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Studies for Hiram Pantoum

I've been working for a while—where I can find the time—on a series of comics based on the poetry form called the pantoum. You can read about the form and see an example I did using a comic by Tom Hart here.


I'm at the point of inking an original 4-page comic called "Hiram Pantoum" and thought I'd share a few preparatory sketches for the final art.


Since this is a short comic (although it's four pages long, because of the rules of the pantoum it is actually only two pages which I will trace and ink two times) it seems a good opportunity to refine some aspects of my drawing for comics. Mainly I am always looking to simplify, stylize, and use more solid blacks. I rediscovered Felix Vallotton's woodcuts recently and have been using him as one of my models. (See Derik Badman's illustrated appreciations here and here.) His very black compositions are what first attracted me but I also like his dynamic composition and his detailed but flattened spaces as you can see in this copy I drew of his print "L'Assassinat" (see the original here):


Here's the first drawing I did in my sketchbook, copying freehand from my pencils and inking entirely with a brush:


I like the backgrounds but I'm not happy with the old woman. Too many lines—but that comes with the territory, I suppose.

Here's the next sketch, traced (somewhat awkwardly) from my (still loose) pencils into my sketchbook:


This might be pushing the blacks too far, but I like how it looks overall. Inked with a nib and then brush for the blacks. Still not happy with the old woman.

Here's her apartment, based on memories of my two grandmothers' apartments in the 80s. Traced quickly in pencil and inked entirely with brush. I drew this before the Vallotton image above but I think you can see what I would like about his somewhat off-kilter, flattened perspective. I might push the angles a bit more into Cézanne territory.


Although the individual images were coming together, I still didn't have a sense for how this will fit together as a page, so I layed a piece of tracing paper over my pencils and did this very quick (about 15-20 minutes) study all in brush:

It's coming along, but I'm still not confident about it. I'm going to tighten up the pencils, keep working on grandma, and try a few more studies. I've been looking at ways which artists draw old people (mostly, they don't).
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Variations on my improvised comic activity

Thanks to all of you who commented on my improvised comic activity. If you explore the comments you will find several links, including one that was just sent to me a few hours ago. After the jump, two variations on the activity that I found to be particularly fruitful.

©Isaac Cates and Michael Wenthe

Isaac Cates and Michael Wenthe to my activity in the direction of collaboration and jam comics, with each artist drawing plots for the other to turn into coherent shapes. Then they exchange two more times to end up with a finished comics. What's nice about this is the way it ensures spontaneity: you can't help yourself in advance by tailoring your "random" blobs to some kind of narrative you may see developing. You can see two results here.

©Austin Kleon (also the diagram before the jump)

Instead of doing ink blots, Austin Kleon made marks by dropping a teabag on his page and then turned it into a comic using ink, resulting in a comic that is both two-toned but also where you can clearly see the original marks even after they've been transformed. You can see several examples here.


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A few Matt-related links

I've been away from the blog for a while so I thought I'd post a few links related to my work that I've accumulated recently.


Me n' Elvis are big in Belgium. Here's a book show featuring a segment on the Belgian ed. of 99 Ways... which features my publisher Toon Horsten filmed in the renowned comics shop, Het Besoten Land. My segment starts around 4:25.

I didn't get around do posting about this in May when it would have been more timely: Wim Lockefeer has a great website of comics-related ephemera (and who is coincidentally also the translator of the Belgian Dutch edition), and a few months back he did a series of posts called Matt Madden Mondays in May where he posted a variety of Maddenana I sent him a while back.

Finally, here's a French film student's project inspired, as it declares in the opening, by Queneau... and Madden. I know there are other student projects out there, in a variety of media, based on Queneau's book and mine and I'm always interesting in seeing the results so please feel free to contact me if you are a student or teacher.

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