A beginning is a very delicate time...

(name that quote!)

well... the idea for my toons generally start with a little sketch or blurb on a post-it note or scrap of paper, but since i didn't scan any of that stuff, here's a picture of my neighbor's dog instead:

if i decide later that the idea is worth fleshing out i'll start researching. for example, on this particular cartoon i must have read about a dozen articles on welfare, its origins, myths associated with it, arguments for and against, and its corporate incarnations. for what i'm doing here i really over-killed it, but i wanted to make sure my bases were covered.

after much reading and highlighting i make an outline with the basic structure of the cartoon with lots of notes. here's 1 page of the outline:



there's more but my wife says no one can read it, so i didn't bother to scan 'em (she underestimates the legibility of my awesome handwriting). After the outline, i type out the script. nothing real exciting there. normally i'd have the help of my buddy Dustin with this part (cuz he's a writer and can be pretty funny), but he wasn't available so this one was solamente wes.

Then comes the embarrassingly bad storyboards! here's a couple pages:


seriously, i almost didn't put them on here. but i figured it'd be neat to see that from the crapfest storyboards:


comes the lesser crapfest background paintings:


and that's really as far as i've gotten. i'm a little more than half way done with the BG paintings. i'll post some later and try to have something interesting to say about 'em as well.

until next time!
wes