The Lost Episodes, Scene 4

Another Lost Episode, from 2006.

The Lost Episodes, Scene 3

Hindsight, as they say, is always 20/20; looking through in-progress scans of old work, it's easy to see where I should have made better choices. The drawing this enlarged detail was saved from was ambitious and fun but unfocused, and would have benefitted from more ruthless editing- The rest of the elements didn't work nearly as well as this one, and I should have recognized that. But this passage, at this stage, I like.

Catherynne M. Valente's short story Palimpset, from Paper Cities, An Anthology of Urban Fantasy, Senses Five Press

The Lost Episodes, Scene 2

Welcome to Dreams In Black and White: The Art of Mark Reep.

To see more of my work, visit my website, markreep.net

To read previous blog entries, visit my site's Updates page.

For the last several months, my site's Updates page has been becoming less about events, newly available drawings, etc, and more a journal- albeit a sporadic one- about the work itself. What I've been learning, realizing I need to learn- Which, as always, remains a very great deal. Learning, happily, is a path that need have no end- And no matter how far I've come, I always feel I'm still just at its beginning.

One of the things I've been trying to become better at, more consistent about, is recognizing that point where a drawing is as good as I can make it. No new issue, this. I almost always think I can make this or that element just a little better- And often I can. But often, too, I can't, and any further refining I'm tempted to try won't be enough to noticeably improve the overall look of the drawing. I may end up badly overworking, losing what I had, ending up with less- At worst, blowing the drawing altogether.

Above is an in-progress scan of a recent, unfinished drawing- A drawing I likely should have stopped working on shortly after this point, didn't. One bad decision led to another, and this project became another 'Lost Episode' to chalk up to experience. I like what I had here, wish I'd kept it- But what I learned in the doing of this drawing will find its way into the next, the next. And I'm glad I saved the scan.