ZIGGED WHEN IT ZAGGED

I've mentioned before in previous blogs I used to do a lot of watercolors back in the day. Since most of the color did the work, in a sense, I kept my drawings pretty simple. Then there was also a huge influence from Batman: The Animated Series and Mike Allred's Madman comics.

The line work in my images and how it defines my style seems to be a topic lately and I've been discussing how this has come to be such a prominent element for my art.

This latest image of Nosferatu got me thinking. Once I start inking what I see in my head really begins to take a life of it's own. I didn't plan on having the angular shapes in the background. Once I did the big black jacket I realized I had to balance it out with all the white in the image. I couldn't go with a solid black background or half and half. Just would have been too much one way or the other. So I broke it up.

I guess maybe I just see the images on two totally different levels now. Really a third if I go to the next stage to color. That's really all new to me because I used to envision a rough idea of a final image and now I wind up with different versions.

Still, I think somehow the line sticks out even with all the positive and negative B&W going on.

So here you go. Here are two pics and each with the original pencil line drawing and the inked version.

Nosferatu Ink

Nosferatu Pencil

Hyde Ink

Hyde Pencil