Open Lab

Sketches, tests, and second thoughts.

Selected studio artifacts, experiments, and comparisons, shown when seeing the process adds something to the work.

Studio artifacts

Different work can stay different.

These are working artifacts, not substitutes for finished comics. They remain useful because their marks, distortions, repetitions, and unresolved parts are visible.

Painterly skull-like head smoking a cigarette against a red and green background. — Expressive distortion

Abstract painting in blue, teal, yellow and white with repeated yellow marks. — Abstraction and repetition

Pastel artwork with small dark bird-like line figures and layered vertical strokes. — Repeated figure and field

The useful question

What changed, and did the work get better?

Cleanup can erase pressure. Cropping can turn a composition into decoration. A comparison is useful when it makes the change visible without pretending the experiment is the work itself.