I spend a lot of time thinking about process. How to make my art more quickly without sacrificing quality, how to organize images and tools. Comics can be very labor-intensive—layout, researching, penciling, inking, lettering, and so on—so another element to think about is how to keep the whole process fun.

I look at the work of some of the artists I admire—Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Eddie Campbell—and their art looks like it was a blast to make: elastic, playful, but with solid draftsmanship behind it. Of course a prized artistic skill is to make it all look effortless, no matter how much the artist sweated over it.

The panel on the top left follows my first stab at a working process for The Sweetened By-and-By: working out the lettering and balloon shapes on tracing paper, penciling a rough sketch in the space that’s left, inking the balloon shapes and panel lines on watercolor paper, lightboxing the pencil rough onto the watercolor paper, doing a finished drawing in ink, and finally painting. I also scrubbed out the wash on Atom’s suit to make it look shabbier (and to try to improve the contrast with the background), and added some colored pencil on the suit and wall to give it some texture. Whew!

After all that I needed a break, so I went directly to the next panel and brushed on some paint. I tried to suggest some forms with quick daubs of ink. And then I went in with the pen to refine the drawing. Then more black shapes, and a few more washes. Then some additions (dots, highlights) and corrections (the two barstools at left) with white gouache and ink. Much less regimented than the previous panel, and more fun. The downsides: I didn’t plan out the lettering, so I spent time drawing art that is destined to be covered by a balloon. And the drawing, though it was fun to do, isn’t as rigorous as I would like.

So my goal now is to hit a happy medium between these two approaches. Maybe I’ll only do a very rough pencil guide on the watercolor paper, and mostly improvise with the pen (as I did in the bottom right panel.) Or put down a few washes after the balloons, but before picking up the pen. We’ll see. And that will be what keeps it fun.

Giving the pen another workout here with some kind of war scene and a few sketches of Atom. (He looks a little dubious about that drink.)

I illustrated this slideshow, written by Cameron Sturdevant for eWEEK.com. It’s the second in a series featuring Cameron’s ideas for an imaginary tablet product, the “Couchlet”. (Here’s the first slideshow, written shortly before Apple’s iPad announcement in January.) I’m hoping we’ll do a third one comparing and contrasting Cameron’s Couchlet concept with the iPad, once it’s available.

Here’s how the charcoal drawing from last week turned out. Now I have to run out and buy some fixative (and maybe wait for spring so I can spray outside … cough …)

Intermezzo 1, charcoal on paper, 36″ x 33.5″

I decided to take a step back from small-scale and computer stuff and do an old-fashioned charcoal drawing. It’s a blast from the past for me, going back to the work I was doing in and just after art school (I’m even using a box of Utrecht charcoal left over from student days.) This is about 3′ square. The title refers to Brahms’ Intermezzi for piano, which Glenn Gould performed beautifully on this record. I’ll probably keep tinkering with this one for another week and then start on something fresh.

More warm-up sketches from Wegee photos. My brain is ticking over in neutral as I’ve been sick for what feels like two weeks now. Winter can’t be over fast enough.

What’s on my drawing table at the moment: a new sketchbook, multiple drafts of my graphic novel in progress, my minicomic, various doodles.

A warm-up drawing. Everybody’s crazy about a sharp-dressed lady.

Weegee-based cops n’ robbers edition. See if you can pick out who’s who.

Ink and watercolor on really cheap paper.