Pushing Off from Shore | (detail) pencil on vellum

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This marks the beginning of the final drawings in this process and I thought this spread would be a fitting start. While the end is not yet clearly in sight, it’s getting closer.

In anticipation of the task ahead, I’ve doubled my caffeine consumption from 2 mugs of coffee in the morning, to 2 mugs of coffee in the morning plus 2 mugs of earl grey tea in the afternoon.

I underexposed the photo of the illustration a bit – it’s actually less contrasty than it appears above.