Drawing Book Of Ruth, work in progress

Having completed the 8 page Jael Wife Of Heber (above) on December 1st (as recorded in this blog post, rather confusingly dated Nov 17th), at a rate that worked out at slightly faster than a page a day, the next strip on my desk is The Book Of Ruth. A 12 pager. Which I've only just got round to starting two weeks later.

What can I say, Christmas stuff has got in the way (and another illustration job for the Chartered Insurance Institute, and the production and posting of both The Socks Christmas card and my Comic Art Masterclass Christmas card, which always take more time than you expect. Oh, and I made four Socks videos when I should have been starting this work, and the Socks had gigs in Plymouth and in Grewelthorpe in North Yorkshire, now you ask. Excuses done.)



Whatever, today I started Book Of Ruth. So here is my virtual timesheet, so I can measure my pace.

Friday Dec 15th, approx 10.30am - 12.30, laying out all the boxes and voice bubbles, while listening to a week's worth of Popmaster on Radio 2.

Tues Dec 19 4pm - 8pm, pages 1 & 2 pencilled at end of afternoon and after dinner.
Weds Dec 20 10am - 1pm, pages 3 & 4 pencilled. 2pm - 6pm, pages 5 & 6 pencilled. 7pm - 10pm, page 7 pencilled.
Thurs Dec 21 10am - 12pm, page 8; 12 - 1.20, page 9; 3.15 - 5.15, page 10 pencilled. 7pm - 10pm, page 11 pencilled, and page 12 half pencilled.
Fri Dec 22 9 - 11am. Page 12 pencilled and all pencils scanned. (Caricaturing gig in afternoon).

So 12 pages of pencils have taken 3 and a half days. Let's call that 4 pages a day.

Tues Jan 2nd - 2pm - 6pm, borders, voice bubbles & some inks on all 12 pages. 7pm - 10pm, pages 1 - 3 inked, using my new brand new Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pen, which is so good I've just ordered two more. Now we'll see how long they last. After three pages it's as good as the first.
Weds Jan 3 - 10.30 - 1pm, pages 4 - 6 inked. 3pm - 6pm, pages 7 & 8 inked. 7pm - 9pm, pages 9 & 10 inked.
Thurs Jan 4 - 10am - 1pm, pages 11 & 12 inked. 7pm - 10pm, pages 1 - 6 assembled.
Continued in new post on Jan 5th 2018.

So 12 pages of inks have taken 2 and a half days, that's just over 4 and a half pages a day.

Work in progress...

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.