A little election relief... (Patreon)

If you're like me, you're avoiding the news today but also nervously checking every website you told yourself was OK to check. Your email, Instagram stories, JUST your Twitter replies... okay, maybe just your email. You don't necessarily want to know what's going on, but you still want to feel connected. 

I don't know if this will scratch that itch, but I thought it was a good time to share some closeups of calming panels from the current chapter.

I approached Miranda's pages differently than all the other characters' pages, letting myself fall into a trance with the grey ink wash I added throughout the panels before scanning them in.

It's my favorite part of the process. It feels indulgent! Just making little grey brush marks wherever I please. 

Letting the brush fray, letting the paper soak in the ink in splotches, without my permission. 

It feels free, a collaboration between individuals, rather than a piece dictated only by one artist.

I'm posting these photos as-is, so you can see the scratchy greys and imperfect black inks. White-out. Wobbly lines.

(These messy dark grey washes in the background were actually added after I scanned this page in; I knew they wouldn't translate well digitally, but I wanted the original art to have the same mood as the finished color page.)

I boasted about this on Twitter, but I'm real proud of those stairs. Stairs are hard! I wanted them to feel belabored enough to read as "correct," but curved & wobbly enough to read as "friendly." 

The buildings in Shepherdstown are so old, and I want this story to feel so real, I've forbidden myself from using a ruler throughout this book. Humans create and then slowly wear down buildings, and humans are so imperfect, nothing we touch should be expected to be perfect. This book is meant to embrace imperfection.

I was so happy to finally draw Miranda on this page, and so many times, in so many forms. :)

I've got a lot going on the next two weeks, so next week's update might just be one big page. But I think it'll be worth the slow roll.

Be patient with yourselves this week, and anticipate imperfection.