Four AM
This came out of some of my experimentations with artwork that provided multiple views of a scene, almost like comic panels. Some of the work I did during this period offered obvious progressions: panel 1 has a room with a bookshelf, panel 2 zooms in on the bookshelf, panel 3 focuses on a book, etc. In other drawings, though, the relationships weren’t so obvious.
I like this looser approach because I think it offers more room for imagination. These three panels could each stand on their own as drawings, but the fact that they’re placed together suggests some underlying story. Rather than just observing the scenes for what they are - city, bottles, desolate-looking guy - viewers will assume there’s a meaning, try to figure out what it is, and probably come up with a story far more interesting and complex than I could have thought of. Is the guy drunk? Hungover? Suicidal? Who knows?
To be honest, I didn’t have a story in mind when I drew this. The most personal panel here is the last one, where I was trying to capture some of the weariness of being awake late at night, too tired to do anything besides stare at the nearest bright object. Hence the title.