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MrAverage In reply to Gargantuan-Media [2013-11-06 03:20:11 +0000 UTC]

I do it all in Photoshop, but I also do it on a fairly tight weekly schedule, since I work 60-65 hours on average just keeping my rent paid and the heat on, and so I'm quite sure I don't push things as far as I possibly could.

What you suggest is a good idea, though, and I'll definitely keep it in mind.  As I'm sure you have seen, I'm undertaking a pretty heavy revision of the whole comic with an eye towards printing it one day, and that I am taking a bit of a longer time on.

--M

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Comet9 In reply to MrAverage [2020-01-26 20:20:07 +0000 UTC]

Every thought about using Krita?

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Gargantuan-Media In reply to MrAverage [2013-11-06 16:48:14 +0000 UTC]

Thanks for the explanation. The line art and the imagination in your comic are both great!

I'm no stranger to 70 hour work weeks. The last few months I was remodeling a house all day and then working at a gigantic warehouse until late at night Mon-Sat. That was a pretty intense experience!

This page was not created Illustrator but in Photoshop?! That means you are using PS Paths or Shapes to vectorize the line art?

For me, Illustrator is easier to digitally ink with. #1, you can group many objects into one selectable object and move these backward/forward easily on the same "layer". #2, you can control your stroke/shape in multiple ways such as ends and the shape of the line. #3, you can use custom brushes that will appear as irregular shapes such as Pencils, Ink spatters or rough patterns. #4, the gradient tool in Illustrator is much more easily controlled than in PS - less nested options and more obvious of an interface.

Let me know how I can assist you and I will gladly do so.

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MrAverage In reply to Gargantuan-Media [2013-11-06 18:26:24 +0000 UTC]

Actually, the line art is not vectors - I just use the brush tool and draw at full scale. My original "art boards" in Photoshop are 34" wide and 11" high. I use a number of brush presets that approximate the technical pens I use when I draw by hand. I sketch and refine on separate layers, and ink on top of that, on an otherwise tansparent layer.  I've simply never had the patience to figure out Illustrator, and I find it easier to use Photoshop because it most closely mimics the way I draw naturally. The first chapter and a half were done by hand on Bristol board, and I moved to full digital in about... 2011, I think? Definitely sped up the process and let me refine not only my style, but the level of detail that I could put in any given page.

Professionally, I'm an architect, and I drew the pages in the first chapter in about an hour on Sunday afternoons. That was before I even thought to apply any kind of technique to the process, and still clung to beginners' illusions about things like doing proper research and assembling photographic references to work from - it never occurred to me, then, to apply what I did in architecture to what I was doing in comics, and I was surprised, really, that anyone started taking my comic seriously, and since then, I've really started paying attention and trying to illustrate as well as I can, I've been spending progressively more time on each page, and now the process usually takes most of my weekend - as much as 16-20 hours sometimes, and still so much of it feels like it needs more work, but I force myself to cut it off on Sunday nights and plow into the next page. It's the process of learning how to do things properly, I guess.

During the week I sketch when I can and try to do the preliminaries for the next page, but it's usually all I can do to keep from falling asleep at my desk after working all day.  With the commute, even a "normal" workday for me is about 13 hours long.

--M

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Gargantuan-Media In reply to MrAverage [2013-11-07 01:06:48 +0000 UTC]

Thanks for taking the time to talk about your technique and process. That is very cool, man! I'd really like to get this info into a blog post on technique at the Indie Graphic Novels group.

We could show an original bristol board piece that is finished as a digital one. A  few "detail" images of your custom brushes would explain how this works. If you are OK with this message me. We can get the image assets together for this month or next month.

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