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:
 |
| 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:
 |
| 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.
