Growing Branch

This piece was something of an experiment in style. Being urged to leave my comfort zone and use new techniques I suppressed my usual crosshatching tendencies and tried something different.

Drawing Scratch I attempted to integrate some of the noir aesthetic I’ve been researching recently, creating heavy areas of pure black shadow across her figure to give the impression of depth and stark lighting. While I was basing this on the look of genre films I additionally drew on comics featuring appropriate high contrast styles such as Sin City and Savage, sacrificing detail for intensified mood. The trench coat she’s wearing resembles the kind Bogart wears in Casablanca and The Big Sleep, a new design which pushes her appearance away from that of traditional sci-fi with the prominent cyborg fixtures being concealed beneath it. This may seem illogical given my setting, however I feel it counterbalances by introducing intriguing themes of concealment and deception. Dressed like this Scratch could almost pass for being a regular human being, were it not for jagged circuitry mark on her neck and unnatural shine to her eyes.

The background interior was loosely based off one of Marchand and Meffre’s photographs of downtown Detroit – somewhere suitably bleak for the tone with a few additions to suggest a futuristic scenario. However, as with Scratch I’ve toned down the more obvious cyberpunk facets in favour of a more credible scene, with only the slightest hint it take place in the future. The focus being on the ambience rather than technological wows.

In relation to this I considered how Eduardo Risso’s artwork in 100 Bullets would often be given a specific colour palette for different settings and characters, giving stories their own distinct visual flavour and creating a vivid atmosphere. Here I wanted to reflect Scratch’s cynical personality with cold blues, also approaching the appearance of monochrome inherent in classic noir cinema.

My biggest complaint of the final image is that the lighting of the subject and setting don’t quite mesh with the background lacking the same sharp definition of light and shadow Scratch has. I’m pleased with the brooding atmosphere and look of the new trench coat, but I think I need more practice getting to grips with digital colouring and convincing lighting.