A friend said the line work for my recent cartoon drawing “Piggy Baggs” was “gorgeous” (thanks Nathan!), so I thought it would be fun to share the three ink drafts it took me to get there. When I sit down to ink it’s more fun if I can still improvise a little, but sometimes when I do that I realize I haven’t fully developed an idea or drawing and end up making a mistake I can’t live with or fix.

Ink-drawn cartoon of a middle-aged father kneeling down with a hammer to break his children’s piggy bank, which recoils in fear. However, the father’s hand is stopped by the sight of his two children standing behind him, looking on disapprovingly. The cartoon is unfinished, with the pencil underdrawings not yet erased and many not even inked over. The ink on the father’s mouth is smudged.

Click image to enlarge.

In the first ink draft, I made my daughter’s hair look darker than intended. That wasn’t too big of a deal, but then I inked the piggy bank and realized how basic my pencil sketch was. That was still something I could have lived with, but I’m very vain, so when I messed up the inks for my face, I gave up. I had sketched myself cringing but tried to ink a different expression and just ended up with a mess, especially when I smudged the ink.

Ink-drawn cartoon of a middle-aged man kneeling down with a hammer to break a piggy bank, which recoils from him in fear. The man looks over his shoulder and smiles guiltily as if someone is behind him, but no one is there. Other details of the drawing are unfinished, such as the table on which the piggy bank stands.

Click image to enlarge.

Before inking the second draft, I spent more time developing the piggy bank. I was happy with the results but ran into trouble again with my face (and vanity). This time I drew myself with a guilty smile but ended up overrendering my face, adding lines and dots for shading, blushing, stubble, and teeth. The overall effect was just creepy, although something about it reminds me of Frank Miller’s early work. Back to the drawing board!

Ink-drawn cartoon of a middle-aged father kneeling down with a hammer to break his children’s piggy bank, which recoils in fear. However, the father’s hand is stopped by the sight of his two children standing behind him, looking on disapprovingly.

Click image to enlarge.

While the third draft was pretty good, I had a problem with the way I drew my head, which looked trapezoidal, and my hair, which looked like a flat top. Probably nobody would’ve noticed but me, but all is vanity! Drawing it one more let me fix those mistakes and also ace the linework.