I recently took a few days to help out one of my MFA screenwriting instructors with an illustration. Professor Michael Tabb is currently wrapping up a new book on screenwriting entitled Prewriting Your Screenplay: A Step-By-Step Guide to Generating Stories published by Focal Press. If you are interested in his book, you can sign up for an e-mail alert when it hits bookshelves at his website http://MichaelTabbWGA.com. He asked for an illustration showcasing three act structure with evolutions and escalations as a game board. Below are the initial sketch and the inked version. You can see a little of the feedback and revision process between the two. The ink work was done with Sakura Pigma Micron pens. I like working with the 005s, a .20mm point size, as it gives me more control to gradually build up the line work and capture the line quality the way I want. Most of the lines, save for the hatching and cross-hatching are the result of several passes over a single line. Maybe it is time for me to film a little line work and post that.

When I’m working on my animals book, I am hoping he’ll give me some guidance and critical feedback. I have been around the block enough to know that good, critical feedback on writing and artwork is hard to come by and one couldn’t hope for better than Professor Tabb. I haven’t read the book yet but if the instruction he gifted me with is any indication as to the quality of the book, it will be top notch!