The main character in my graphic novel, Salt Green Death (Conundrum Press, 2025), is Joseph O’Dwyer.  My book is a true story centred on a Joseph’s patient records of his treatments for schizophrenia between 1948 – 1963.  Joseph’s story and family saga is based on 21 years of research.

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TODAY’S SAMPLE PAGE:

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On this particular SAMPLE PAGE (chapter 12 title page), the six panels show my various go-to drawing styles to convey emotion and visual information:

1. In the first panel on the top left, I use light and shadow to convey form.
2. On the top right panel, I use blind contour.
3. On the middle left panel, I use abstraction (or what one of my art teachers back in the day called “gesture drawing”). Here I found the form in pre-existing mark making.
4. In the middle right panel, I use negative space to find the form.
5. In the bottom left panel, I use deconstruction and reconstruction. I draw the image, cut it up, and collage it back together, and then redraw the collaged product.
6. And then in the bottom right panel, I use realism.

These are ways that I tend to draw, tools that I’ve used for a long time, and they really help me engage deeper in mark making and conveying what I want to try to express on a page. And what are those numbers? You will have to discover that for yourself!

NOTE: I will be at the Vancouver Art Book Fair at the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre signing books at the Conundrum Press table this weekend!

The Fair runs July 4 – 6. Friday 5 – 9 PM, Saturday 11 AM – 6 PM and Sunday 11 – 5 PM.

On Friday, I’ll be popping in for a couple of hours in the evening. On Saturday, I’ll be there in the afternoon for a couple of hours signing books. And then on Sunday, I will be there for the FULL day at the Conundrum Press Table from 11 AM to 5 PM.

Please come and say hello!

When I am signing, and while supplies last, I will have a special giveaway – a limited edition broadsheet: josephtheprologue.ca – when I sign your copy of my book!