One thing I’ve found while working on this project is that I’ve become more and more particular when it comes to what materials I use . I used not to be that fussy over paper type, possibly due to the influence of some of the more ‘fine art’ practices I had in college, preferring a rough paper texture and soft pencils. However, recently I found that this combination was not giving me the optimum surface quality that I would like for inking so I’ve caved and switched to the ubiquitous Bristol board. As can be seen in the examples above, it’s lead to a somewhat tighter pencilling/inking combination than I used to display.

Anyway, this scene was really a joy to draw. There are a lot of nicely plotted sequences throughout the book like this that play little moments against the larger Moments of Grand Historical Significance. I honestly think this is important, as there is a danger with historical based drama to fall into the trap of hyperbole which leaves little space for the reader to identify with the characters or the events being depicted.