Another GI Joe cover– doing this one on paper took me out for about two full weeks, but it was still worth it.

I didn’t consider doing a physical original until the very last minute, so when I did, it was also clear I’d have to do it in color¹. Having a black and white original that looks like this would just be a confusing mess —

So, I had to make some more deliberate choices about basic methods I use all the time, like masking off shapes.

Obviously, it would have been the most efficient and reasonable² solution to paint two pieces, physically cut out that red shape, and glue it on top of the Transformer, but I didn’t know what glue would not fail at some arbitrary future point, or eat away the paper under it, so I went with masking fluid, something I never used before.

As painstaking as this particular part was — working with a completely clear, glue-like fluid over white paper on a lightbox, angling it all against the window light while trying to make sure there was a precise edge to these invisible lines — and how hard on the body the entire thing was, it was still enjoyable, because learning things is the best kind of boost I know, and there is a deep fundamental physical pleasure³ in using a brush and liquid mediums.

It’s funny how in the early days a lot (a lot) of time is spent on having the Right Pen, the Right Brush, Right This, Right That, and so on, and at some point it becomes almost irrelevant.

Once I decided to do this on paper, I used a medium I had never used before (acrylic gouache), paper I’d never used before (the hot press cotton kind), and inked the entire thing with a $2 synthetic brush, instead of the requisite Winsor and Newton series 7.

Same for some of the methods used. When was the last time I did ruled lines with a brush?

I know how you’re supposed to do it, but I don’t remember trying it more than a few times, probably over a decade ago. It’s strange to sometimes learn things purely through time passing.

And I didn’t even notice that any of these parts until much later. I forgot to be stressed out about them. I had other things to do, which were more interesting and fun to focus on.

In short, I found myself having experience. At least on that side of things. I even went properly traditional way and painted it on the kitchen table⁴.

The medium still had enough unknowns of its own — having one brand of paper already tear when I’d previously tested it, I felt like I was really putting my life in the hands of this masking fluid.

Finding out if the fluid would, despite testing it multiple times, still rip half the art off the finished picture was the most stressful part of the entire day. It was past midnight and I didn’t have the energy or time for a third go at this–

Big hooray for only slightly more expensive cotton paper.

The first attempt, which got ripped up, had the light tone done on paper too, but since I wildly overdid things getting to this point, and didn’t want to push my luck (or back) further, I added those during the final flattening and preparing for CMYK printing.

In the end it looks exactly the same as the pictures I do using every other method, and those other approaches would have taken about one tenth of the time than it did doing it this way, but allowing the luxury this one time seems important in retrospect, just for going through the process of remembering some of that most fundamental, child-like fun of moving paint around. It’s nice to draw with orange lines.

Maybe I can try another one next year.

Footnotes:

1) This is 100% David Lafuente’s fault.

2) “Efficient and reasonable” basically guarantees it’s an approach that doesn’t get used. Would anyone be doing comics if they were reasonable and efficient?

3) For all the various benefits of digital work, the one phrase I wouldn’t use to describe it is “physically pleasurable” (unless we’re counting less neck and lower back pain).

4) Not spilling paint on any furniture, carpet or wall is without doubt the biggest achievement of this entire thing. Usually I’m not able to even open a pot of ink without getting at least eight of my fingers stained.

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