From Thumbnail to Ink: Persistence Pays Off

Here is a look at a thumbnail sketch of Megaton Man, from a 2008 sketchbook, in light blue Col-Erase pencil and some graphite, approximately 5 inches across. I always like the energy of this pose, and my sketchbooks are filled with lots of quick, energetic sketches like this.

Below shows the scan, blown up to 8.5" x 11", with some tighter blue and graphite penciling over it, with some white out, and a corny gag lettered as well. Below that is a tighter tracing with a Uni-Ball on canary yellow tracing paper. Both of these are from 2012. On the bottom is the inked final on Clearprint vellum, done this afternoon.

It's still a corny gag, but it shows I finish what I start, and that persistence pays off. Never throw anything away, you still might be able to salvage it for something useful! An experiment like this not only proves that I can go back and retrieve something from the past and bring it to life again, and can extract some of the energy from what would otherwise be a throw-away little scribble, but it also helps fuel the new ideas I'm thinking up for the character. At this point, Megaton Man is 30 years old, and virtually all the ideas I have for him and his supporting cast have either been brewing in the back of my mind for some time, or are interpretations of older ideas that might have greater potential now than before. In other words, everything is to some extent an interpretation or reinterpretation, or reinvention.

Final drawing in color.

(I need to date it 2008/2014.)