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To nobody's surprise (haha), I've got various notes on this one:

  • I tried this as a "WebP" this time, which should improve quality and reduce file size going forward. Various places have problems with that format, but it seems to be okay here, and I believe at the PixelFed instance, too, which should help me move away from (the chronically unreliable) Imgur, in general.
  • I couldn't find the proper source or original title for this piece, so that's just me above coming up with a likely name. It's certainly a Martin work though, which can be confirmed by his siggy near the lower-right margin. Btw, one prior Martin piece I shared here was "P'pa! Ta braguette...!".
  • Specific thanks to artist-creator Horacio Altuna for help identifying this one. If you're unfamiliar with his work, Altuna's probably best known for tasteful, erotic farce. Indeed, he's something of a legend at this point, so check out that Lambiek link above for more info. He's also got a great Twitter stream in which he routinely features cool stuff by other artists. The feed's been helpfully de-shittified, and can be browsed HERE.
  • There's also an 'AI' issue here, and I'll explain: First, I used the nifty online tool "Waifu" to upscale the art and remove artifacts, then I manually darkened the lighting and bumped up the saturation a smidgen. And then I leaned in to ChatGPT to help confirm some of my thoughts about the piece, namely that it's set during and in WWI's Western Front, and depicts the French army moving in and out of a major city in NE France or Belgium. GPT postulated that it doesn't seem to be a specific city, but might be styled after Verdun, Arras, Reims or Metz.
  • I've been occasionally murdered here (and elsewhere) for leaning too hard in to AI tools to lead or assist with various projects, but I must say... without such tools, this particular artwork would be much lesser in quality, and I'd have much less info to share about it. FWIW!
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[-] JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.social 1 points 4 days ago

Whups... late reply alert. 😅

Bueno!* I checked out some of your posting shares, and really enjoyed your urban sketches and portraits. Indeed, I really envy that skill of being able to quick-sketch and colorize, capturing a scene accurately with a minimum of fuss.

Watercolor is easily my favorite medium, but I'm sadly untrained in it. I did share a sketch-page earlier, in which I bitch about not being able to handle watercolor pencils. Part of that might be down to them being just a cheapie set of Kimberly Master's pencils, I don't know.

Interesting thoughts on your process, above. "Visual library" is a great way to think about it, I think, and "analogue heart" made me chortle. Love that.

* Castellano & Francais happen to be my two hobby languages, and I'm actively working on getting the latter up to the level of the former, such that I can brag that I suck at both, equally. 🙃

this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2025
33 points (100.0% liked)

European Graphic Novels++

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