Comics help please?

[sigune]

I am trying to figure out how best to go about drawing the comic. The questions are many: colour or monochrome? Pencil or ink? A4 or A3? It is important to get everything right, so that I don’t run into trouble at some point in the future.

I had more or less decided on inks and monochrome, because black and white is what I think I do best. Colour still gives me trouble. I adore watercolour, but I am not good enough at it to paint a comic. I have seen digital colours that I like, but I don’t have the Photoshop skills to achieve them myself. Nevertheless, in a comic in which the colour of the hero’s hair and, occasionally, the colour of his enemies plays a part in the story, it would be kind of nice to have colours.

Now – one way of colouring that I do feel up to is with colour pencils. I like what I can do with pencils on the pages of my Moleskine notebook, so I sought loose sheets on which I could more or less reproduce that effect. The paper that I think comes closest to Moleskine is Bristol board. So I had a try with that.

The image in the middle is the original: graphite + colour pencils on Bristol. The real thing is very crisp and rather lovely. Some of the subtle skin tones got lost in the scan, as did the blue of her eyes. But all in all I don't think the scan is so bad.

On the left is a greyscale version. If I want to see the story printed, I have to take into account that colour printing is much more expensive than black and white. If I have to finance a print run... So I thought it might be good to see what this coloured work looks like in b/w.

On the right you get an idea of what pencilled art might look like with some texture Photoshopped in. Better or worse?

Colour test by *Sigune on deviantART
(Click and go to dA for a full view)

Do you think it would be nice to have a completely pencilled comic? How about colour versus greyscale? Or do you think inking is preferable? How do you think pencilled art will reproduce/print?

Opinions and advice are very, very welcome. Please do let me know what you think!

I'll try to do a complete page using this technique soon, as a test..

Comments

[putri-nih.livejournal.com]

Hi Sigune,

I was just lurking through fl-list when I saw this. I'm really into the 'pencilled' look but I know from experience you have to be careful how you draw and scan them so they will look as you intended. Hiroaki Samura has a mixed-media thing going on woth ink and pencil (for Blade of the Immortal) and I'd say it's a successful look. The big question is, what sort of "style" will fit your storyline and you go from there. There are very different "inked" looks as well where you can sort of stylize it like very sharp pencil scratchings, if you choose ink because it reproduces better on print than pencil.

As far as the best one out of the three tests the right one, no doubt.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Thanks a lot for passing by and contributing!

I do like ink very much, and if I do ink, I would like a style reminiscent of Arthur Rackham (or Linda Medley) - not scratchy or anything, but clean and looking like an engraving (kind of like this (http://sigune.deviantart.com/art/Gawain-and-Ragnell-111341219)). I'm thinking about pencils because I'm wondering whether a slightly softer look with more shading wouldn't be better...

The thing with the story is that it changes :-). The first episodes are dark, but things get brighter and brighter. And I think I'd like some colour :/.

[todayiamadaisy]

I love your black and white work, so I would be happy to see the whole comic inked like that.

If one colour is particularly important to the story (if someone mentions Gawain's hair, for instance), would it be possible to do a single splash of colour on some pages, so it stood out against the b&w? Or would that look a bit weird?

Having said that, I like your colour test too. I like the middle, original one best, followed by the greyscale, with the altered one coming last.

So in summary, I like them all. Not really much help to you. :-)

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Hee hee! Thank you :).

I do think that adding colour in strategic places is an option, yes. But I'm not so sure whether it would look right for my story. It's done in Sin City and works great there. But I suspect that in my story, it might look too ... stark, or too violent, especially if the art is inked (no greyscale). I can try it out though. If I do an inked test page, it can be no biggie to add bits of colour in Photoshop.

More tests and questions soon... :P

[septentrion1970.livejournal.com]

I'm not an expert at all, but my "gut reaction" would be to like the middle drawing more.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Quite apart from my Comics Quandery, I'm just happy that I manage to do something nice with pencils once in a while ;-).

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Sadly, LJ ate my first couple comments. I'll try again:

I love the black and white images you create; your lines are lovely and the look is very important and integral to the story and the mood you're trying to create.

I'm not sure about the pencils; they're lovely but they change the message ever so slightly, I think. I do like the soft version on the right, but like I said, I'm not certain if that's what you were going for overall.

I agree with todayiamadaisy, and I think that a splash of color here and there in the black and white would be very cool.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

LJ was acting up something terrible yesterday. Maybe it was that server move thing they were talking about... I appreciate your dedication in getting your comments posted! *hugs*

I don't know why it's so difficult to decide on a style. With Snape it used to be so simple! Black and white with cross-hatching was perfectly suited for 'his' comic. With Gawain, I'm not so sure. The thing is, stark black and white may be okay for The Darkest Hour, which is, well, dark - but once we get to Gawain's own adventures, we're going to drift off into more dreamy, magical storyscapes. The softer style seems more appropriate there.

Wah! I don't know! And it drives me crazy!

I have to say that pencilling is very pleasant - also because I can let things lie and then return to make corrections. Inks are permanent; they have to be right from the first. Maybe I also got the shakes because I had to start my last Snape picture all over again when something went wrong with Snape's expression in the inking X/. Pencils can get me a dark atmosphere too, if necessary. A 9B is almost like charcoal.

I suppose I'll just have to do complete test pages and see what works, and feels, best...

[shaniah.livejournal.com]

I recommend you to work on B&W (colour can always be added later, and if you want to print your comic it'll be cheaper for everyone :)) and... work on the size of paper you desire. Even if drawing in a larger one help a lot for details.

Keep up the good work.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I may go all crazy and use both A3 and A4, depending on the level of detail I need on a page. As long as I observe the comparative dimensions, that shouldn't pose a problem, I think.

As for colour versus b/w, it's true that b/w is cheaper to print, but it's also true that it appeals to fewer people (also as a webcomic, I'm thinking). I added the greyscale image to see if my colour art (for the web) would look nice enough to print in b/w, and though nobody picks it when given a choice, I think it doesn't look bad. I guess the next question is: if I choose b/w, shall I use inks, or render everything in pencils?

[shaniah.livejournal.com]

I've many friends who are working as professional comicker. And a lot of them have done some b&w amateur comics and it worked very fine. Anyone buy them even if B&W are used. You've got an amazing drawing style and it musts do the job

I think that with your style, it could be a shame to use lines only. I love your smooth pencils work. You could try to see what's your preference in doing some boards (sometimes colours are just too painful) and try to make them printed.

Anyway, do as you feel like! There is no real "good old ways" to do comics. As for drawing illustrations, you just have too feel what is the better way for you. And then, peoples'll follow you. (Unless it's far too expensive!)

If you need some pro advices, I can give your link from kind artists who worked as comicker.

[anguinea.livejournal.com]

what kind of paper will it be printed on?

4-colour separation greys coloured pencil down a lot and unless your paper is bright white, you'll lose even more.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Eh. I'm not exactly happy to hear that, but I'm glad you told me :). I have no experience with printing whatsoever.

Now - printing is not a priority at this moment. It's something I hope to be able to do in the future, so everything is still vague. I have been looking into POD services like Lulu and KA-BLAM. KA-BLAM uses "high bright 50# Paper". That sounds pretty white, I guess...

However, the comic is supposed to be posted as a webcomic first. And I do suspect colour will have more appeal... But the question remains, in that case, whether colour pencils are a good idea. I mean, if I do print eventually, I'd rather not have to draw everything all over again ;-). I added the b/w image to show what my coloured pencils look like in b/w, and I think they're not so bad. But once again, I haven't seen them printed.