Draw it once...

...and you'll never forget it.

Hello from Castrum Lusitania, my fortress in northern Portugal. Welcome to another edition of our weekly newsletter.

In last week’s post I wrote how I was going to keep pushing to end this week as close as possible from finishing inks on this batch of 24 pages for Phenomena Book 2. As I type these words, I’m 1.5 pages away from the goal, so we can say it was job well done. I had 12.5 to go through, meaning I already did 11, which is already a pretty good week (10 is my usual goal). I’ll be doing a bit more, so somewhere during Monday these inks will be done and ready for a good old scanning session.

However, you might be curious about the title and what I’m referring to. Well, my drawing teacher from my architecture studying days once said: “If you photograph something, it soon vanishes from your mind. But if you draw it, you’ll never forget it.”

I have enough experience to know he was right. I mean, it slowly deteriorates, but a memory of something drawn lasts a long, long time. This week I had to draw something that, once again, confirmed this theory. More on that in a second, because first:

Some sneak peeks

This week was all about Matilde. She’s the central character in this section and her actions are the main drive behind everything happing.

It’s a section full of action and surprises, which means a lot of cool poses and fun expressions to draw.

It also allowed me to play a lot with one of my favorite things, scale - something I can show you very little of though - don’t want to spoil the many juicy things we are creating for all of you.

There are a few new characters popping around, it’s not just Matilde on her own. For example, this Toriyama-esque little dude:

Draw it once and you’ll never forget it

The bit that reminded me about this theory was a couple of shots I added when I was drawing thumbnails. Something happens suddenly in the script, but I felt it need some cue for the reader to understand where it was coming from. So I added someone (the Toriyama-esque dude) snapping his fingers, which I then inked this week:

I still used my hand as reference to make sure it was right, but I drew it right away from memory. That’s because a few years ago I was invited to draw a special issue of The Wicked + The Divine, a fantastic book by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie. It was a great privilege for me.

In it, characters snap their fingers a lot for a very special reason (seriously, read the series. It’s incredibly good). So I had to learn how to draw that for the first time in my life when working on my special issue. Now, five years later, it still lingers in my memory, fresh and ready to be used.

My teacher was right.

Other bits and pieces

Contrary to last week, this one demanded some dedication to other bits of work:

• A late meeting about a secret project I’m trying to get off the ground (not comics related).

• Research for a small but very interesting upcoming gig for which I’ll be drawing 10 pages.

• Finally broke ground on a story that has been on my head for a few weeks. It’s an older idea that I decided to reshape slightly. I had all the pieces, I knew what it is about, what was happening but something was off. Once I found out what it was, everything fell straight into place. It’s frustrating when you’re stuck but when you get your breakthrough it sure makes for a great feeling.

Recommendations

Just a quick note on Physical 100, a Korean Netlfix show about people in peak condition competing against each other. You’ll see all types of physiques and challenges. As someone who works out a lot, it’s fascinating to watch.

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Time to rest, eat, sleep. See you all soon!

André