Today, I’d like to show you something that came about as an accident. As you may know, the very first episode of Sunnyville Stories was never originally published in single issue print form. It’s free to read here on my blog. It’s also collected in the first volume of Sunnyville Stories. As a result, I never did create a formal cover for Sunnyville episode 1.
I wanted to remedy the situation but had no clue how to proceed. Then I ran low on ink. (As I type this entry, I’m still inking Sunnyville Stories episode 9.) I made a trip to the nearby store and (against my better judgement) got a different type of India ink.
Instead of the usual Speedball Super Black, I decided to try Higins brand black calligraphy ink. It was labeled as being black waterproof ink (as a general rule, avoid drawing comics with any ink that is labelled “waterbased”, “nonwaterproof”, or “watersoluble”) so I decided to try it out. That was a mistake because the ink turned out to be more of a gray on the page than a strong black ink. As I work in black & white, it’s imperative that my lines be a strong enough shade of black to reproduce.
But now, I had a bottle of seemingly useless ink. What to do? Rather than waste money by dumping it, I quickly figured out that with its grayish color – it’d be handy for doing ink wash drawings! So I conducted a little experiment where I diluted the ink with some water…and this drawing was the end result!
“Friends”, Pen drawing with ink wash on illustration board, 8×10 inches
This piece (available as a print on DeviantArt), called “Friends”, came out much better than I thought. It also would make a nice cover.
Sunnyville Stories #1 Cover
Voila! The retroactive cover to Sunnyville Stories episode 1!
That’s it for now. Anyway, stay tuned for updates concerning my planned Kickstarter. Please purchase copies of Sunnyville Stories and tell everyone you can about my work! Tell your library that you want Sunnyville Stories – we are carried through Brodart, Ingram, and the library division of Alibris! Don’t forget that you can still get Sunnyville Stories Volume 1 for Kindle as well as paperback. Check out the book’s Goodreads entry for other retailers as well as libraries carrying it! If you’re looking for super deals on Sunnyville, check outDirect Textbook for some excellent prices!
