When the drawing flows

Probably my favourite Chuffin’ Billy drawing to date. It just seemed to flow from sketch to pen to colouring. The background brush textures are reused at different sizes throughout the story. I like the effect and the repetition; it creates a bit of world building. Bomb smoke or memory or mystery energy – it all fits.

The colour scheme was specific too. When Noel Hannan (the writer) first pitched the idea back in 2018, I immediately thought of sepia tones to reflect the World War One angle and of an automaton trying to piece his memories back together. Also got around to thinking of the old Valiant war comics. I remember them using a ‘spot’ blue as part of their comic colouring and wanted to replicate that but not in the digital, halftone way a few people have done recently. Using a monotone colour would also make the colouring stage quicker.