So basically,
Breaking Bad is one of the best shows on TV right now. With it and Mad Men, AMC is getting to be some serious competition with HBO in terms of drama programming. The performances, writing, cinematography of Breaking Bad-all fantastic across the board.
With the sketches, I wanted to really portray Walt's double life and the precarious balance between his role as a crystal meth "manufacturer" and a father and husband. So I chose the smoke to the kind of envelope parts of his life, maybe taking them away from him.
I went with the bottom sketch, but decided to make his expression reflect his exasperation about this choice he's made. I also needed to liven up the emptier spaces, so I threw some of the beakers he uses to cook with in the foreground and some small birds, most likely vultures, in the upper left corner.
I wanted a nice, sort of creepy color palette that would be reminiscent of the style of the show, heavy on greens and yellows.
I kept the darkest line on wall to draw all of the focus to Walt and his kind of amazing face, wrinkled and cracked, but still really expressive. I moved the birds around a bit from the final drawing and added another.
I'm very pleased with how it turned out. And if you've never watched Breaking Bad, I highly recommend it.
--CKL--
