Sandman Process pix..

Here we go..

Dana and Nola projects seem to keep getting pushed back. It's discouraging I fall behind, but between the art books, Hollows, Aliens and everything else, i can't really claim to be lazy.

Maybe just bitting off too much? I keep these layout pages on my art table to punish-motivate me to kick my own ass and shove some of these half finished pages out the door.

Ben Franklin said both Fish and House guest start to stink after three days,

and these Hollows and Alien pages have been lying around WAY longer than 3 days..

So before you think me avoiding my work again ( which i am ), remember these process pics actually happened YESTERDAY, ( i'm just posting them today) ~ So i'm not a total flake, promise.

Most people ask for sketches of the usual, batman, Wolvie, Joker, even the Maxx. So why am I doing a Sandman illustration?

 It almost *never* draw this dude anymore..

While I think about the answer to that, let's add some of these little cloud faces.

Mike Dringenberg added some faces on some generic clouds i penciled in sandman one, (remember the splash page near the end when he goes into a circular burst of clouds?)

here's a blurry lo-rez pic of the page in case you forgot.

I remember thinking, what the hell? why'd Mike add those little faces on those clouds?

but then, they grew on me, and sorta started to LIKE them. Now i feel it's the best part of the page, Mike's cloud faces. 

so i'll rip Mike off and add them here to illustration here. Thanks Mike, if your out there or ever read this. 

now let's add some dreamy swirls at the bottom, these pen likes are kinda wispy but i can thicken the edges with some black water soluble colored pencil lines... 

Okay, they barely look like clouds anymore do they? 

Spray a little H2o down on the surface.. Not too much or it'll buckle. 

Use the Dye dropper to send the splays of teal where i want it to go... assuming i have a path, which i really don't yet. 

Just following the flow of a form wrapped in a robe.. hopefully it'll look like that.. 

This big-ass mop brush helps spread the color... as well as splatter a little too. 

a little tissue paper to dab out some saturated spots.. 

I love flat and mops brushes best for effect where the paint tries a little? fan brushes are nice too.. esp. when the watercolor pigment just starting to dry? 

Speaking of drying out... i didn't intend this to be a dry brush effect, but since i forgot to load it up.. 

now wouldn't it be cool if i has the BALLS to leave it like this? Course i won't, otherwise people would joke the Sandman's hair is turning gray. Nope, black hair it is for this old fellah. 

I'm using some tissue paper because the teals all over my hand, and i don't wanna teal blue to smudge this top part of it.. 

that's the plan anyway. I hadn't noticed how often i turn a drawing upside down until i look at these photos. I think it's partly a cheat... a way to make brush strokes at the angle i make them easiest: lower left to upper right. 

so why the Sandman? After years of mostly avoiding drawings of him? 

Because in MY mind, i never got him right the first time. Drigenberg was an accomplished illustrator, so was McKean. I never really even found my 'voice', so to speak... until much later. 

I also poured tons of detail into those MCP Cover and Epicurus because i was insecure. I still didn't now how to draw a simple drawing without resorting to tricks, either fancy pen strokes, or color, or whatever. 

In a way you could argue i'm STILL doing that. Only instead of tiny pen lines it's dramatic strokes of color and texture. Melodramatic actually. But all that aside, all my self loathing aside, or fans who still insisted Sandman was pitch perfect, despite all this, i never satisfied MYSELF drawing Sandman. 

at the risk of arrogance, i despite this one being a little wonky, and the hair is too big and he seems a little grouchy looking for sandman, i still like doing something... 

i never got right in the first place.  

But that's just me, what do i know? 

Okay, there we are!!  With each drawing or panel we roll the dice: Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Life, paintings, relationships, and commissions... are funny that way. 

You never know, 

sometimes *I* never know, 

until i pull my head up from the paper,

and try to look at it 

with fresh eyes. 

- sam