Jan Strnad's script asked for a small inset of Tirol and Brii in the land of the Frost Giants, framed with a garland of ivy. I sketched it several different ways, two of which I'm showing here. But neither of us were satisfied with the layout and Jan thought the garland looked too much like a Christmas decoration so he suggested dropping the inset panel all together.
It made for a rather stark final page but it fit the mood of the story.
Fast forward 26 years...
We're trying to pull together all the art for a new Grimwood Collection, but no one can locate copies of the last few pages. I decide to redraw them and look forward to taking a second crack at a few details that always bugged me about the earlier versions. Most of them are just little inking problems but this final page cried out for a larger revision, in keeping with Jan's original script. I discussed it with our editor, Scott Dünbier and he agreed, if we're going to go to the trouble of redrawing that last page, why not get it right this time.
So I dropped the garland and made the inset much larger. I'm really happy with the results... finally.
I'll post a scan of the inks as soon as I finish them. Maybe even later today.
It's uncanny how you can adjust your style to the one of 26 years ago, even though it's always been pure "Nowlan". It's not a jarring shift at all.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see the inks... and the book!
We'll see... I can't promise it'll be an exact match, but then again, I couldn't seem to maintain a consistent style from chapter to chapter or even panel to panel when I drew this in the early 80's.
ReplyDeleteThe inks are coming along nicely. I'll post them soon.