I've never really worked with such tight scripts from someone else before and it's fun to focus on craft a little bit. It's very different than my usual, more intuitive process. It's nice to shake things up like that, and to be able to try different approaches to drawing each new strip. There is a bit of formal exploration here, as we use certain pre-determined panel/content structures. It's fun to try and stretch these layouts in different ways as well. I try and see how far i can stretch the templates and still keep the underlaying concept intact. Be sure to read the "about" section at the site for details on our various constraints.
As far as the drawing goes, I am consciously pushing for a flatter, more abstracted page design in most of these. I want to push away from more traditional representational art, without losing the gist of Alexander's scripts. I've been playing with perspective and figuration a little bit. It's been nothing so radical yet, or nearly as abstract (or incomprehensible?) as my diary strip work as of late. I'm just getting warmed up, though ;)
It's been a lot of fun to draw these, and of course, Alexander is a fantastic writer. We just started our first multi-installment series this week, a four-pager called 'Crouton.' Check it out, and feel free to let us know what you think of these strips.
