Drawing Women Of The Bible - work in progress

The above picture is in fact me inking the cover of Guernsey's Zone magazine, which I also did in the last week. But the purpose of this rolling blog is for me to keep some sort of Time Sheet on how long my current major art job, three strips for Women Of The Bible, will have taken me. Here, accompanied by some outtakes (ie panels that I pencilled then rubbed out and redrew) are my timings so far.

Jael Wife Of Heber (8 pages)

Weds 8 - Fri 10 Nov. Art begun (alongside Fowlers Christmas card, Zone cover, CCI roughs, Louisa Christmas card roughs, a caricature and a gift drawing). Really only Friday totally devoted to Jael art.

All 8 pages laid out. Page 4/5 spread pencilled, pasted into TIFF pages and sent as a Friday night preview to Rachel my editor. Parts of other pages pencilled.

Nov 11-12 weekend stuff, 13-14 Penicuik & Falkirk school visits.

Weds 15 - All 8 pages completed in pencil, scanned and pasted into TIFF pages.

Thurs 16 - Pages 1 - 4 inked and scanned.

Fri 17 - Goole gig, followed by weekend stuff.

So, to date, 8 pages pencils have taken 2 days, 4 pages inks have taken 1 day. Work in progress.

Mon 20 - Pages 5 - 8 inked and scanned, then 2 days in Northumberland.

Thurs 23 am, assembling scanned pages 4 - 8. Now ready to start colouring.

Fri 24 Coleg Ceredigion, Sat 25 Reading Comic Con.

Mon 27 - Pages 2 & 3 coloured in morning, then drive to Manchester, Tues 28 Manchester Academy & home.

Weds 29 - Really wanted to finish the whole job before end of November, but pages 4 & 5 are really complicated, so I only got pages 4, 5 and a bit of 6 coloured, as well as delivering the first draft of Louisa's Christmas card.

Thurs 30 - Finham Park Coventry, last school of the year, and home by 4pm so got pages 6 and 1 coloured.

Fri Dec 1st - Hooray, all 8 pages coloured, checked, and delivered. And the client likes it. Perfect. (Also completed amends on Louisa's Christmas card, and set off early to do a Socks gig in Swindon that night. Get me).

My final work rate: 8 page pencils = 2 days, 8 page inks = 2 days, 8 page colours = 3 days. So when kids ask me how long does it take to do a page, it takes me just under a day to do a page. Now we know.

Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries and art centres - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video here.