Hello again readers!
On this post I will detail my steps into drawing a single page of the comic series I am currently working on, since much of the same process of making this pages barrows from the same process of drawing character models, I will skip that part and instead encourage you to read my previous post on character drawings.
Drawing a single page from the comic is a much harder process than it seems at first glance, I will try to resume the whole process has best I can here:
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1.
The very first thing I picture is the story (the most important thing), but I don´t just blindly draw into the paper just yet, before that there is the script... do to the fact that my background is in filmmaking pretty much every aspect about writing that I know is from my experience in writing short films; difference here is that because this story is much larger and ambitious I can´t just stay short in stories here.
The largest difference when writing a short from a feature is the volume of content, witch is why short films are usually more simplistic in story execution... but what does all this has to do with the comic you ask? Well is because this started has has only a feature length film, thus the whole story is written has a movie and despite the differences is media it works just the same. I will not show any samples here for the sake of spillers, but just to show you how much it has taken over me... I think about the story all the time: when I get up in the morning all the way until I go to bed at night.
2.
The page drawing process starts with an eraser version, basically a version that has very little effort and takes small time to do, the whole idea is in basic essence to study a scene or a moment to see how to place it on paper and thus properly show off the storytelling and see how it all works.
The complicated side of this seemingly simple part is the placement of the vignettes, I always try to make it easy and concrete for the reader to fallow, the main problem I find while making this part is: how do I show a certain moment the best? how many vignettes should I put in a single page? to what extent would it be considered "overblown" the amount of content placed? are the characters well in place? is it easy to tell for the reader? Sometimes this kind of questions arise after several pages in, this is because I don´t do just a single sheet of paper when I am placing them on the eraser but many... and the question flood my mind when I am just trying to think about simple elements like character placement or what is the best way to just tell the story.
All of this are very hard elements that seem very simple when just placed in the front of the person, in fact, it may even seem has "time wasting" but the truth of the matter is that I am not trying to make it readable for the public just yet, but for myself... the whole propose of this steps is to see if the idea pictured in my mind translates well into paper. (I have destroyed more sheets of paper that you can imagine...)
3.
After a page is green lighted, knowing that it works well to get what it´s going on I then proceed to draw the page, first I separate the vignettes and place the different characters in place, all of it more or less in the very same depiction has in my eraser version to later translate into rough material.
This part really isn´t all that complicated really, most of the brain storming was done during the eraser drawings, so is less of a creation process has much has a clean up process if you would like to call it that, now... why directly on paper? simple, I prefer drawing my characters with a pencil in hand than on a computer, this may sound stupid for does who are far better at using the photoshop software, but for me I fell more connected to the paper fiscally than in a computer... not to mention it feels needlessly complicated to make on a computer. (I have tried many times during my animation classes...)
The lines are simple to depict, after I clean up the done vignettes is when I place the lines completely...
4.
I now proceed to place the characters in blocking form... the same process applies from the previous post I made a while ago, I still take the same time and care for each vignette but this is all done with the propose of making this have the best presentation possible, I sometimes don´t have to work extra hard has I don´t have to draw the whole body sometimes... but is the same in essence and feeling though.
Face first, later head elements... no difference in steps to fallow. The negative to all of this is that is the most time-consuming part of making a single page; because every page goes through it it´s exactly what makes this take the longest, I also try to take has much attention to detail has I can to make it visually interesting:
Of course the difference comes from the amount of body I have to draw of the character, the less body the less work right? wrong... is the same difficulty because most of the points to nail are the details (specially in the face); the majority of the efforts placed ALWAYS in how the characters look not only has who they are but how they are located on the environment:
Same goes for all the vignettes:
5.
Last: I clean the lines before making it into the digitalization...
It may not seem like it but there is plenty that goes through it than what I made it out to be on this post; is the kind of thing you don´t realize it´s complexity until you sit dow and actually do it.
If you ask me exactly what is the hardest part of to do about this whole ordeal is coming up with the story and how to tell it... in my experience that has never been easy.
At least with the process of making the page itself, I know the steps I have to fallow and I know how to fallow them but is not the same when you are creating something out of nothing...
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Thats pretty much it for page drawing, this whole process is far more time consuming than it may seem, one part because it recurs plenty of brain storming and the other because is very slow and takes plenty of care and patience...
....Yet is for the good of the project and for all of you to enjoy at it´s best
There I have more pages like this done and ready to process
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Thank you for reading and I apologize for the long time I took to make this post, I am thinking of maybe make another movie review marathon in between... there has been plenty going on this few days but I will be making a few more posts regarding drawing steps, this time regarding the photoshop process, a FAR more complicated and long process...
Stay tuned for updates!
