Recently, I’ve been writing a book on the train.  It feels good to be creating something purely textual; I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve done something that’s not in some way image-driven.  But, before I was working on this book, I had been doing movie still sketches on the train in the evenings – which I think I’ll get back to once this draft of the book is done. I drew them straight in ink, and it was a good practice in overcoming my hesitation and preciousness when drawing (although I still have a very long way to go to overcome this instinct). I got an iPod Nano last year and I basically use it as a white noise machine to drown other people’s over-loud headphones on the train.  (Go here to download some invaluable white noise tracks for your portable listening device. Great for sleeping or working – like Sigur Ros without the music.)  But I started putting movies on it and when you pause them on that tiny screen in really simplifies the images and deconstructs the composition for you immediately.  It’s a great education for comics artists who think in panels. Here are a few sketches I did from Hal Hartley’s spy thriller Fay Grim.