Rework: Page 8

I started drawing the Little Knight book over 19 months ago and it's very encouraging the amount of improvement I've seen in myself. I've been drawing day in and day out at work for years already, but drawing for yourself in one consistent style all the time you figure out more about that style.

When I started this project the idea was to do it in a more simple style but at first the concept of simple threw me. I had only drawn most of these characters a few times and only a dozen or so illustrations in this style. Now I'm almost 150 pages into the comic and I not only better understand the style, but also what I want from my characters and my drawings.

At first simple meant less anatomy, bolder lines and shapes with the idea to sell the story with character design and solid storytelling and avoiding over rendering things, a concern of mine. 

The above panels show a page from the first week of drawing the book. I remember I even wrestled with the full figure of Odric. He's marching towards his enemy, angrily calling him out. I remember not being 100% about the final but didn't want to waste time and kept moving forward. 

I saw this page recently, and as a reward for working hard I allowed myself to spend some time redoing the figures. (Yes, I reward my work with more work because fun is fun.) When I tell people I plan on redoing a lot of the figures from the first 20 or so pages of the book I often get warned about falling into that trap. Redoing pages can keep things from ever getting done and can become a never ending process. I've seen this happen and have done it before myself. 

 Now ask any artist and they'd probably be willing to redo many pages they've done before. I've seen lots of comics where the creator gets a better handle of drawing his characters and I like seeing that evolution. Look at early Calvin and Hobbes, Peanuts or Usagi Yojimbo. It's not wildly different but you can tell they're still getting a handle on it. However, with all I have learned about drawing my characters and my style, and with the idea of keeping things consistent for the final product, I still plan on touching up my characters in the early pages. It won't even be too time consuming because I did the inks digitally

Here's the new version of the two panels from Page 8 that I redrew on Friday. I think it's much more bold and powerful. There is much more implied anatomy and shape to the figure. Plus it's just a more interesting drawing. Same with the eyes. I didn't feel like I needed to redraw that panel, but I wanted to see how much better it would look if I did. It took about half the time as it did the first time, probably 15 minutes, and I think it's a major improvement too. 

Still a simple style but instead I am using the simplicity to my benefit. Implied anatomy gives the figure more shape and more bulk, and the expression is more exaggerated and interesting. Both add to the character and the storytelling so it's win/win.

If you enlarge the pictures on Blogspot you can toggle between the two and see the differences. 

Tree of Orna

The last few weeks I've been designing this set piece for Little Knight. I was excited about this idea when I wrote it in the script but was good and didn't do any design work until I got to it. Turns out it was a good idea to wait, because designing something new always invigorates my creativity. 

Outside view of the Tree of Orna, a mysterious giant tree in the middle of a clearing in the dangerous woods.

Citizens of the Tree of Orna

Early pencil sketch of the ground floor, and the first time I came up with the idea of having a source of water inside the tree. I wanted winding stairs and pathways that go up the inside of the tree to look like a vertical city block or something.

 The power and light source for the village is the glowing Orb of Orna at the top of the tree. It is also the source of the water, and is just above the homes of the Ornans that go into the branches. The idea of the water being more than a decorative thing started to come to mind here.

Cutaway of the Tree to show the pencils of the finalized designs. You can see here now the water goes a long the center, and also acts like a magical elevator for the Ornan's. I love drawing an entire place with people who are just living their lives, their little shops and homes, and the way their village works (magic).

Process for Junkies

Page 93 Panel 2

First step would be the script, but I don't script it shot by shot. I wrote a script that had everything there but it wasn't blocked out. The fun thing about this process for me is I get to flesh it out more in the visual stage instead of try and make those decisions before I know what the staging and setting looks like.

But to sum up this shot in words, our hero Odric leaves his squire Kolby, now safe in the woods, to attend to Alistair and get him to cover while the dragon is still choking.

Rough

This was drawn really small as a thumbnail (between the black lines there is an inch on the original). I liked this as soon as I thought of it, because of the scale. I am really enjoying using scale to my advantage on these dragon attack pages. 

Next I enlarged it for my pencils.

Pencils

I liked the idea for this panel in the roughs, but when I finished the pencils I liked it even more. Odric doesn't have superhuman speed, but he is quick. I really like drawing people running and having the dirt or sand kick up like manga and anime. It also makes him look like he's booking it so it helps in that way too.

I also decided to add the Sound Effect coming out of the dragons mouth to show he's still coughing. I like that it looks molten like the dragons actually coughing it up, so it was fun to keep drawing that stuff.

COMING UP! THE INKS!

Feel free to ask questions in my comments and I will address them.

To Be Continued...

Painting of Odric and his family.

I was designing Odric's house for the next scene in the comic and I decided he would have a painting in his house of his family as it is now, since he couldn't have photo's or anything. I figured I would actually paint it and then I will post it into each frame. That way it will look consistent, and have a different feel than the other art, so you know it's a painting and not a photo, which don't exist in this world.

New Comic Panel Day

IN COLOR! If you came to my USTREAM channel on Sunday you saw me start this, but I didn't finish it until the next morning. Here's the final image.

New Comic Panel Day 5 pack!

The new comic panel is a DOOZY today. Now keep in mind in the comic its gonna be full colored to break it up a little more. This feels like a Where's Waldo page, which I used to draw cheap licensed versions of. But it's fun and hard to do a page like this. Most people won't notice a lot of the details you put in, but it won't take away from it at all. And if people look close they might see some fun things.

This is the Layout for this panel. Now keep in mind, this was a drawing 1 inch wide and drawing it only for myself. This is my blueprint. I just use it to visualize the shot. I am sure it looks like a child's scribbles, but I know what every scribble represents, and I don't wanna waste time drawing stuff this small.

This scene takes place at The Mace and Fl'ale, the bar Knights hang out in. This might help you see what the scribbles were in my head. I made the set in SketchUp and I use it to help set up shots. I lined up the camera to the angle I drew in the layout, and added some stand-in figures so I could see the a standard size at different locations.

Next step, I penciled in the figures. I used the red pencil to figure out the characters, but then the blue pencil to tighten it up a little without loosing the tighter lines in the underdrawing. I also penciled in the monster trophy-heads on the walls.  It's still loose tho, I do the tight drawing in the inks.

Then I combine the whole thing into Photoshop and I inked it, and it took me forever. I don't follow the background exactly, tweaking things to make the illustration better, taking out some things, and moving some lines or objects over so it doesn't cause tangents or close up too much.

It's fun to draw in the little things. The guys in the chugging contest, and guy's playing cards. The drunk singing guys, and the guy carrying beer for all his friends. The fat guy who's chair is buckling. Cheesy pointing guy, solemn talking guys, and guys pigging out. It's a lot of fun to draw, and it's fun because it helps show the world I have created in my head.

New Comic Panel Day

Just finished this panel. Got a few more and then done with this page! WOO! Back to work.

Stained Glass

On the pages I am working on this week, you finally see the Castle Mortigern, where the villains live. I had to design a giant stained glass window that sits behind the throne. Of course Valdis, the villainous sorcerer, had a giant stained glass version of himself made. The ego on this guy!

New Comic Panel Day

New Comic Panel Day

Model Monday!

New Comic Book Panel Day

Model Monday

Wednesdays are now New Comic Panel Day!

That's right kids. In addition to Model Mondays, Wednesday is New Comic Panel Day! It's like New Comic Book Day, but smaller, shorter, and doesn't make me worry about whether I can afford to pay rent. So without  further ado...

Work Blog 2: It's Alive!

I've been working on my graphic novel Little Knight for 7 months. You could say it's been longer because I did the first sketch of Little Knight himself about 2 years ago, but about 7 months ago is when I started fleshing out the idea after work, during lunch, whenever I could. 5 months ago I finished the script, and now I am drawing it.

For two years though, little Odric existed as only one sketch, it showed what I wanted and I liked it. Many nights scripting were spent looking at this picture and imagining him. They say sometimes your characters take over when you write and come to life, and I found that to be true.

That was a great feeling, but nothing compares to drawing it. Seeing my characters come alive on the page makes me feel kinda like a proud papa . I've drawn TONS of licensed characters, superheroes, characters from other peoples scripts, but none of that has felt as good as this. The character I created, and for the last 2 months I have spent drawing 10 hours a day, has come alive. Hopefully this isn't some weird thing about being alone with my drawing board all day, but I dunno if I care even. I am enjoying it, it's what I always wanted to be doing.

Model Monday BONUS: For Carlo

A wizards kitchen.

Model Monday 5/3/2010

Here's a shot of one of my SketchUp models. I have made a lot of models for my book, and I put a lot of work into them. It's important to me the locales feel very interesting, and the characters feel like they're somewhere. A real world that you'd want to visit. I feel like that can get a reader into a story better.

Stay tuned I have 2 other ideas for weekly theme days.