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| Page in progress at my desk |
The way I
create comics can differ from the more conventional means, especially compared
to mainstream comics. Usually there is a
separate writer, penciler, inker, letterer, and colorist. I have
in the past, worked like that, usually as an artist, or an inker. But for the most part, I work on my own comics
as a one-man-army, and complete all these steps myself. It allows me to work dynamically and freely
between, the writing and drawing process.
I wanted to
show everyone, my personal method for bringing a comic book from initial
concept to the finished page. I get
questions about it at comic conventions sometimes so I thought I would go into
detail about how I get the work done in a manner that makes the most sense to
me.
When I come
up with an idea for a comic, it is usually a pretty broad stroke of an
idea. It can start by listening to a
song, or even from one line of cool dialogue that a character might say, but in
the end, it is pretty general. When I
was in community college, I took painting classes with
Mary Hardy. One of the first lessons we learned about was
the
underpainting. An underpainting is the first layer of a painting
that sets the color palette, tone, and/or mood for your painting. It can be representational, or abstract. It doesn’t really matter, as it is going to
be painted on top of anyway. However,
the details in the painting, don't exist in the underpainting. What is there is the broadest stroke of the
piece. When the painting is finished, you don't necessarily see the underpainting, but the viewer can feel it's presence.
I work on my stories the same
way. I start with the most general of
concept first. Then I fill in the rest
of the details afterward.
For this
article about my process, I will be using The War for Kaleb Part 3, page 3 as my example for the most part. There is nothing spoilery in it so it won't give anything away. I’ll also start by giving a
general breakdown of the process, and then go into detail about each one:
- Initial Concept, and Idea
- Break Down of Scenes
- Thumbnails of all Pages
- Roughing and Writing Pages
- Penciling
- Lettering
- Inking
- Cleanups
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| Sketch page of dialogue ideas |
First, I
need a concept, and idea. Most of my
ideas come to me easier if I’m doing something that doesn’t use much brain
power, such as walking, working out, or even driving. The more automatic the activity, the easier
it is for my mind to go wild. Using this
method can make the images, and sometimes entire scenes play out in my head
like a movie. I like to visualize the
ideas in this manner because they conceptualize in a more complete way. It allows me to pick and choose the moments
in the form of a comic book easier. Also
throughout the entire process, I’m not married to any ideas, or
structures. I can change anything, and
any given moment. If I want, I will
Special Edition the shit out of my stories!
Before the work
of the final pages begins, I like to break down the scenes in a book, in its
entirety. I’m not much for the
serialization of a story. I like to know
exactly where I’m going with a story before I start it. The biggest rules are, it needs an absolute
beginning, and an absolute end. Once I
have those, I just need to figure out what transpires in between. Basically, I will figure out, how many books the story will be, and how many pages in each book. When I have that I evaluate the book by scenes. The scenes are then broken down in groups of
pages, to equal the total page count of the given book. I basically just guess how many pages would
be sufficient to tell the story of the given scenes.
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| Scene Breakdown from TWFK #2 |
Keep in
mind, at this point I have not done any writing yet. I may have jotted down some scenes, and even
some catchy dialogue, but nothing fully fleshed out. I want to keep this portion of the creative
process as basic as possible. Remember,
broad strokes at this point. This is the
underpainting. Right now I want to
create the moments of my book. By doing
this, I’m cutting the fat of a story, and what is left, are the interesting
parts. What I mean exactly by this, is I
want to break down the story in total of pages for a book, and then the pages
broken down into the important scenes that need to happen.
George Lucas always thought of his stories as
a series of memorable moments. When you
do this, the audience is left with nothing but a retrospective of iconic
moments, which are not easily forgotten.
Working like
this also gives me a definitive space to work in so my story does not go off
the rails, or lose focus. I like there
to be a purpose to a story. If you think
of the way people talk to each other, particularly telling someone a story,
they will usually keep to the point and focus on the point in their story that
matter (unless it one of those friends that likes to ramble). When this is done, the listener is engaged,
and wanting to know what happens in their friend’s story. When my stories have a set amount of pages,
and/ or parts, then I can make a much more purposeful, and focused story. Some may think this denies them of freedom,
which is fair, but personally I like there to be a destination. When disregarding a destination, a story can then fall victim to becoming convoluted and its meat being
nothing but filler.
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| Thumbnails for The War for Kaleb #2 |
The next
step in the process is the thumbnails. I
will do the thumbnails on an 8 ½” x 11”
piece of typing paper. Then I layout
the paper to fit as many tiny boxes that represent the pages as possible,
without getting to small. The importance
of the thumbnails, is due to their size.
My thumbnails are pretty small.
It allows me to work on the layouts without inhibiting me from the
overwhelming task of laying out the pages.
From here, I can now draw what the pages are going to look like scene by
scene. You can see in the example (from
The War for Kaleb Part 2), that it is kind of hard for someone to make out what
is happening there. As long as I can understand what is happening on those thumbnails, alls good in the
hood.
Once all of
the thumbnails are down, I begin work on the roughs, along with the
writing. Here is where my methods can be
a bit different. Usually, a comic is
written in the same fashion as that of a movie script. The scenes are set up, characters have their
respected dialogue, and the shots or panels are described for the artist’s
interpretation. I write alongside of the
drawing of the roughs. When I bring
dialogue into the mix, I want it to be as free formed as possible, almost as if
it is happening in real time. By doing
this, I can have the actions of the characters play off the writing, or vice
versa. I feel it creates this dynamic
interaction between the characters, and the worlds they inhabit, as if the writing is unfolding before me.
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| Roughs for The War fo Kaleb #3, pg. 3 |
The roughs,
are done on the 8 ½” x 11” typing paper
just the same as the thumbnails. They
take up the entire page, just like the original artwork on the final pages
will. The drawings are generally very loose,
as I personally don’t like spending too much time on things that I don’t need
to. I like to get the general idea and
energy, and move on. Any changes can be
made here, or in the final pages.
Sometimes, going with the gut, works really well, while fine tuning it
along the way. Now with all of the leg
work out of the way, I can get down to the fun part:
The Final Pages!
Penciling
the pages can be the most challenging portion of the process for me. During this stage, I have to turn a blank
piece of paper into something engaging, and meaningful using the vast
knowledge, and tools at my disposal, from the years, of practice, training, and
education of my craft. No pressure. It’s okay, though, as I have a philosophy
behind this that I will explain later.
For now, it’s
time to work!
A common
misconception about the original artwork of comics is that it is done on the
same size paper the comic is actually printed on, while in reality it is
significantly larger. The paper
traditionally used is an 11” x 17”
Bristol Board. I use a classic 10”x15” image area for my panels. This is what was used in the old days, like
with Wally Wood, and Jack Kirby. You can
use whatever you like for your image area, as long as you stay within what are known as “Safe
Zones” which is usually designated by non-photo blue lines on the paper. I’m not really going to go into the non-photo
blue lines with bleeds, and word balloons in this article. Basically there are non-photo blue lines, and
their authority demands respect! (I
personally use the reverse side of the paper, because I think the blue lines
detract from the original art, and I’m a rebel!)
The first
thing I do, is lay out the panels of the respected page in pencil. Once done, I begin to layout and draw the
main characters that are talking in the scenes.
I do this with the thought in mind that I will still need to put down my
lettering, which I also do by hand.
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| Penciled page, TWFK #3, pg. 3 |
To step back
for a second, one thing to keep in mind is that everything I do for the most
part is done by hand, meaning, minimal computer work. The only computer work involved is pretty
much dedicated to cleanups, lettering corrections, color work, and formatting
for printing. I’ve always liked the philosophy
that the artwork the reader sees in the book should represent the original art
as much as possible, and for me, this includes the lettering. To me, a piece of comic art doesn’t look
right without the word balloons, and captions in it. Again, this is only my personal feelings on
the matter.
As for my
tools, I use a pretty hard lead for my pencil work, which is a 2H.
I like the harder leads because it keeps the smearing down, and pencils
less messy. The drawbacks of this are
the fact that if you’re not careful, you can end up creating groves in the
paper if you draw to hard. Also hard
leads usually mean lighter tones in the drawing. For me, that isn’t a big deal since I will be
inking my own drawings and I have enough confidence in my inking to know what I
was going for in the first place. But if
someone else is inking, it could lead to confusion on what the penciler’s
intentions were. Just something to keep
in mind.
Earlier I spoke about how I'm not married to anything that I do. If you look at the roughs, and then the penciled versions of the example page, you will notice that the first panel is different in each. I basically decided that instead of having the characters meet, and walk into the coffee shop, I would have an establishing shot of the coffee shop with the characters inside already. I felt it worked better for the pacing.
When I get
the main drawing down on the page, I can start working on the lettering. The drawing thus far is really just light
drawing and nothing too terribly detailed yet.
If I put down too much it is going to make the lettering portion of the
work get a bit messy, and hard to deal with.
To letter, I
use what is called an Ames Lettering
Guide, which is an old school tool used to lay down lines for various types
of lettering on a piece of paper. I set
my guide to a “3” which to some
might be a bit small, but I’m not sure.
I think the traditional size is a 3.5. I lay down the lines with the same 2H pencil
I use to draw with. Once the lines are
all down on the paper, I go ahead and letter the dialogue and captions on the
page.
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| Ames Lettering Guide |
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| Close up or Ames Guide Setting |
Sometimes, I
will make last minute changes to the script, if I need to during the lettering
phase. Since the first draft was written
back in the roughs, it allows time for the original dialogue to set in my mind
and look at it again with fresh eyes.
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| Panel in Progress with Lettering |
After the
penciling for the lettering is completed, I will draw the balloons around the
dialogue with pencil. I then ink the
lettering. I like to ink my lettering
with a Staedtler Mars Matic 0.5
technical pen. For bolder words, I will
use a 0.7. During this stage, I stick to just inking the
letters, and NOT the word balloons themselves.
This way the drawing can be altered if anything is getting in the way of
the balloons, or vice versa.
Now that the
lettering is done and inked, I can focus on the drawing. Not much going on here, other than barreling
through creating the artwork. Some of
the things I like to keep in mind are really just simple fundamentals, such as:
- Perspective: I like to find the perspective before I add
characters in the space. Without this
grid, I can end up with characters, floating in space or not being in the same
plane.
- Angles
and distance of shots: I try to get
a variety of angles, and distances from the camera. Nothing too crazy unless the action of the
scene demands it. If it just a couple of
people talking, there is no need for crazy angles.
- Paying
attention to expressions and gestures:
This one is very important. I
always think to myself “How would I act in the situation, given the subject
matter?” If I have to I will get up off
my butt, and literally act a scene out.
- Give
attention to the backgrounds:
Sometimes we, as humans, get wrapped up in what is going on in our
little lives that we forget about the vast world around us. Just because the story is about my main
characters, doesn’t mean the world around them stops. I always give extra love and care, to my
setting, and the people interacting with them.
It helps bring the fictional world to life. It is a lot of work, but well worth it in the
end.
Layouts,
penciling, and lettering are done, now it is time to ink.
For the
inking, I have used pretty much exclusively a brush. My favorite brush, and the one I have used
for The War for Kaleb, is a Raphael Kolinsky, Red Sable Hair Brush No.
2. For my brushwork, I ALWAYS go for
genuine hair brushes. They are a bit
more expensive, but they last a long time, are of great quality, and get the
best results in the drawing. The brands
of ink I have used in the past have been, Speedball
Super Black, Windsor and Newton Indian Ink, and most recently Deleter Black No. 4. I suggest playing around with different inks,
but I’m really digging the Deleter. It
works great with a brush or a crow quill, stays solid black, and won’t bleed
using alcohol based markers on top.
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| TWFK #3 pg. 3 Finished Inks |
After the
inking is done, I have to clean up the page, and erase the pencil lines. For erasing, I use a
Factis Extra Soft Plastic Eraser.
These are real nice, because of how soft they are, they don’t pull up
the ink as much, and fade the blacks like a harder plastic eraser.
Once the
pencils have been erased, I will go back and make as many corrections as I can
with a whiteout called Pro White. This is a nice opaque white out that can be
thinned and applied with a brush. When
it dries, I can also draw back on top of it if I need too. What’s fun though, is it can be used as a
tool as well to draw on top of black, to make cool effects.
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| Some of my most used tools |
One thing
that I get asked a lot as well, especially when someone is looking at the
original artwork, is “how long does a page take to draw?” Without the preliminary work (concept,
thumbs, roughs, and writing) it will take me about
9-12 hours, give or take, to
complete a page of comics from start to finish.
For a
24 page comic, this is roughly
300+ hours of work. That being said, it is the most rewarding
work I can do for myself.
The last
part of my process is something a little more meta. Drawing comics is the hardest thing I’ve ever
done in my life. It tugs at me no matter
how many of these pages I complete. I’m
my own worst critic, and that is okay.
When I’m working, I am constantly making mistakes. I try to not let it get to me, as these
drawing aren’t sacred. That doesn’t mean
I brush them off though. I pay attention
to the mistakes, more so than the things I do right. In the mistakes are the answers to becoming
better at what I do. I acknowledge the
mistake, and I move on. Every single
drawing that I do, and will ever do, there will be something that could have
been done better. I find that thing, I
put it my pocket, and I keep it in mind for the next time.
The
acknowledgement of the mistakes in our art is more important than the fact
those mistakes exist in the first place.
"We all have 10,000 bad drawings in us. The sooner we get them out the better."
-Walt Stanchfield
