So it's been a bit between posts. For the two people reading my blog, I've probably lost them. :P

Well, I've maintained some output in my self-imposed sabbatical. I have sort of been creating one comic a week, but some I can't really show. What I will share is some development of The List. I've done this for the List website which needs some content inbetween volume launches. ;)

I'll also be making some changes to the layout of this blog. At least the banner. Probably work on a welcome picture for my DA Portfolio which has been set up recently. It's a new feature of DA, which I welcome. I don't think it's any real substitute for creating your own portfolio site, but it's better than the nothing I had. 

The List Process.


 
Here are the thumbnails of the first few of pages. What I do is I open the script in Word, and then I print it out the script so you get 2 pages on a single page. I work directly on the scripted page. It saves paper, and I don’t have to flip between pages. Also, doing more than one thumbnail on a page helps with the storytelling relationship between the pages, and makes it more cohesive overall.



Nifty fact #1: I work in traditional media, even though I am reasonably good in digital (I paint in digital though, but the main work is done on paper first). It feels better, and with art, that is what I usually go for. For me, the result doesn’t matter as much as the process. Somehow, it always works out with producing the results in the end. :P

You might notice the thumbnails are pretty weird. Thumbnails are meant to convey layout only. I used to do more detailed ones when I started working with Paul, but that was more the fact that we haven’t worked together before, so putting more detail in was a way to get across what I was doing visually to Paul. The script writing probably changed as he got more familiar with my work. 
Now, thumbnails are purely for organising what Paul has written in the script into a storytelling format, and design purposes. It’s a planning stage. I figure, that if you put too much detail into the thumbnails, you might as well be doing the finished page.  

Nifty fact #2: Oh, and the lame offhand comments written on the thumbnails are there for my own interest/amusement. :D

Page 3 is a finished page. I pencil fairly sparsely typically, because I’m used to inking my own work, and I do all my detail in that stage. But as of the last volume, I am working with Tom Bonin. Working with an inker changed my pencilling process somewhat. I had to put all the detail, as well as pencil the entire page. What I used to do was pencil the foreground and ink it, and then do the background objects in layered order. Now it’s all done at once. It feels weird doing what every other conventional penciller does.

I’ve also included a close up of my pencils. I’ve sharpened it up in Photoshop a bit to make it more crisp for intertrons viewing. As Tom is inking this, I usually leave the scans unaltered. He’ll then use whatever process he has to transfer it to paper.
Tom would probably have his own preferences on how he wants to reproduce copies of my pages to ink, and therefore altering my pencils post-scanning would just end up being a pain in the arse for Tom. 

Page four has been scanned prior to its completion just to further show how I work pencilling. If you take a look at the thumbnails for this page, the layout is roughly the same. But you still have to transfer it to a page. In this stage I chose the main things to draw and position them roughly how I want them to appear on the final page. I then adjust the layout slightly to accommodate. Thumbnails are a good indication of how the page should work, but it is by no means final. Layout is an art in itself, so my advice to anyone doing comics is to treat it with care.
Working on paper on the physical page also visually helps with composition. It’s hard for this to be replicated in a digital canvas for some reason (zooming out is not the same as standing back), so I can’t imagine myself working entirely on a computer.

Nifty fact #3: The List is a sausage-fest. Even as heavily silhouetted, as this female character is, I’ll draw the detail in, if only for the fact that it’ll be a while until another chick is in this damn script. :P


Cheers

Henry

Despite all evidence to the contrary, I have been progressing with One Comic A Week, albeit in a different form. Over the last 2 weeks I've been working poster-size on the cover to my 24 hour comic, which is now called Incunabula. It took ages to do all the cross-hatching detail, and even half-way through it didn't look like it was forming well, but that's the nature of working creatively. Thankfully, I think it turned out rather decent. I used nibs, ink and a pen brush. Here's a draft of the cover.

Aside from cover, I have also been planning the story to Incunabula as well as another project I've called Quorum. While I intend for Incunabula to be a fairly short 20-30 pages story, I want Quorum to be a significantly longer story. Indeed I want it to be Novel length 100+ pages. I've done the outlines to the scenes for the story and it's starting to take shape before my eyes.

I also created a poster for Quorum. I wanted a retro circa 60s feel to it, and I think I achieved it. I used a different medium for this though. I used a Pentel Aquash disposable brush ink pen. It’s distinguishable from other brush pens like Copic’s or Windsor & Newton’s as it has bristles, and you can refill it. It’s not to the same standard as a really good brush and it has a habit of forming large globules of ink on the bristles if you do only fine lines and not use the whole brush (scrap paper to wipe off excess essential to using this!), but on the whole I am liking it.

I even used the brush pen to do all the lettering for the logos in the images. That's right; all this shit is hand-written.

I did the Quorum poster in all of 20 minutes. I like the way the folds in the cloths are rendered with the brush. I’m still uncomfortable with the loss of detail as I am a detail junkie with my nibs, but I’m getting line work similar to other brush users I admire (Meredith Gran, Craig Thompson, Jeff Smith, et cetera). I’ll be planning on using a brush entirely or at least for the figures for Quorum.

-Henry