Lowlife: The Deal part eight pages three and four. A flashback scene rendered with lots of hatching as a tribute to the works of Carlos Ezquerra and Henry Flint.
Lowlife and associated characters © 2011 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
Lowlife created by Rob Williams and Henry Flint.
Pages three and four of the current Lowlife episode gave me a new appreciation for my fellow 2000AD art droids. Although I like to pack loads of detail into my pages, I've always used a relatively simplified art style that made drawing all those details fairly quick and easy (even the seemingly-elaborate faux "paint 'n collage" technique of Stickleback is a kind of sleight-of-hand in terms of effort put in for detail on the page.)
But for this particular flashback sequence, I thought it would be nice to borrow a trick from 2000AD titan Carlos Ezquerra, who used to drop out the solid blacks in favour of blocks of hatching to indicate a flashback sequence:
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| A flashback scene by Carlos Ezquerra from Judge Dredd: The Apocalypse War. Note the use of hatching to replace solid blacks. Judge Dredd © 2011 Rebellion Developments/2000AD. Judge Dredd created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra. |
I'd not really been intending it, but with some of the darker areas (such as Frank's coat on page three panel four) I ended up using a sort of denser scribble that is closer to what Henry Flint was doing in his early Lowlife work:
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| Henry Flint draws Big Frank's first appearance in Lowlife: Paranoia. Lowlife © 2011 Rebellion Developments/2000AD Lowlife created by Rob Williams and Henry Flint. |
I've got to say, it's the first time I've ever done a page, looked at the result, been really pleased , and straightaway said, "Never again!" Why? Because my bloody hand nearly dropped off doing all that hatching, that's why. It took ages. Full kudos to Messrs. Ezquerra and Flint; guys, you are hardcore and I but a mere lightweight. I don't know how you did it, you must have wrist muscles like a bull's neck.
Respect due.
5 comments:
It was worth your hand short circuiting. This Low Life story has been superb, very much enjoying it.
Excuse my ignorance, but what is hatching? I'm really curious.
Graeme - good to see you getting work in the Megazine!
Miguel - hatching: many little lines used to make the dark areas and shadows in the drawing. Normally I just use blocks of grey to make shadows which is much quicker (see the guy's face on the last panel of the second page).
Love your icon!
Thanks for the explanation.
And thanks from liking my avatar. I've also liked your posts about Alberto Breccia.
I have been loving the current run of Low Life. You are clearly enjoying the freedom to switch styles as and when the story requires it
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