Over on instagram (@asymptotia – and maybe here too, not sure) I’ll be posting some images of developmental drawings I did for The Dialogues, sometimes alongside the finished panels in the book. It is often very interesting to see how a finished thing came to be, and so that’s why I’m sharing this glimpse into my process. You might be interested to know that for every single finished element you see in the 240+ page book, there are many (sometimes very many) drawings that you don’t see that led to it. That’s one of the reasons the book took 6 years to draw. (Also, I was learning as I went, and only doing it in my spare time.)
You may have heard me talk about this a bit with Ira Flatow and Janna Levin on Science Friday, and on the Science Friday site (audio there too) there two examples of the process drawings, so go there and have a look if you like. Above is another I prepared for them that they did not have room for (click for a larger view).
This one shows the design process for an entire page. The original pencil sketch on the left is actually only about 2in across, and you can see me working out the elements that eventually became the finished page on the right. Follow @asymptotia on instragram for more in the coming days and weeks!
-cvj
