Ink In the Gutter

The Making of Our Comic "Justine" pt. 3a

2012-01-26T21:32:00.000-08:00

I said I’d post some thumbnails and pencils of Justine and who delivers on her word? …three months later. Sorry about that.

Anyways, in continuation from Pt. 1 and Pt. 2, below are the thumbs and such for page one along with its respective page from the script. (Page four and page ten are posted separately below). Comparing the text to the art, you can see how things changed and moved around and were interpreted in different (but wonderful) ways than what I’d envisioned.

This was our first time collaborating on a comic, so we learned a lot along the way. For Justine, I didn’t send Jose my own thumbnails along with the script like I’ve been doing for this project. Then we learned how nit-picky (especially when it came to designing lead characters) I could be. Thus, our current process was born saving us a lot of back and forth about little things.

I’ll let the sketches and drawings speak for themselves since—well, they are images. Also, I didn’t draw them so there’s not a lot I can say about the thought process behind them.

Le Script

PAGE ONE(7 Panels)

PANEL ONE

A white puff of breath on the cold night air.

CAPTION: Few know the true scent of a werewolf.

PANEL TWO

The thin, glowing moon peeks out between the clouds.

CAPTION: What lies beneath the reek of blood and death on their breath--

PANEL THREE

The rusting metal bars and chains of a swing set seem to give off a chill.

CAPTION: --or beyond the odor of aggression and anger– yes, those have a smell too.

PANEL FOUR

A pair of petite feet in white winter boots and white tights walk over a sidewalk whose many cracks are over grown with weeds.

CAPTION: But once you know, it’s a stench so pungent you’ll recognize it from miles away.

PANEL FIVE

A girl in her late teens walks past a crumbing wall that’s immersed in shadows. A medium-close sort of shot that starts just below her nose and cuts off maybe around her elbows which stick out slightly because her hands are in her pockets. In the shadows behind her, a pair of red eyes glow and the glint of the moon hits a sharp fang wet with saliva. We’re maybe able to see the faintest outline of the monstrous face hidden in the shadow.

CAPTION: The young ones especially don’t know the scent.

PANEL SIX

Front view of the girl reacting with surprise to an unseen voice.

VOICE (O.P): Hey, little girl, you shouldn’t be out by yourself this time of night.

PANEL SEVEN

The girl relaxes and smiles nervously. Same front view of her, but this time there’s a shadow behind her moving away from the wall.

GIRL: I couldn’t sleep.

Thumbnails

Pencil Layout

Black/White Comp

Color Comp
(with out limited color palette, the difference between the color and b/w comps is subtle on this page. Can you spot it?)

Final Pencil Comp

Inking

Final Page

Hey, since you’re already here, check out page four and page ten too! To read the story in its entirety click here.

The Making of Our Comic "Justine" pt. 3b

2012-01-26T21:30:00.000-08:00

Making of PAGE FOUR starts below:

I said I’d post some thumbnails and pencils of Justine and who delivers on her word? …three months later. Sorry about that.

Anyways, in continuation from Pt. 1 and Pt. 2, below are the thumbs and such for page four (my favorite page!) along with its respective page from the script. (Page one and page ten are posted separately). Comparing the text to the art, you can see how things changed and moved around and were interpreted in different (but wonderful) ways than what I’d envisioned.

I’ll let the sketches and drawings speak for themselves since—well, they are images. Also, I didn’t draw them so there’s not a lot I can say about the thought process behind them.

Le Script

PAGE FOUR(10 Panels)

PANEL ONE

The girl drags her heels in the sand to stop. She looks at him seriously.

SFX HER FEET (small): shrrrr

GIRL (Off Panel): Okay...

PANEL TWO

Medium-close on girl. No longer swinging, she holds onto the chains of the swing in both hands and looks at him seriously.

GIRL: I’ll tell you about monsters then.

PANEL THREE

He watches her as she talks.

GIRL: Some are small and creeping. Some are huge and roaring. But there’s one living inside of every one of us.

PANEL FOUR

She looks down at her stomach and grabs a fist full of her coat.

GIRL: Mine screams to be released every night, but I hold it in. You know why?

PANEL FIVE

Close on girl’s face. She gives him a severe look.

GIRL: Ahem.

GIRL: You know why?

PANEL SIX

Close on man’s face. He rolls his eyes again.

MAN: Why?

PANEL SEVEN

She jumps to her feet deeply convicted by her own words. She stares forward over the mass of riveted listeners who aren’t there.

GIRL: Because we all have the choice to control the monster or let the monster control us and if we let the monster have control, then that’s what we become! Monsters!

PANEL EIGHT

Close on girls face.

GIRL: Do you know what I mean, Mister No-Name?

MAN (O.P.): Heh heh.

PANEL NINE

The man falls off the swing doubled over with laughter. She turns to look at him.

GIRL: Why are you laughing, mister?

MAN: A-HA HA HA HA HA!!

PANEL TEN

Close on man’s face. His expression changes from amusement to pain, as he clutches himself.

MAN (moaning): Ah... Ugh! Uh!

GIRL (O.P): Mister?

Thumbnails

Pencil Layout

Black/White Comp

Color Comp

Final Pencil Comp

Inking

Final Page

Hey, since you’re already here, check out page one and page ten too! To read the story in its entirety click here.

The Making of Our Comic "Justine" pt. 3c

2012-01-26T20:37:00.000-08:00

Making of PAGE TEN starts below:

I said I’d post some thumbnails and pencils of Justine and who delivers on her word? …three months later. Sorry about that.

Anyways, in continuation from Pt. 1 and Pt. 2, below are the thumbs and such for page ten (my other favorite page) along with its respective page from the script. (Page one and page four are posted separately). Comparing the text to the art, you can see how things changed and moved around and were interpreted in different (but wonderful) ways than what I’d envisioned.

I’ll let the sketches and drawings speak for themselves since—well, they are images. Also, I didn’t draw them so there’s not a lot I can say about the thought process behind them.

Le Script

PAGE TEN(6 Panels)

PANEL ONE

She’s a blur of motion again as she slips between the bars below the monster’s perch.

PANEL TWO

She stands with her back to him, sadly resigned. She reaches inside her coat. Her figure is about half cutoff by the left-hand side of the panel.

JUSTINE: Fine

PANEL THREE

He springs off the monkey bars and at her. It would be really cool if his figure extended past the border of his panel at the top and also into panel two (where Justine would be standing with her back to him.)

PANEL FOUR

This sits in the lower, right-hand corner of the previous panel. Close of Justine’s hand as she begins to pull a dagger from its sheath inside her coat, revealing an inch or so of the gleaming silver blade.

PANEL FIVE

Close on the monster’s face as his eyes widen with awareness and fear, but it’s too late. The momentum will bring him down.

PANEL SIX

He lands against Justine’s back. The expression on his face changes from fear to immense pain. His body convulses.

MONSTER: UUUGH!

Thumbnails

Pencil Layout

Black/White Comp

Color Comp

Final Pencil Comp

Inking

Final Page

Hey, since you’re already here, check out page one and page four too! To read the story in its entirety click here.

Progress report next post! Which I’m willing to believe will happen sooner than three months from now.

The Making of Our Comic "Justine" pt. 2

2011-10-30T16:14:00.000-07:00

(Quick sidebar: I posted a list of some good time Halloween comics reading of at that other blog I keep.)

To continue from the last post, here are some more sketches from the making of Justine starting with the character sketches for Honore. A minor character (his name is actually never said in the comic), this is who Jose started with when he began his character designs.

A lot of good ideas to start with, but the trench coat and sword together were a bit too Wesley-Snipes-as-Blade-ish so we decided to go with a leather motorcycle jacket instead:

Tis good to test out different facial expressions.

Jose's sketches for what our bad guy might look like were all so fabulous I had a hard time deciding which I liked best. Ultimately, we went with G. Jose thought he could do some cool stuff on the page with the longer hair.

But of course we have to have some wolfing out sketches.

You don't see much of the weapons in the story, but in case we did need to show them more, Jose would have been ready. These are some cool looking weapons and I wish I'd written in an opportunity for them to be shown off more. (But alas, I am a slave to the story and can't always have my way.)

Next time, I'll post some of the thumbnails and penciled pages.

The Making of Our Comic Justine pt. 1

2011-10-11T15:37:00.000-07:00

So I guess we took September off. Yep, that’s what it look likes. Sometimes one needs a hiatus and sometimes one (Jose) hits the busiest part of their busy season of being all artisty and stuff and needs to make some decisions when it comes to time management. And sometimes one (me) needs to stop writing/looking at/thinking about the story they’re working on so that they can return to it with fresh eyes and ideas.

So no updates on the current project, but Jose and I thought it would be cool to do a few posts on the making of our completed project Justine. Actually, tomorrow (or today, or yesterday or whenever the 12th is in relation to when you read this) is the one year mark exactly from when we first posted our minicomic, so it’s timely too. (Have you not read the minicomic? Click here)

Justine for me started way back in high school with a short story about a teenaged girl who is bitten by a werewolf. That story has evolved almost beyond recognition since that handwritten story. Justine has been through a lot since being bitten, and she went through quite a bit of changes as Jose and I figured out how collaborating on a comic works. When we first talked about making a comic together, we'd planned on doing a longer comic story, but somewhere along the line decided something short and uncomplicated would be the best thing for out first venture.

Enough reading! Here are a bunch of sketches from early to final that illustrate our back and forth of trying to pin down the right look for Justine. And in case you’re wondering, the character sketches and all the revisions are from July and August of 2009.

This was Jose's first pass. A good start, but I asked to see more sketches. I also wanted to go for a "natural" hair style. As a woman who travels the globe chasing after werewolves and fighting them to the death, I figured getting her hair straightened wouldn't be a priority (or practicality) for her.

From this page, we went with the third one of the second row.

In the script I described her as wearing a white jacket and read skirt. I think the next few sketches are self-explanatory.

Where to stash the weapons, a practical matter when it comes to wardrobe (I know this from personal experience) and I really liked the choices Jose made here. We lost the ankle and thigh knife holder thingies in the final design and I was sad to see them go.

After sitting on the choices we made earlier for a while, I thought it still wasn't quite right. So pulled out out a sketchbook and gave it a go.

Look at that swagger in the first sketch. Though Justine is a grown woman/werewolf, she looks very young and I wanted her clothing to reflect a more youthful look, somewhere between 16 and 18 years old, which is how she reels unsuspecting werewolves in. Since I recalled flipping through their print catalogues with friends when I was a teenager, I turned to Delia's online fashion catalogue for inspiration.

And here Jose polishes the design and makes them look acceptable for human viewing. He added even more personality to her in the final product and so she looks a bit different in the actual comic.

Ta-da! Color!

So that's how we came to the Justine we see in the comic today. We also learned that, since I already have ideas of what the characters look like, I should give Jose my sketches from the beginning and save him the time and energy of trying to read my mind since he already has so much to draw.

Next time, we'll look at the other characters. After that, I'll post the thumbnails and other fun stuff.

Navigating the Land of Researchia

2011-08-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

As I’ve mentioned before, a lot goes into the in-between steps of going from a tangle of notes to a nice, orderly script, and while I’ve touched on research in terms of character and costume design, equally important is researching settings. This isn’t true only for the part where you have to draw what your characters are standing in front of-slash-in-slash-around.

Working on chapters three and four, I was once again reminded how important knowing my scenery is to getting a scene written.

Parque Gulliver in Valencia, Spain.*

If I want my characters interacting with their environment, I can only write so much without having a good idea of what that environments looks like. Not a problem if the scene is set in modern-day America. I know about modern-day America. That’s totally where I live. The problem is that at no point is my story set in modern-day America. Or even yesteryear America.

Atlas Mountains, Morocco

Each chapter so far has required some whole new set of research, but chapters three and four have been especially challenging because the story takes us to a bunch different locations across the world. Whilst I’m enjoying learning about a lot of cool new stuff, the process is almost always either overwhelming because there’s too much information or frustrating because there’s just not enough.

A neighborhood in India's Cochin, Kerala

Specifically I need pictures, en lieu of actually being able to go out and visit these places (oh, how I wish I could jet off to other parts of the world on a whim). Even if it’s a really short scene that will only take up two pages of the entire project, I still need visual references when it comes time to block characters within any particular scene. ESPECIALLY action/fight sequences.

Bokor Hill Station in Phnom Bokor, Cambodia

Hunting down photos, trying to decide what will work best for the story, getting side-tracked by interesting but irrelevant slideshows…it’s time consuming to say the least. I can spend a whole afternoon “writing” and only have jotted for two lines of dialogue the whole time.

Sigh.

Next time I want to write a globetrotting supernatural tale set forty years in the past, someone stop me. Please.

Arial view of Parque Gulliver in Valencia, Spain.

* An important aspect of choosing a setting is to go for the more interesting locale. While it doesn’t need to be eccentric (unless that’s what the scene calls for) some places are just more interesting. When I originally wrote the last scene of chapter three, I’d set it in an office. But, is having an important decision made by a group of suited men sitting in a conference room really so original? I went in a different direction and thought to set it on a playground, and just in case playgrounds in Spain (where the scene takes place) are drastically different from playgrounds in America, I did a google search, and looky what I found! From conference room to a playground in the shape of a famous literary character. It does pays to go the extra mile, doesn't it?

Final Result

2011-08-02T07:53:00.000-07:00

After all the artwork has been completed the next step in the process is to add in the panel borders, lettering and word balloons. All of which is done digitally with Illustrator and Photoshop. This last step doesn't take too long since I'm using the computer as a tool.
Once everything is finished I'm left with a finished product ready to be printed or viewed through a monitor as you're doing right now.

Word Balloons ‘n’ Panels ‘n’ Stuff

2011-07-10T03:07:00.000-07:00

There is an important question writers must ask themselves. Possibly THE most important question a writer can ask herself: What can I get away with? That’s really what it comes down to, isn’t it? How far is the audience willing to stretch their suspension of disbelief? And if I need to push beyond that limit, what building blocks do I need to lay into my story to get my audience to go there with me?

But then writing for comics I find a whole new reason to ask myself “What can I get away with?”

I tend to want to cram as many words into a panel and as many panels on a page as humanly possible. (Think I was influenced by Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns, maybe?) I’ve read from various sources that comics creators should stick to no more than five or six panels per page. When it comes to speech bubbles, I’ve read Mark Waid say 20 words is the max, and I believe I’ve read that figure as 30 or 35 elsewhere (Don’t ask me where because I don’t remember...so you also don’t have to take my word for it). Usually, I keep those guidelines in mind and mange to restrain myself...

But there are exceptions to every rule.

For that reason, I am constantly running to my bookshelf and flipping open my graphic novels to count the number of words in especially wordy balloons or find examples of more than six panels on a page, trying to figure out what I can get away with. I find the above rules being broken all the time, but then I have to ask myself why did this writer or artist choose to break the rules here, and more importantly, do I have a good reason to do so?

I like to think I do, at least when it comes to putting so many panels on a page. It’s the grid, man. It’s all about THE GRID.

The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller is the graphic novel that got me all hot and bothered for comics. When I first started reading it, I found it confusing and chaotic, but I soon fell into the rhythm and beats of the story created by utilizing a 16-panel grid and it wasn’t just the story of The Dark Knight Returns that opened up to me, but the idea of comics as a unique and dynamic form of storytelling.

In Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s Watchmen, a 9-panel grid is used. What amazes me about this is that they really put so much in each panel. It’s not just closes up or silhouettes or a fractions of larger images (as is so skillfully done in the 16-panel grid for Dark Knight.) Though they’re small, Gibbon fits full-on action sequences into those panels, and/or a lot of talking.

With the grid comes the ability to exaggerate time, play with repetition and beats, to set images in juxtaposition to each other in columns and tiers and diagonally across the page; and when you break form – putting one big panel in the place of two or three or covering the whole page – there is no mistaking that there’s something significant about that panel. It’s not that you can’t do that with less panels on a page or going at it free-form, but for me, the grid pulls it together in a very immediate way even if I only use it for a few pages out of an entire story.

I know that as a newbie it’s dangerous to look at seasoned professionals breaking the rules and think that makes it alright to go wild and crazy, but I promise that’s not my intention. I just want to do what’s best for my story.

And sometimes that even means only putting 5-panels on a page.

Original Painting

2011-06-25T11:47:00.000-07:00

This is a preview/example of what the original pages look like before they get retouched digitally and all the panels boxes and lettering gets inserted. The size of these original sheets measure 15 by 22 inches which is larger than what is traditionally used (11 by 17 inches). I've come to realize that working larger gives me more freedom to create different brush textures and it saves your hand from cramping up trying to get all the small details when working on smaller panels. The idea for working large originally came from researching Nathan Fox work and realizing he works on 18 by 24 inch sheets for his comic work.
If you notice the panels on the left side of the page with the wolf are only inked in with black and aren't rendered like the other two panels. The reason behind this was to separate them from the other panels since they were going to overlap, which seems to have worked. They'll separate even more optically when the panel borders get inserted.
That's all for now, enjoy the preview!

Putting It All Together

2011-06-10T18:44:00.000-07:00

As a late-comer to comics (I didn’t get into them until towards the end of college), I make it a point to educate myself about as many of the different aspects of comics, especially – but not limited to – the making of. As they said on School House Rock, it’s great to learn, 'cause knowledge is power!

That song also says something about the mind growing flowers and it’s very weird and it’s best if you don’t stop to thinking about too long. Anyway…

I thought I’d share with you some of the comics how-to videos and articles (and stuff) I’ve found in recent weeks. Most of these are from some of people I’ve read in the past couple of months, but couple are things I come across in random articles and such.

The power is yours!

Writing:

Mark Waid: Writing 101 (blog post series) and 15 Minutes with Waid (podcast series, a bit tangential.)

Scottie Young: The Making of my Graphic Novel pt. 1 (video journal)

Penciling:

Kazu Kibuishi: Step-By-Step Process pt. 1

Inking:

Kazu Kibuishi: Step-By-Step Process pt. 2

Doug TenNapel: Making Comics with Doug TenNapel (video)

Coloring:

Alan Beadle: Flattening

Kazu Kibuishi: Step-By-Step Process pt. 3

Lettering:

Blambot: Hand Lettering Comics and Comic Book Grammar & Tradition

Scott McCloud: Lettering Comics in Illustrator (and part two) (video)

And covering many aspects:

Dave Kellett: How the Comic Strip “Sheldon” is Created (video)

Doug TenNapel: Making Digital Comics with Doug TenNapel (video)

Scott Young: To find more of his The Making of My Graphic Novel video journals, you kind of have to pick through his Youtube Channel or blog (start in July 2010) for the entries. Also, check out the posts “The Project Chronicles” as it seems the series started out as regular ol’ blog posts.

The digital age, eh? Information at your finger tips

Panel Progress

2011-05-20T13:57:00.000-07:00

This panel is in the mid-stage of development, currently in the ink wash phase. The next step would be to add in layers of black acrylic to darken the shadow areas more and create better contrast. One of the reasons I use acrylics over ink washes is because of its opacity in contrast to the ink wash which will always remain transparent. Acrylics also add in more texture which is easier to produce than with an ink wash.
That's it for now, enjoy!

Talkin' Comics at the L.A. Times Festival of Books

2011-05-04T15:47:00.000-07:00

I’m all about trying to increase my knowledge of all thing comics and graphic novels, so of course, this past weekend when I attended the L.A. Times Festival of Books, I was sure to attend the panels on graphic novels and comic books. Since I know what it is to search the Internet for whatever nuggets I can find on what goes into the creation of comics, I’m sharing some of what I learned this weekend with you.

Saturday Kazu Kibuishi, creator of the Cooper webcomic and the Amulet series and editor of Flight, was on the Young Adult Stage (along side Tracy White and Deborah Vankin), talking about his process and answering audience questions. He had a lot of interesting points and here are some things I walked away thinking about after the session.

· Comics have the ability to compress really big ideas into tiny chunks in a small space. He tries to compress as much as he can into each book.

· In his graphic novels, everything is a metaphor for a truth and everything has an emotional truth to it.

· A reader should be able to get the story of a comic book or graphic novel just by flipping through and looking at the art, but if they read it they get to know the story more deeply

· Kibuishi states that if he doesn’t enjoy his story himself, it isn’t working. Trust your intuition. (Authors at another panel I attended said something similar)

· Currently just under 200-pages long, Kibuishi actually drew 700 pages for Amulet 1 while was working on it.

· He treats his characters like they really exist. It took him a while to get to know them, but at this point in the Amulet series, Kibuishi says he works for his characters. They’re exploring themes practically on their own.

· He didn’t go to school for art (he was film student) and learned a lot about creating comics from just doing it. Namely, drawing comics for his school paper where he had to put things out quickly and on a regular basis.

· It’s not just about drawing well—worry less, communicate more.

· As far as breaking into the comic book industry, Kibuishi‘s advice is that you have to be pro-active. You have to have an attitude of “I think I’m doing something worth doing. I’m going to make it work.”

· When working on the Amulet series, it took him two years to complete the first graphic novel, nine months for the second, seven months for the third, and a year for the fourth. (He currently works with one assistant and two interns.)

If you’re interested in learning more about his process, he has a three-part tutorial showcasing how Cooper comes together together and another about digitally flatting comics.

Sunday there were two BOOM! Studios panels. One featuring writers Gary Phillips and Michael Alan Nelson, and both featuring Editor-in-Chief Matt Gagnon. Now, when you have the opportunity to sit and listen to what the editor-in-chief of what may be one of the fastest growing comic book publishers in the land, you might want to be in attendance.

What I took from here is that while comics is obviously an artistic field, professionalism is still important in the comic books industry and can set you apart. So while you’re honing your craft, you might also want to work on other important qualities (if they’re not innate to you, that is) such reliability, the ability to get things done quickly, flexibility and the ability to collaborate. I know, my fellow artistic people, those things are supposed to be hard for us, but I believe we can do it.

Gagnon also had some advice for breaking into the industry: Plug yourself into the comic book community. It’s a small community and when you start building those friendships whether at a comic book store, online, or what have you, you’re building connections with future industry professionals.

Also, put your work out there. Post your art online—at the BOOM! Studios forum, for example, self-publish whether print or with a webcomic, just do something. No one – not readers, not industry professionals – is going to find you if you’re nowhere to be found.

The folks who participated in the panels had a lot more stuff to say than I can fit into a 800-word post, but I wrote another something over at my other blog about what some novelists had to say. If ever you have an opportunity to attend these types of events, especially if they’re free like this one, definitely make a point to go. Educating yourself is half the battle, right?

In the meanwhile, don’t forget about Free Comic Book Day this Saturday. Find a local participating store here, or here if you’re outside the U.S. and Canada.

(Side note: I finally learned how to re-size the pages for our own webcomic, Justine, making it easier to read. If you previously didn’t click on each page in order to read it, now’s your chance to actually see what all those words are saying.)

Short Story Previews

2011-04-16T09:22:00.000-07:00

This image will accompany a few other paintings for a short story called "Of Nothing". I've been trying to work on these short stories but working on the comic has taken up much of my time. Who would of thought time management would be kicking me in the pants! But anyway I'll leave this post short so you can gaze into her eyes...

Wanna Know What It's About?

2011-04-01T00:46:00.000-07:00

Someone pointed it out to me a little while ago that we never posted a description of what you can expect to read once the website is up.

Since I’m the writer, I guess you can blame me for that.

A part of what you’ll see once the site is up is a series of illustrated short stories and poems (they’ll go up over time, not all at once), but there is also going to be a couple of limited or ongoing series. Here’s the description for Chasing Wolves, which you’ve been seeing some sketches and studies for:

For fifteen years, werewolf Supriya has keep oceans and continents between her and the place she'd reluctantly called home, but when a stray werewolf who can barely hold himself together stumbles into her life, she knows there’s only one place that can help him. Despite her grudge against Sanctuary, there’s no denying the good work its founders do in teaching Weres that they don’t have to be monsters. She herself is proof of that.

After traveling halfway around the world to return to Sanctuary, the last thing Supriya expects is to find the place completely empty. That’s only the beginning of her problems.

An old enemy is out to get Sanctuary, and this time they’re more dangerous than ever. It was bad enough when they just beamed in from the shadows to steal cows, but now those dastardly ninja aliens have the power of time travel at their disposal and they aren’t afraid to use it.

With the help of Archimedes, H.G. Wells, and that guy who played that thing on the wing in that one episode of The Twilight Zone, Supriya just might save Sanctuary, but the space-time continuum may never be the same again.

Merry April Fool's Day, everyone. And to everyone a good night!

Values and Mark-Making

2011-03-18T16:06:00.000-07:00

Recently I've been experimenting with ink washes and acrylic to get a specific look/feel for the werewolf comic. This first page was me trying to find different textures and values on top of different surface preparations. The three coatings I used were matte medium which absorbed the acrylic too quick. Gloss medium which worked great for adding textures but left an ugly shinny surface. And finally satin varnish which was the best of the two, right in the middle. I was able to get the textures I wanted and created enough of a barrier that it didn't absorb the paint on contact. Finding the right paper for ink washes was also a bit of a hair puller. I didn't want to use watercolor paper because it's too expensive, so finding an alternative took a bit of investigation. After about the fourth of fifth attempt I found a paper that was smooth enough to retain ink marks and had the correct amount of sizing to disperse washes of ink. The name of my new best friend, Folio Print!

After finding the correct paper and surface preparation I attempted my first study with one of the panels. This study had no surface prep it was just ink, washes, and acrylic. I found out that the acrylic was absorbing too quick and not leaving the brush marks I was looking for. Which I had already known but wanted an example to compare for when I did prepare the paper with medium.

On the second study I inked the drawing and added in washes for values, then I coated the paper with satin varnish. This created a barrier between the paper and the top surface which meant I could add in brush textures without losing any of their detail. There was also a brush I found to create motion lines a lot quicker and more accurate as you can tell on the fist punch. Much better than the individual lines I had to make for the motion lines on the first study.

I'm hoping I can carry the quality of this panel study into every panel from now on for the werewolf comic.

Where Chaos Reigns Supreme! (Inside A Writer’s Notebook)

2011-03-05T22:35:00.000-08:00

I’ve posted pages from my sketchbook that relate to thumbnails or designing characters, but I (perhaps misguidedly) thought someone out there might find it interesting to see what my writing “sketchbook” looks like.

When starting something, I usually at some point come up with a very rough, bullet-point outline.

You have to write ideas down on whatever is available. Even if it means scribbling on the back of receipt paper because you were at the registers at work when genius struck.

I may flesh out the outline or go right into sketching out scenes. Often times I go back a forth between the two because as I begin to write scenes I get a better idea of where things are headed, or should head. And of course, as I begin to get some scenes down I also begin sketching out thumbnails so tiny and indecipherable that sometimes I barely know what they represent.

As I mentioned in my post about thumbnails, I’ve been writing dialogue and doing the thumbnails at the same time. This worked for several scenes as I wrote chapters two and three, but somewhere along the line my notes got a little crazy, and it’s hard to sketch out thumbnails for a scene when you can’t track the dialogue because it jumps around three different pages in ten different ways.

It was time to sit down at my computer and so I could turn the chaos of my notes into an orderly and easily read pseudo-script. (It’s not really a script at this point. I don’t even have all the page and panel breaks written in, let alone scene description). I’ve learned from experience that I should put a slash through the sections of my notes I’ve already typed up. I can’t tell you how much confusion that simple practice has saved me from.

I printed out the pages with a wide left margin so I'd have plenty of space for working out thumbnails and then turned the nice, neat, orderly typed-up pseudo-script into this:

Good times.

Translating text into visual beats is one of my favorite things about storytelling through comics, but like any aspect of any creative process, it can be frustrating at times. When I got stuck, I found myself sketching different panel layouts. I basically knew what I wanted to happen in this particular sequence, but the ideas were slow to fully form. (This by no means was the toughest spot I found myself in when it came to writing this story).

Sketching out the different ways the panels could interact with the story kept my brain churning until I finally figured out what I wanted to do.

Another useful trick was to work backwards from a place in the dialogue a few beats ahead of the section that was causing my indecision. This worked for me because I knew what I wanted the bottom of this particular page to look like. Once I sketched the arrangement of those panels, figuring out what to do with all the stuff written before that point pretty much fell into place.

Eventually, I have to incorporate all the chaos I’ve written on the typed page into the script I started on my computer...if I can make any sense of it.

Continuing in this vain, the first draft of chapter two has really come together.

I’m always interested in reading about other folks' creative process and I guess that’s why I write posts about mine. So…what does your process look like?

(A brief note on the names: these are characters who – for the most part – only appear in this chapter. Since they’re minor characters, I didn’t bother to give them real names, but had to call them something. So, no – in case you looked closely at the pseudo-script or notes and are now wondering – there aren’t really characters named Gidget or Moondoggy in this story.)

A Whole Mess of Studies

2011-02-18T20:17:00.000-08:00

After receiving Cacy's reference material, descriptions, and character studies. I put pencil to paper and got to work on getting accustomed with the characters overall look. Getting started this time around was a lot easier given all the work Cacy had already put into her studies. Making adjustments where I thought they needed to be made was the most difficult part in all this process. Such as in Supriya's dress, I took out the designs with the thought I didn't want to have to spend forever redrawing it onto her dress every time she was in a scene. But now that I see the study I'm thinking it looks a bit bland, any opinions?
Creating the features on the three female characters was fun, at first I had attempted creating them without any reference but drawing a specific ethnicity was much more difficult than I had anticipated. So I reference several online pics and combined them to create the different looks of each character. Next time I know to do this step first to save myself some time.
I also brushed up on my wolf drawing skills and they still haven't rusted out since I last drew them in "Justine".
Hope everyone enjoys this weeks drawings.

Thumbnails: They Come In Handy!

2011-02-04T12:52:00.000-08:00

You get it? You see what I did there? With the pun? Thumbs… Hand-y…

Ah, well. I’m not talking about those kinds of thumbnails anyway. I’m talking about the other kind. As in sketches.

I mentioned before that I’m trying my hand at doing thumbnails as I write some of the scripts for the coming web comic. Here’s what that looks like:

Er… That might not work if anyone but me needs to understand them. Actually, after some time passed, even I was a bit confused and had to decipher my intentions.

First thing I did was type up the script based on my sketches. (You see all that indecipherable chicken scratch? Some of that is actually dialogue and stuff.) Then I re-drew the thumbnails. Since their purpose is communication, I tried to make these thumbnails sketches (palm sketches would be a more accurate size-correlation label, but whatever) as clear as possible. I thought adding some gray marker would help to that end. (And also, maybe I was procrastinating getting to the next thing on my to-do list.) (Boy, this paragraph has a lot of parentheticals [I loooove parentheticals!])

I kept forgetting that I’m left-handed and made a bunch of pen smudges. If you’re a southpaw like me, you probably already know that when working with smudgeables it’s best to move from right-to-left if you can’t keep yourself from resting your hand on the page.

Writing is re-writing they say, and just because one is writing with thumbnails doesn’t mean the old adage is any less true. Doing the thumbnails over allowed me to see what obviously wasn’t going to work. Page 2 is a good example of that. I made a few changes on this page, but one mistake was glaring. This is what I originally sketched out:

Can you see why that won’t work?

Scott McCloud explains it well in Making Comics when he talks about “choice of flow.” Basically, we have a certain way of reading. In western cultures, it’s left-to-right, top-to-bottom. The above layout sketch creates confusion because the reader’s eye will want to go from panel two to panel three to panel six. Adding arrows is an easy fix and works for some comics, but wouldn’t work for this one.

So this was my solution:

I made the three panels in question floating panels so that they overlapped panel five (previously panel six) and panel one just slightly. It was my hope that that would alleviate any confusion as to what order they should be read. After all, it’s an instinctively understood concept that the thing overlapping something else is closer i.e. comes first. Also, I thought this arrangement would indicate that those three images are one set, kinda sorta like a triptych. Whatcha think? Does it work now?

I’m quite liking this working-on-thumbnails-as-I-write way of doing thing. I think this experience will help me even when I’m required to write scripts separate from doing any sketches.

Quick Sketches

2011-01-21T22:23:00.000-08:00

A page of sketches for some of the short stories and poems Cacy has written. This is always the first stage in the process of making sense of what I've read. Sometimes the drawings make sense and other times I forget what they mean and have to re-read the text, which is why I write the title of the piece next to the sketches.

No “Bam!”s or “Pow!”s Were Harmed During the Writing of This Post

2011-01-07T20:57:00.000-08:00

Oh. Hello there.

I was so caught up in developing material for our upcoming web comic that I didn’t hear you come in.

No, stay. Stay.

I’m sure. Since you’re here, I’ll take a much-welcomed break. Oh, here’s an idea. Let’s warm up some hot cocoa while I tell you about my approach to writing for comics.

Okay, you can have hot cider if you prefer.

Unlike screenwriting, which has a very specific structure that is used for everything from feature-length film to live-action television to animation, there’s no one way to write a comic book script.

Take a gander through a bunch of different books on writing for comics. (Here’s one I really like.) Or flip to the back of one of those special edition graphic novels that includes the script. You’ll see the myriad of ways that comic book writers get their stories out of their heads and onto paper. Scripts, summaries, thumbnails, information tables…it seems anything goes as long as it conveys what has to happen on the page.

I’ve tried a few different approaches.

The first approach I took was to write in a basic script format while dividing the action and dialogue into panels and pages as I wrote. This, of course, was with the understanding that what works in my head, might not work out on paper once it comes to doing the thumbnails and layout sketches. This always seemed like a “standard,” straightforward way of doing things. What sucked though was that when re-writing the script, if I took out a chuck of dialogue or added a bit of action it would throw off the panel and page divisions that I’d already written into the script.

In reaction to the first approach, I decided to write the scripts without the page and panel divisions. If I got a specific idea of how the panels would unfold I took note of it, but other than that, I didn’t stress about it. For me, this type of script is faster to write simply because I don’t have to think about how many words or actions can fit into a panel. The downside is you don’t really know the page length until the script has been annotated or turned into thumbnails, so if you’re writing to achieve a specific number of pages you might want to be prepared to do some cutting. (Scripts seem to run longer than whatever I had in mind when I’ve done it this way.)

The latest approach I tried was to do thumbnails as I wrote the dialogue. This works for me since I’m usually pretty specific in my scripts anyway. Again, I do this with the understanding that when Jose starts working out the sketches, he may find better ways of executing certain things. So far doing this has lent itself well to the more action-oriented stories. While it seems to take longer, I think having the thumbnails already thought out is ultimately a time saver because it better communicates what’s going on in my head.

Oh, and there’s a fourth approach we’re trying out. That’s basically where I back off, stop being so annoyingly specific, and let Jose do whatsoever he wants. We’re not working with scripts at all with this approach. Instead I’ve handed a bunch of flash fiction and poetry over to Jose for him to decide what to do with. I can’t wait to see what they’ll be turned into.

What’s that? Time for you to mosey on out of here?

Alright. Thanks for visiting. Swing by again sometime soon, okay?

Have a good one!

Looking at the Midway Process

2010-12-24T15:49:00.000-08:00

This week we'll be looking at the midway process of developing an illustration for one of the short stories called, "The Cold Front". After I sketch out a few ideas I choose one thumbnail to develop more. If you remember the sketches I posted up last time you'll find the thumbnail I decided to develop on the bottom right hand corner.

I decided the simplified gesture would work for what I had in mind.

Next I developed a value sketch of what the finished image would look like. Keeping the character separated from any background elements I thought would help give the image more of an isolated feeling.

The next step was to burn some paper to incorporate into the final image, which you'll find out goes along with the story when you get the chance to read it. After several sheets of burning I chose the better looking burnt paper and scanned them in.

Next, I draw the final image, then scan it into the computer and manipulate it until I get something I like. But you won't be able to see it until the website is up and running.
Thanks for stopping by.

Meet Supriya

2010-12-13T15:23:00.000-08:00

Since I got a nice chunk of writing out of the way, I decided to move on to character designs. Because I’ve usually already got a pretty good idea of what my characters look like, Jose and I decided it would move things along if I went ahead and sketched out the characters (Rather than us having to go back forth with him designing something, and me saying, “Eh, it’s good, but how about making it little more like this,” and him redesigning it, and me saying, “Well, I was thinking it would be a little more like that.”)

That said, here are some pages out of my sketchbook and a peek into my process of designing characters.

As a former aspiring costume designer, I always start with what a character is wearing. The first new werewolf story to be posted on our website is going to be set in 1971. That meant I had to flip through some fashion books and scroll through some google image results. I picked 1971 because it allows me to take a little from the 60s as well as the 70s. Best of both worlds!

The character, Supriya, is one of the protagonists. She’s a butt-kicking, cleaning-up-the-streets, good-guy (gal) werewolf like Justine, but she also enjoys being a girl. She has a very feminine look and prefers wearing stuff like this her down time.

Then it comes time to design the face. Just as important as working out the features of the face is capturing a couple of key expressions. Supriya has a bit of a disdain-toward-the-world attitude. (And a Twiggy sort of hairstyle.)

Look out! She means business.

A clearer drawing of the dress I decided would work best for chapter one, with hair and jewelry. Since I was a kid, I’ve had the habit of drawing costume designs without faces. I used to also never draw hands or feet, so you know, progress!

An action shot to show some movement of her clothes. Also, weapons! Those are personalized fighting sticks. They’ve got a few tricks up their sleeves so she can do a lot more than just hit monsters upside the head with them, though technically she should be wearing gloves because they’re made of silver.

Thanks for checking in with us. More later!

Preliminary Sketches for Short Stories

2010-11-26T13:42:00.000-08:00

Hello all,
As Cacy mentioned before we will be posting new material every other week to keep you coming back and interested as we work diligently on new stories in preparation for the website.
This week you can peek into my process of creating images that go along with two of Cacy's short stories. The bottom and middle pages are from the same story and the top page is from another short story. Each story will be composed in a different format, experimenting and pushing the boundaries of how text and image can be viewed together. At times the format might not work together but just maybe enough compositions will be attempted that a remarkable piece comes together.
Well, that's it for now and don't forget to come back in two weeks for another installment by Cacy.

What To Expect Next

2010-11-11T10:11:00.000-08:00

(As we begin to post updates and sneak peaks, our first post – and website preview – “Justine” will move further down until it’s gone, but never fear! “Justine” will always be available and easy find by clicking the tab at the top of this page.)

Did you enjoy our story “Justine” so much that you’re perched on the edge of your seat dying to know when the next installment will be?

Oh.

Well, are you at least wondering what’s next?

Just a little?

A teeny bit?

Maybe an itsy-bitsy inkling of curiosity?

Thanks. We’re flattered you’re interested, and thus Jose and I don’t want to leave you hanging while we’re getting the website together. So from time to time we’re going to update you on our progress and unveil some sneak peaks along the way. We plan on launching the website this coming spring and so have set fingertips to keyboard and pen, pencil, brush and various other implements to paper in preparation for what will be a some really cool, fun, exciting comics.

Besides writing away, I have found other ways to be productive. This past weekend I went to a shooting range. The opportunity presented itself as someone I know who works for the government doing something that involves knowing how to use a gun (No, not a spy…or is he?) was going. I said to myself, Well Cacy, if you’re writing about characters who have to carry guns to protect themselves from the various non-human threats that exist in plenty around them, maybe you should know what it’s like to shoot a gun. So I went.

It was loud and scary. In case you’re wondering what it’s like to shoot a gun, or to even be at a shooting range for that matter. Much louder than on TV (of course, that’s what they always say), and much louder than I remember from that one time this one guy shot this other guy across the street from my junior high school while me and my classmates were working on pre-algebraic equations. Ah, childhood memories.

That recoil was something else, too.

I stopped after my second go-round. I felt I was pressing my luck as it was and that at any moment the gun was going to explode in my hands or that the slide would slice my finger off. (That was a great pep talk my gun safety guide gave me!). I was a good shot though. Hit the target pretty consistently in the vital areas. (So don’t mess with me, you!)

So that was me doing research for one of the series that will be on our website, this weekend I'm giving archery a go! (Though it may or may not have a relevance to anything I'm writing for the website.)

Anyway, Jose will be posting something himself soon, and it’ll probably be cooler than my post because he has those nifty artist skills that enable him to be all amazing with the making art stuff.

I hope you enjoyed our story “Justine,” and that you’ll continue to check in with us from time to time to see what we’re up to.

Justine

2010-10-12T21:38:00.001-07:00

Thanks for taking a look at Jose and Cacy's first official comic book-slash-web comic collaboration, the super exciting awesome-o werewolf story we titled Justine. Consider this a preview of our coming website.

We  hope that after reading "Justine" you're excited about what's to come,  and that you’ll check in with us from time to time to see what we are up  to. The website will have a couple different series, lots of different  stories and is coming this Spring, but until then we'll be posting  updates and sneak peaks of the awesomeness we're toiling away to bring  you. We can't wait for you to see it!