Storyboard examples

These are all by me, but have at least some of the confident economy I was urging you all toward.
JH

Preach, Practice

So, earlier this week I got an job for a major New York City weekly, thanks to a referral from inker Andrew Pepoy. The woman told me it should be a bar scene, 3:45 in the morning, last call, when people have hooked up or haven't. I had to do a half page, preferably color, in under two days, during which time I had to prepare for and teach this class. I spent quite a while pulling pix off the web. Nervously I did a bunch of so-so thumbnails and picked six of those that looked promising and made some sketches of those. This all took over two hours (more than I'd expected and promised).

But the woman from the magazine was pleased to have so many ideas to choose from. She said they "loved" one sketch that touched on several ideas from the article.

I ruled out the perspective tightly enough that I could ink it all freehand, with a brush. Knowing the scene was to be dark helped me to be free with it; my missteps would be less visible. Checking the figures vis-a-vis the perspective, I found the barmaid was too high and moved her down in Photoshop. I colored it up, trying not to make it too digital or airbrushy-looking. I turned it in a few hours early early because I had to teach you guys. I had no idea if it was bad or good because I'd been so close to it for a day. They approved it with no changes and gave me a higher rate than they'd offered.

I know in the future, if I get more of this type of work, I'll look on this piece with embarrassment. Tomer Hanuka I ain't, alas. But as a demonstration of how thumbnailing and perspective can avert disaster in a professional working context, I couldn't asked for a better example with which to torture you guys.

JH