"Advanced Aurora"

It occurred to me while writing this post + uploading the images that over the past year or so it seems I've larded the production pipeline with more than the usual number of four-panels, or stacked strips if you like. That'd be aside from the usual one or two, there were like a whopping four before this. (For those of our viewers at home keeping score: “The Haul Road,” “Watering Eyes,” “Alaska Bucket List,” “Walk Like A…,” and “No Yogis”). Gives a nod to the theory of form-following-function, and how timing + pacing of buildup or set up to a punchline is useful, not to mention how basically fun it is to design a piece that can also be viewed as one image by carrrying visual elements throughout the piece(s).

And yes, this is in fact partially based on personal experience, stemming from an occasion alone in the depths of a winter wandering around a refuge and hearing the lights firsthand. I even called my dad from the lobby of a nearby hotel in tears at how beautifully transcendent it all was. Especially given how enhanced the evening was... what a trip.

In this mini-process post you can see the comparatively rare doodle on a scrap of paper made just so as to not forget the idea before transcribing it into the sketchbook, to ferment for another few months until ripe enough to actually draw.