November 2015

I think this is the first digital paint of a diary comic I’ve done for a while. I’m pretty happy with the left foot and the ear. The rest needs more work but I don’t have the time, so you will have to forgive me. Definitely fun though, I’ll probably do some more full colour diary comics soon. Thanks to Chloe Walsh for her top digital painting tips.

This was actually completed over 3 A5 sheets of paper, so there are some irregularities where they meet that I needed to fix as best as I could using Photoshop. It ain’t perfect, but as an observational drawing exercise, quite fun. Drawn straight to 210GSM paper using an ink brush pen.

I’ve been thinking lately that I need to pull back on the amount of time I’m spending on diary-comics, and  this is the result. A quick initial pass with blue pencil for  layout and general forms, and straight in with the 0.3 copic ink pen onto bleedproof paper. No  messing about thickening up lineweights or thinking about solid blacks. No ruling up of perspective grids, sticking to loose, minimal backgrounds, and working gesturally without much thought. As a result this took me a quarter of the time I would normally have spent. It’s hard to pull the pin so early into the process, but working in this way means I’ll be able to stay on target. Which right now is quite important!

This is a fun process, although not quite the time saver I thought it’d be. No filters applied, the nice effect is courtesy of saving as a 16 colour PNG. For anyone concerned, the spider babies are fine, only a few were washed out. The rest have migrated throughout the house and will keep us company for the summer.

For this page of diary comics I’ve taken a similar approach as the last time, except here after roughs with a blue pencil I’ve gone straight in with a 0.5 ink pen, focusing mainly on key lines. Once these were established I put in text, deciding to go straight in without planning, which resulted in the need for fix-ups in Photoshop. If one thing needs to be planned, it’s text. After this I went over the lot very quickly with a Neutral Gray copic marker and finished up with a 0.3 and 0.05 for some finer details. I tried to keep this one quite simple, which is not easy for me, as I’m prone to getting carried away with detail. Although the linework is a little too thick in some areas, this one was completed quite quickly and I’m happy with the result.

Coming out of Woolworths as they were closing and saw this. Word for word, this is a verbatim transcript. Some people! On a side note, my scanner has missed most of the faint colours here. Next watercolour comic will be less water and more colour.

Back to watercolours for this page. In mixing up materials and styles I’m trying to not only improve on my weak spots, but also maintain my ongoing interest in this project.

What did I learn here?

• 21st- Subtle, faint washes do not reproduce in scans. At least, not on my scanner. Process of graphite pencil for layout, then watercolours, then a thin (0.2) line over the top.
• 22nd- Here I went a lot darker and tried to really floosen up my application of colour, washing a dark purple hue over the legs and in the shadowed area with no idea how it would dry. I didn’t consider the light source very well and its a bit of a mess as a result.  I found that the watercolours dry much lighter than they appear wet, which improves my confidence of really attacking dark areas in future. Text was put in at the last-minute and taken out afterwards in Photoshop, as it wasn’t well thought out and let down the piece as a result.
• 23rd- Painting a stormy scene. I watched a couple of watercolour tutorials online and everyone seems to have a different approach, so I just disregarded the lot and went for it. I tried to get it dark but once agin it dried much lighter than anticipated. Mixing in some burnt umber was a nice touch, and balanced the hues a little, giving some contrast/complement. I messed up the lightning by making it purple, but managed to save it with a bit of gouache.
• It’s just a constant process of trial and error; doing something, ruining it, saving it, ruining it and saving it again. My tolerance for how badly I can mess up my work is improving!

This allotment of diary comics was put together on A3 Bleedproof paper using a range of Copic markers. Process was blue line layout, then in with the Copics, then loose lines using one or two different ink pens over the top (except for the asshole strip where i also used a brush pen). The focus here was speed, and not worrying about the final result too much. Using the chisel edge of the copic marker in a gestural manner before application of final ink line resulted in a few happy accidents here and there, as the marker dictated lines and shapes I wouldn’t have thought of but had to go with. I’m particularly happy with some aspects of the cycling comic, and the minimalistic lines of the first and last comic on the page. Being fast means I don’t worry so much about making a pleasing image. It’s about clarity and guiding the eye. Aesthetics takes a back seat for now.

Last week I bought an A4 pad of Canson Illustration 250gsm paper.  It’s packaging is targeted towards comic artists and illustrators. I found it quite nice to draw on, smooth and strong with a faint texture that catches and holds wet media. This piece is a mix of black and blue ink and ink washes, using crow quill pen and a couple of different brushes, mainly a great little thin sable hair brush that seems to be able to do most things. I went quite dark in this one to avoid the  washing out effect of the scanner, and kept the lines quite simple and gestural. Going for speed and trying not to be precious here, which seems to be a major focus at the moment. Must be the deadline on my Doctorate looming! This page took between two and three hours from start to finish, which took place in a few stints over two days. I’m happy with the second strip, middle panel, where some areas I left white on the characters gave a nice dappled light effect I can use in future.