May 29, 2008 -- In motion
This page wasn't even in the original script, until Carla suggested it. Good call, as it really helps the story.
Also: This is the first really big crowd scene I've ever drawn. Intimidating!
I look at Clockwork Game as one big artistic challenge. It's essentially Artist Boot Camp for me, teaching me several things I've needed to work on for the longest time. Like stamina. Having a new page every week is a stretch for me, and now, boy do I ever respect artists who can do more than one a week. It's also forcing me to learn how to draw clothing better, and how to crosshatch more efficiently, and how to compress my storytelling, and how to ink with a brush. And perspective. Yipes. Thank goodness I have a resident perspective genius in the house.
So yeah. Clockwork Game is forcing me to relearn a lot of forgotten skills, to break out of old habits, and to develop a better work ethic. Pretty good stuff for a little webcomic.
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I am really digging your pen-and-ink work. I might even like it better than your painted stuff, which is saying something.
Love the mixed reactions in the crowd -- fascinated and repelled at once. The Turk squats right in the middle of the Uncanny Valley, and it must have been even freakier in a time when "robots" were still a novel idea.
Wow, Kevin, thanks. That is saying something. Yeah, the Uncanny Valley is really a fascination of mine. Finding that line between creepy and lifelike, the superimposition of machine and human, and oddly -- how it moves around in relationship to society's sophistication. The story of The Turk is really a long study of that blurry line; I think you're really going to like the evolution of its perception by the public -- all the way to today where it's become an icon of steampunkery.
I discovered you web-comic about a month ago from an ad, and I have to say, I'm impressed. I've always been fascinated by the Mechanical Turk, and getting your perspective on it is both entertaining and enlightening.
Keep up the good work, and Thanks!