Still on that first page, and didn’t have a lot of time to work on it today.  I wanted to get a better fix on the figure of the nanny, so I did a couple sketches:

Then a little more fussing with the composition.

 

In the last post I said I was thinking about the personality of the picture, and I think what I mean by that is something of a playful quality, like children’s illustration.  Is this a book for children?  Not exactly… it will be acceptable for children, but I;m not really reaching out to children the way you have to in a kids’ book. I  think of it more as having the mood and aesthetic qualities of a fairly serious children’s story, but probably more for an older reader.

Anyway, even though it’s not a humorous story, I want some sense of whimsy in the style.  Looking for inspiration on my comics shelf, I chose one of my favorite comics, Gare Centrale, by Lewis Trondheim (writer) and Jean-Pierre Duffour (art).

 

This book really should be published in English translation, I think people would love it.  It’s a Kafkaesque tale set in a train station, very funny and beautifully drawn. Lunatic is really nothing like it at all, in terms of story or drawing style, but sometimes something very different can still be an inspiration.