I have to restart this. Something weird happened to the old post, everything came up as white bars.
About two posts ago I mentioned something about taking your time. I still believe that's entirely true, but I've also noticed the opposite problem. That being time itself.I never realized I was such a social creature until I tried drawing on a schedule. Well, that's note entirely true. I didn't have a schedule. So I guess this post will be more about planning. Planning was never my strong suit, it's caused me more grief than I can adequately put to words.
Right now I'm working on a prologue story. It's going to be five pages long, two of which are done (except for colouring). I started this particular story when I was in my comic book class and blew through the homework (that was the two finished pages) without an issue. The inking took two days, the pencils, if I'd done it all at once, would have taken me a day, and the trouble I found I had was with the placement of word bubbles (you'd be surprised how irritating those things are). And that only took me a few hours to figure out and fix, the problems wont present themselves in my future works. I figured I'd blow through the remaining three pages no problem.
But here's the thing. My time isn't like class time. Nobody's riding me to finish on my time. I should have seen that coming, but I didn't, so I didn't put anything solid down. I figured I'd do it, no problem. I seriously didn't know I was out of the house so often. That and the $1500 dollar prize for a t-shirt contest took my attention, but I worked on that while I wasn't able to work on the pages for the most part.
Now I'm strapping down. The first prologue short will be done in two weeks. I don't have plans, it'll get done. Assuming I don't have to rewrite these posts anymore.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Friday, July 13, 2012
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Previously On
I figured I should start talking, so lets talk. I'd learned quite a few things about making a comic prior to starting this blog. I've known this is what I'm going to do since I started high school, and it's the one area of study I've been able to excel at. I've picked up many many books on how to draw comics, learned a thing or two about putting them together, and recently picked up a few useful tools for printing them.
First off, for anyone who's used to working on, say, Deviantart, and assumes shrinking the image down to print size will work for a printed physical copy. It doesn't. Well, not alone. My current scanned scans at 300 DPI automatically, so I'd imagine other modern scanners would too, but my older one, the one I scanned and worked on a pair of pages for one of the prologue stories, scanned in at around 72 DPI. Which looks fine, on a computer. Once you print it, though, it's pixelated to all hell. You want to do at least 300 DPI if you plan on printing your work.
Second, and I find this incredibly important. I went to a class with a bunch of people who couldn't draw, and one who could. When I looked at the people who couldn't draw, I noticed something. Most of them were very opposed to doing thumbnails. Thumbnails are little preview sketches of the final product, for those not in the know. And because they were so opposed to it they simply didn't do well. They could get the layout and the poses right but they were limiting themselves on what they could do because they wanted to work fast, not smart. Take your time and the pages look fantastic.
Third, solidify your line work. I ink with a tablet on Photoshop, and recently I started inking a character design I started ages ago. But I liked the design and I threw it in to fix up. Something that's changed for me since I drew it was that my lines have gotten a lot more solid. Trying to ink that older character was a nightmare. In pencils it looked fine, it just looked like someone was sketching things out, a little messy but hardly noticeable. In ink you noticed every stray strand. I work on a tablet, so maybe zooming in might have been the problem, and if you're a talented inker as well as a penciller you can work on you own stuff just fine. But having solid lines, especially if you're sending it away to get inked, is incredibly helpful.
Well, that's all for today. I should have aforementioned character pic up tonight, assuming the shelves I'm installing don't fight me.
First off, for anyone who's used to working on, say, Deviantart, and assumes shrinking the image down to print size will work for a printed physical copy. It doesn't. Well, not alone. My current scanned scans at 300 DPI automatically, so I'd imagine other modern scanners would too, but my older one, the one I scanned and worked on a pair of pages for one of the prologue stories, scanned in at around 72 DPI. Which looks fine, on a computer. Once you print it, though, it's pixelated to all hell. You want to do at least 300 DPI if you plan on printing your work.
Second, and I find this incredibly important. I went to a class with a bunch of people who couldn't draw, and one who could. When I looked at the people who couldn't draw, I noticed something. Most of them were very opposed to doing thumbnails. Thumbnails are little preview sketches of the final product, for those not in the know. And because they were so opposed to it they simply didn't do well. They could get the layout and the poses right but they were limiting themselves on what they could do because they wanted to work fast, not smart. Take your time and the pages look fantastic.
Third, solidify your line work. I ink with a tablet on Photoshop, and recently I started inking a character design I started ages ago. But I liked the design and I threw it in to fix up. Something that's changed for me since I drew it was that my lines have gotten a lot more solid. Trying to ink that older character was a nightmare. In pencils it looked fine, it just looked like someone was sketching things out, a little messy but hardly noticeable. In ink you noticed every stray strand. I work on a tablet, so maybe zooming in might have been the problem, and if you're a talented inker as well as a penciller you can work on you own stuff just fine. But having solid lines, especially if you're sending it away to get inked, is incredibly helpful.
Well, that's all for today. I should have aforementioned character pic up tonight, assuming the shelves I'm installing don't fight me.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Building a Comic
Here's the idea. I'm making a comic. It's going to be available online, maybe print if I manage to stumble into it, but so far it's solely going to be offered through digital distribution. I have a website for it, which is currently going through construction as I try and put some form of tangible preview up. You can view it here if you so desire, get the basic idea of the universe I want to make, but right now it's pretty bare. The quick and simple goes thus: A psychiatric hospital in a super hero universe actually manages to reform their wards. The universe expands from there.
Anyway, the point of this blog. I'm stumbling in the dark here, so I figured I'd bring you along for the ride. While I'm figuring things out and making my way forward with this project I'll keep updating this blog.
Right now the plan is to get some actual content on the website itself, namely characters and prologue stories that consist of semi-self contained stories, to help get a better view of the world and the characters you're going to be reading about.
The story is pretty much settled, I just need to write the script. I have a few prologue stories written, one that's half drawn (You can see a page at the website, under Preview). I recently finished a comic book class that filled in quite a few gaps in my knowledge, and moving forward I plan to start a Kickstarter to fill in the gaps in my funding. After a few prologue stories are out there, of course. Have to let people know what they're paying for.
So, as I stumble in the dark, enjoy. I'll laugh, I'll cry, I'll curse, presumably. At the end of it you'll have watched me drag something kicking and screaming into existence. Or fail miserably, whichever works.
Anyway, the point of this blog. I'm stumbling in the dark here, so I figured I'd bring you along for the ride. While I'm figuring things out and making my way forward with this project I'll keep updating this blog.
Right now the plan is to get some actual content on the website itself, namely characters and prologue stories that consist of semi-self contained stories, to help get a better view of the world and the characters you're going to be reading about.
The story is pretty much settled, I just need to write the script. I have a few prologue stories written, one that's half drawn (You can see a page at the website, under Preview). I recently finished a comic book class that filled in quite a few gaps in my knowledge, and moving forward I plan to start a Kickstarter to fill in the gaps in my funding. After a few prologue stories are out there, of course. Have to let people know what they're paying for.
So, as I stumble in the dark, enjoy. I'll laugh, I'll cry, I'll curse, presumably. At the end of it you'll have watched me drag something kicking and screaming into existence. Or fail miserably, whichever works.
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