Barrel Scrapings

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Teeth Dreams

This is one of the oldest comic ideas I have; I started this before Barrel Scrapings even existed. Here is the original sketch: I’m pretty sure dreams of losing your teeth are a fairly common occurrence but it never ceases to freak me out when it happens. I thought it might be fun to imagine why those teeth were in such a rush to exit someone’s head. Hopefully it’s not too disturbing.

You Say Tomato

First try using bristol board and dip pen. I think I broke a nib while trying to do this. And turns out this paper is pretty garbage for watercolor (dries too quickly and isn’t strong enough). I also have a very hard time photographing these images to have them display properly; they come out far too dark. I played around with it as best I could in GIMP but this doesn’t quite do the real thing justice.

Message in a Bottle

I had the idea for this one while walking along the water a few weeks ago. It’s a simple premise, so I wanted to have somewhat more fully rendered/realistic art. I worked extensively from photos I took of myself, and contrasted the flat look of the figure with more depth for the background. I’m mostly happy with it, though the water looks a bit like starry night rather than the dazzling shimmers you see in real life.

Fat Cats

I had this idea a few weeks ago for an absurd advertisement. I tried to mimic those ‘As Seen As TV’ type infomercials with the desaturated colors for the ‘before’ and bright vibrant colors ‘after’. I also tried a technique of outlining by using a darker version of the in-fill color rather than just black, which borrowed from “The Good Boy Gang.” (I see now they used the same outline color for each character, which would have saved a lot of time.

Those Were the Days

This comic came out of another I was working on; I had the panel with the fetus dreaming of fertilization, and thought it would make a better comic about nostalgia than what I was originally doing. I used a similar technique as Let’s Go Fly A Kite for the fetus (with the airbrush tool rather than the alcohol marker). Although it’s a very time consuming process, I thought the technique would give a womblike feeling.

Wild Goose Chase

I don’t know what made me think of this, but had the idea yesterday. Here is the original concept sketch: Time lapse: The geese were based off a photo taken by Steve McCormick; the penguin based off a photo by Wolfgang Kaehler.

What Price Would You Sell For

I got the idea for this one from an unsolicited real estate flier, exhorting me to sell my place. I thought the phrase “What price would you sell for?” was very evocative. That combined with the somewhat smarmy look of the real estate agent made me think of the devil trying to drum up business. I had a fun time finding examples in literature of people who supposedly sold their soul to the devil.

The Common Raven

I heard someone mention a bird being a “Common Raven” and immediately connected it to video game loot, where things are common, rare, legendary, etc. I thought about doing a comic based on that. Ultimately I switched gears a bit and decided to just base it on the raven’s reaction. Original sketch: Time lapse: Raven drawing is based on Lindsay Wildlife Experience’s photo.

Let's Go Fly a Kite

Hopefully you’ve seen Mary Poppins or this won’t make all that much sense to you. But fear not, YouTube has every clip known to man: . I experimented with a new approach this time, using digital watercolor brushes for the background and alcohol marker brushes for the foreground. I wanted a bit of a looser style, allowing colors to escape the frame at some points, and even letting the characters leave the frame.

Mutually Assured Affection

This is a departure in many ways. I have done watercolor off and on for years before starting any sort of comics. I wanted a change of pace from the standard digital workflow. This started with the concept that was more traditionally ‘comic’ - I have been wanting to try some new things and challenges such as using fewer / no words. After I started prototyping the project, I decided not to add the thought bubbles - I think it stands on its own without the explicit indication of what the owner is thinking, and becomes more universal.

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© Nicholas Dunn 2020