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As you may know, I'm currently working on a project called "You Never Know" for an upcoming comic anthology called
Playlist , which is being Kickstarted right now!
All
of the comics in the anthology are based around songs by different
musicians or bands, drawn in different unique styles. This is something
awesome that you'll definitely want to be a part of, so check it out!
The song is a sort of Supernatural Horror/Noir tale that is inspired by and based on the song
You Never Know by the band Brazil! Here is a breakdown of the page process step by step.
It's pretty self-explanatory but let me just give a little bit of clarification here.
1 - Concept Art
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After
getting the general idea for the story from reading the song I do a
rough concept design. This gives me a solid visual for what to think
about when I'm drawing the thumbnails and finished pages.
2- Song Analysis
----------------------
This
is one of the more exciting parts for me as a storyteller. Since the
story was originally written as a song with verse rather than as a comic
script, it's up to me to break down each page and panel. This gives me a
LOT of freedom and makes the process really enjoyable.
3 - Thumbnails
----------------------
Once
I know what's going on each page as far as the song is concerned, now
it's up to me to break it down into individual panels. This goes hand in
hand with the script analysis part. These thumbnails are VERY rough. If
I was working with an editor or published house I imagine they might be
a little frightened about these almost illegible scribbles, so I would
have to tighten them up more. I probably should anyway, because coming
back to these a few weeks later I even had to discern what I was drawing
a few times. Regardless, when it's just for me I don't feel the same
need to make these totally definite, I want the freedom to play with the
layout and panels just a bit when I get to drawing the page.
4 - Pencils
----------------------
Rough
pencils. I ink my own work so I'm not as concerned with having a final
line, black placement, or rendering as I would if I were handing this
off to another artist. This saves me time, as well as makes the inking
more exciting for me as I usually do it the same day as the pencils. If I
made finished pencils and then inked them it would probably take me
close to 15-20 hours, and there's just not enough time in the day for
that. These pencils are darkened up significantly in Photoshop so that
you can actually see them onscreen.
5 - Inks
----------------------
I
think I'm with a lot of artists who ink themselves in that this is my
FAVORITE part of making comics. I love coming up with the storytelling
and figuring out how to draw the different parts of my story, but the
feel of the pens and brushes on the board is really awesome, as well as
the variety of marks I can make with them. After inking I erase the
pencils, scan, crop, and threshold the inks to get just black and white.
Hope you enjoyed and for all of you interested in making comics I hope this is helpful!
Please check out the Playlist
Kickstarter
page! We currently have 10 days left to go and it's going to be a tight
squeeze for funding! If you found this useful, like comics and/or
music, please share it with your friends and back us if it' something
you think is cool!
Thanks again!
I use -
Strathmore 500 Series Semi-Smooth 11x17
4H Pencil core and mechanical lead
Micron, Brush, Rapidograph, Marker
, and I'll be selling my mini comic Fix as well as prints and Sketch Commissions!
