#106: Oh-oh-oh it's magic
Hello craftspeople,
Have you seen the news? You know the thing about the thing. And that other thing? Gosh dammit. So, the good news is these cartoons have nothing to do with any of those things.
This week we have a work-life balance gone wrong, and a perfectly normal house move.
Nothing to see here,
Chris
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Caption: “I wish you wouldn’t bring your work to the dinner table.”
Sometimes you just can’t switch off.
You know how it is. You can’t stop thinking about work. And then, pretty soon, work starts seeping into other parts of your life. Maybe you bring a few things home to work on. A file here. A phone call there. And then, before you know it, you’re at the dinner table, avoiding your partner as you’re working away.
And maybe you’re a 2-bit magician.
A little artist’s note: You really don’t want to bring some work home.
I think the original genesis of this cartoon was that I really wanted to draw a guy trying to escape a water tank. I’m not sure why. I think I was trying to convince my partner to watch Christopher Nolan’s classic film, The Prestige (#IYKYK) and if you’ve seen it, you would know that water escapes play a big part in several scenes in the film. And if you haven’t seen it, well, I think you should.
Visually, this cartoon was a really good test of using opacity for the water tank, and it took a surprising amount of time to find a good balance to make it seem like it was water that could be seen through. The result was the tank, which I’m quite happy with. But, amid all that fussing, I think the thing I was most proud of with this one was me somehow remembering that the moustache would need to drift up because of the water. Obviously.
Caption: N/A
Moving is the worst.
I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve moved house. And every move is harder and every time it seems like there are more boxes left unopened.
I’m sure you know the feeling.
A little artist’s note: Simple. Nothing but simple.
The things you need to know is that it’s a magician. That he’s moved house. And that one of the things he’s moved is his assistant. Does it really make a whole lot sense? Not if you ponder it for too long. Is it kind of fun and silly? Yeah, it probably is.
Visually, this really is simple. In earlier drafts I went a bit nuts with the background but I pared it all back when I realised that all I really needed to sell the reader on was the idea that it was a magician moving house. Got it?
Got it.
Thanks for reading The Mid-Week Squiggle.
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