Kill Your Darlings
As in writing, so in illustrating. A lot of my favorite work ends up in the trash. I’ve attached here a few illustrations I was working on for Chapter 2 of William’s Gambit. When it became apparent that this chapter added nothing to the story, well… Chop! Chop!
While most of these illustrations are still in the preliminary stage—where I’m pulling together sources to cobble layouts together—they seem instructive on how I work. Sketches, sources, and created environments combine to create coherent wholes. Unfortunately, this chapter added unnecessary words and elements to the book that needed to be excised.