Cheap inspiration....

I have been having trouble focusing on new drawings since I finished the second Dark Crystal book. As crazy as it sounds, it was just real hard to start something if I knew that I wasn't getting paid for it. I just found all sorts of excuses: reading Robert B. Parker, watching Netflix movies, browsing amazon....

By chance, I was downtown and stopped by The Recycled Bookstore. They have a pretty big comic book (excuses me, "Graphic Novel") section. Looking through all of their stuff I found Hellboy Library Collection #3. That book reprints "Conqueror Worm", "Third Wish", and  "The Island" which are the last Hellboy mini-series that Mike Mignola did before leaving the art chores to other artists. It's a nice large format, really showcases the art and Dave Stewarts coloring, but I already have all the mini-series as individual issues so I wasn't real tempted to buy it (just like I wasn't real tempted to buy the other volumes from this Library Edition series). But never the less I pulled it off the shelf and flipped through it...and got hit by a ton of BRICKS.

In the back is a Sketchbook section that has 9 pages of Mignola's first attempt at the Island storyline. 9 fully inked pages that were scrapped and never used and after that there were 6 more penciled pages of Mignola's second attempt that was also never used. Seeing all this artwork, without color for the inked pages and with some blue pencil construction lines for the penciled pages was just great. Just to see how the pages are composed and how the structure for the figures and the backgrounds is laid out...so I bought the book. $27. I have not stopped drawing since :)