Drawing Table Tuesday

I've been experimenting over the last few days trying to come up with a different way to tone pages. I've noticed there was... an inconsistent look I've seen in older comics (old reprints of things, like Akira). The tones were uneven... sort of scratchy. I've been thinking about how to incorporate that, as opposed to the even, uniform tones I've had till now.

And using software just takes too long. At least for a single person, and trying to keep everything analog. I just needed to switch what I was doing. I've been thinking about it forever and I finally got to it.

And there was a lot of trial and error. There was a lot I considered, and a lot of ideas, but I didn't know what would actually work well. The most important thing to me as that it was a real life process; I wanted to use software as little as possible.  I'm not anti-digital, I just prefer working in real life; I like the feel of the pen and pencil dragging across the paper.

I used a drawing I had sitting around because I didn't want to have to draw something new just for this.
The first thing I tried  was an ink wash on tracing paper. I was pretty sure that the paper would wrinkle pretty badly, but I wanted to give it a shot anyway on the off chance it worked. It's hard to make out in the photo above, but it actually warped enough to try to pull up the transparency below it that was taped to the desk. Even if the warping wasn't bad enough, toning the wash just didn't work- the ripples in the paper transferred to the tones (the tones were streaky).

There were 3 or 4 other tries after that with different materials, that were bad enough that I didn't even save the files, but eventually it came down to my backup plan.
I bought these copics, I don't know, maybe 7 years ago. I've always had them around, but never really used them much since I bought them. They were still good, none had dried out.

I had to test a bunch of different papers, but turns out the marker paper they make for alcohol markers really is the best paper to use alcohol markers on. This was sort of a quick proof of concept-


I had this printed on a photo printer (because inkjet printers can't print tones). That's at print size; that's exactly the size they print at in real life, not blown up or anything.

I plan to get better toning this way, but even not being used to it it's going to save so much time. I'm cutting 95% of the time-consuming computer work out by toning this way. And computer work was the least enjoyable part of this. And I got that uneven, scratchy look.

I think it adds a richness to the tones that they were lacking.

Popular posts from this blog

Cover

Image
I did this cover a while ago. I'm so behind on everything, I can't believe I'm just getting to this. Everyone in charge was flexible, so I pretty much did whatever I wanted. Its double sided ; the back cover is the other side's view of the front. There wasn't much behind it, other than I don't remember seeing a two sided cover like that and wanted to. (I'm sure it's not the first, I'm just saying I haven't seen one) I'm pretty happy with it, not because I think it's great, but that it looks as good as it does given the tiny bit of time I had to do it in. There wasn't much planning. This is all of the planning and prep work that took place before it was drawn-  Despite the stamp, this was not drawn on July 26. It's been long enough now that I can look with fresh eyes. I'm pretty happy with how the hands turned out. And from looking at the sketches, it's because I got them right in the sketches; the ha
Read more

Drawing Table Tuesday

Image
 Lately, (the last few days), I've been researching color. I won't get into it, I'll probably get around to it eventually thought, but I really don't like contemporary comic book coloring. Not to say I don't like it all, there are some people that make amazing stuff, but I think a lot of it looks like crap. So it never really interested me much except that I should at least be able to put some sort of color on things and be halfway satisfied. Lately, the more satisfied I am with a drawing, the more I'm like, "Hmm... I should at least be able to color this if I had to, and still like it." So, I sort of cleared away everything everyone else does, started fresh, and decide how I want to color things. There's a long rant/essay on style (that I've been thinking about a lot recently because of some reprints I've gotten a while back) that I'm skipping that'll I'll probably get to eventually, but I decided that the coloring I
Read more

10 YEAR POST

Image
It's been 10 years since I made the first post on this blog. And it's been about 3 years since the last post. I guess I felt obligated to address 10 years passing. Feeling a little sullen, I suppose. So, I'm mustering through with this impromptu post. I'm preparing to change gears, mentally. I think up till now  over the last 10 years, my aim, even if just unconsciously, was to get better at drawing. Forwarding the skill, without giving much thought to marketing it.  In hindsight, not much thought to went to furthering a career in drawing, just honing the skill- which is the mindset I'm trying to change. I like to believe I succeeded in achieving the goal; I feel like I draw better than ten years ago. So, in that, I feel successful, but it feels ... dry . Flat. I've been wondering, have I been too obsessed with becoming better? Has that one goal blinded me to what could have been other, more significant gains? I don't know. Maybe. Mayb
Read more