The last page of Silverside went up today. I was talking with some friends at lunch the other day about the project and they were surprised to hear that I don’t actually like drawing Automata. Of all our projects I feel like it is the one I am least qualified to draw. I just don’t feel like I have the skills to do Automata as well as I think it deserves to be done. I’m happy with a lot of the work I did on Silverside but it’s so much harder for me to draw than something like Lookouts or the Daughters of the Eyrewood.
I did way more research for this project than I normally do. It was important to me that it look and feel like a noir film. I watched a bunch of old movies but there were two that I specifically pulled a lot of inspiration from. The first was the Maltese Falcon and if you watch it you’ll see a couple nods to it in Silverside.
The floorplan of Betty’s apartment and the framing of the conversation that happens there is pulled right out of that movie. The other was Scarlet Street. I got a lot of costume ideas from this film and used the iconic lamp post in the last page today.
There’s more classic noir movie references in there if you look for them, sort of like a Tarantino movie I guess.
Speaking of the last page, here is a look at the inks for that page. You can click on it for a larger version.
Silverside is over for now but I guarantee there is more Automata coming in the future. Some of it in comic form some of it in something a little more exciting.
-Gabe out
