Arsenic Lullaby NFTs
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(if you didn't understand any of that...I'm not the one to explain it you you.)
  

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BEHIND THE SCENES AND PREVIEWS

POCF part 1

  

A friend of mine from the comic book industry, Josh Blaylock, writer and illustrator and publisher of Devil's Due Publishing has begun making his way in the NFT world and asked me to get on board with a big combined NFT launch. To which I said "of course". Josh and I both begun independent comic publishing about the same time, and have both found ourselves to be the tip of the spear, sort of speak, of comics entering the world of NFT's.

That's not a big suprise. If a year and a half ago someone told you there would be a new medium of visual art based on advance technology and you had to bet money of which of the established comic book pros would be among the pioneers...you might first consider whoever passes for a household name, but then factor in who's most willing, able and always looking to take a risk, and then you'd pick either me or Josh. 

 He's talented, very much gives a damn about putting out good work and...much like myself, he's a very cunning "keep an eye on the future" forward thinking person...so aside from the comradery, it was a no brainier to get on board with his upcoming project

His parameters for the piece was "...just pretend someone came up to you for a commission and said I want something involving cryptocurrency and space".

So...it''s a theme, but a vague theme.

Sigh...

You know what I like? Either no theme or something specific. This halfway stuff drives me nuts. I'm mostly alone in that regard. Do I think he, who has known me some time, gave me a half way subject just to torture me? No...but then again...he does know me well enough to know that when I'm vexed, I end up doing some of my best work. And he is cunning.

Anyways...I kicked around a few ideas...looked at what he did and had from people so far...mulled over some more ideas. Decided on this one (which at this stage is just a bunch of scribbles, symbolizing the picture in my head).

 

A little space accountant of sorts with a jet pack, skimming through a planet/moon of crypto hoarding aliens. I have some ideas on effects I've been wanting to try that I'll get into next time. For now though, that base image needs to be refined and drawn and inked. I envisioned the buildings being giant crypto mining units, with some others flying overhead in the distance.

 

All those little arrows lead to the different vanishing points.

 In this piece there are many. Because while it is an open question as to whether or no Josh likes to torture me...I clearly like to torture myself.

To give the composition some energy I had the buildings/units on the right angled slightly differently than the left. and to give the units flying over head some implied movement, I had each one tilted just a bit differently than the others. (each having a left and right vanishing point a bit shifter from the other but always on the same horizin line)

That's confusing...lemme give you a closer look...

That's still confusing, I know I was confused for about half an hour. This may all seem unnecessary, but if they all had the same two vanishing points it would be a very boring composition, with no life to it.

Then again...at this point I started to second guess whether or not I'll even add those things.  There's going to be a title across the top like and old sci-fi pulp magazine, and that is a key element. 

   

Having these units up there along with the title might just make it too visually complicated. By "might" I mean almost definatly.  BUT...even if I don't use them for this, I might be able to use them on something else later on.  

Onto the final piece...

 

Those are some damn fine looking circuit boards on those crypto buildings...I'm gonna regret that when its time to ink. Those and the little spaceman ( which I haven't at this point even drawn in all they way) I'll probably tackle last, after I've built up some confidence.

 

 

at this point here...I've inked as much as I'm comfortable taking on...and screwed up the circuit boards, and a few other things. That's what white out is for ( or...I guess the delete button if I was bright enough to just be doing this on a computer LOL). And as you can see below, a couple or mistakes got whited out and redone and whited out several times. That coin here had like a 3mm thick skin of white out from all the failed attempts.

Eventually I got it though.

 

So...it's onto drawing some stuff on another piece of paper to be scanned in and added, either because that was the plan all along, or in the case of the circuit boards, I screwed them up and have to try again.

The flying crypto units, were always going to be on a different layer because I wasn't sure if I'd want to change their position in the sky once the words/title was added ( that lettering I'll explain/show you next time) or really began to doubt if I'd use them at all.

 

That is a lot of word, but it's also good practice.  You try inking something like that for awhile and suddenly everything else seems easy to do by comparision.

and THAT is all I'll show you for now. The remaining lines to be inked are scaring the crap out of me.  We've got some long curves (the aliens left arm, the top caps of the crypto units) and the little guy is such a vital part that even though the lines would normally be stress free, they are making me tense.  Also his helmet...that's something that will test my skill with a brush.

I could use a compass, but that would give me a line so percise it might stand out too much and getting the thickness of the line with any other tool to match how thin I can get a brush line would be harder than just doing it with a brush.  And...I CAN do that with a brush...I just need my mind right.

All that and the lettering of the title will take up a whole other blog... The lettering is a tragic story, really. It's a story of a man who, for once, actually used the computer to make his life easier and forgot to save the file and ended up having to do it the hard way after all.

ARSENIC LULLABY NFT HOMEPAGE

ARSENIC LULLABY COMICS HOMEPAGE

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