I noticed something interesting last night

A small look at an artist’s process

This year has been a good one in the development of my comics, and myself and a comics creator. I was able to complete writing three chapters of my dream-based title, and begin writing a fourth. Nearly two chapters are complete, and the third is sketched out and lettered (some layouts for chapter four have been drawn too!). In the middle of this past summer, I took a break from this serious title to work on another idea that is more fun, which is the sci-fi (as I sometimes refer to it as Starwarsian minus the opera). I’m nearly complete with the first issue, and the second one is also written, with layouts nearly complete.

Last night I decided to go back to the dreams book, especially seeing that only three pages of chapter two have to be finished. I began with a page where I had started inking (digitally for anyone who cares to know), and not liking the rendering of a face I made months ago. I remember not liking it back then, and could see in many turned-off layers that I wasn’t happy with it multiple times prior.

I turned that most recent layer off, and started from scratch, lightly sketching, then inking. My “hand” has changed, or, in other words, my technique has improved. Sure, the more you do equals practice, which begets progress and improvement. When I started that “Starwasian” title, I wanted to move away from all of the crosshatching that I was already doing. I wanted to move quicker, and just get it out there.

It didn’t work out that way. I can’t seem to help myself with details and such, like adding halftones, and other tiny details that probably only make a difference for myself. I did move away from crosshatching, but as pages moved on, I was going nuts with singular hatch marks.

Change is still change, and I also made a system of how wide my digital brush was going to be for certain situations. So for something in a large panel, and close up in the foreground, I would be using either a 15-30 pixel brush to start laying down the bass linework, then pairing smaller as I added the finer details. So doing this for 20 some-odd pages, and even more panels, I altered my style in the process.

Going back to my dreams book, forget anatomical correctness (which I’m sure has also improved with time), my approach with this new technique is more free and satisfying.

What does this mean? Am I faster now? Probably. If I’m maker fewer mistakes as a result, and spending less time refining my lines (definitely a trap with drawing digitally, especially when you can zoom in to the pixel level, if you want to go insane), then yes. Time, of course, will tell.