworm yesterday, Dave the Swan today; yes, I’m bringing back supporting characters one by one to see how they cope with the snow.

Incidentally, the cold snap didn’t last, at least, not in Hastings which has a microclimate all its own. One of the advantages of living in a coastal town is that you tend not to get the extremes of temperature that even those place only three miles away, on the other side of the ridge that separates Hastings from civilisation. One the minus side we get the wind instead.

by Andrew Pilcher

Parp Honk

smith-pilcher-772-150316It’s good to have an extended range of characters that can pop in and out of the strip as required. This is Dave the Swan – we haven’t seen him for a couple of years, I’ll have to bring him back this summer if I can find something for him to do. (Actually, as I’m currently writing scripts for June, I know where the cats are and he’d fit in perfectly…)