Gawain comic: The Darkest Hour, 7-9

[sigune]

"Then, as the Plough began to revolve its pole, Uther ordered his leaders and princes to be summoned to him, so that with their advice he might decide how they could attack the enemy. They all came together in the King's presence; and he ordered them to say what they advised. He asked Gorlois, the Duke of Cornwall, a man of great experience and mature years, to give his opinion first."
- Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain (c. 1136)



I'd hoped to update a bit earlier today, but circumstances prevented me... In any case, here is the Saturdaily Gawain comic. Well, at the moment it is of course not so much about Gawain, but I have my reasons for that :-).

I have been thinking about the style of the finalised comic a lot. Cecilia/Cabepfir recently suggested that I go for a stylised style rather than a more realistic one (insofar as I ever draw 'realistically'). Reading rufftoon's Water Tribe reminded me of the things I have always loved about clear lines and the liveliness of more animation-like artwork. During today's train journey I drew a page with a brush pen only, to find out what the result might be. I suppose with some more exercise - and a stable drawing table instead of a train *g* - I might be able to attain something sufficiently nice. The trouble is that my strokes really aren't strong and secure enough. Maybe I should have another try with a pencilled picture as a basis.

Another possibility is to start considering digital media. At work I met a young multimedia artist who declared himself willing to teach me the ins and outs of Photoshop and to divulge other mysteries of the trade :-). This opens up possibilities for colour, and perhaps also the digital revamping of pencils into something that looks like ink. I tend to be rather hesitant when it comes to digital arts because I am romantically involved with traditional media, but I have to face the facts: anything that can save me time is worthy of consideration. Besides, in the meantime I know that digital media can yield far more beautiful results than I used to think possible.

Things to chew on...

Anyway - have some more storyboard. Concrit is welcome! - I hope the confusion after last week's update gets dispelled... I realise the 'digest' wasn't ideal; it would have been better if it had just started with the title page, followed by pages 6 and 7. But I hadn't drawn page 7 yet :P.

What went before:
Klingsor the sorcerer has come to see Queen Ygraine at her husband's fortress. Why is he there? Let us find out by diving into Ygraine's past... First stop: meet her first husband, Gorlois.

The Darkest Hour 1-3
The Darkest Hour 4-6

Comments

[branquignole.livejournal.com]

Yep - everything's a lot clearer now. :)

Oh, I so understand your love for traditional media - not that I'm any good at drawing, but I love it all the same. But I agree that digital art can be incredibly beautiful when done right. I hope you have fun (and success) trying - but you will stick to traditional art at least in some ways, won't you?

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Oh yes - I don't think digital art could completely replace the traditional media for me. Drawing with pencils and painting with brushes is far too ... I dunno ... enjoyable to let go of it. Besides, you don't need a computer or electricity for it :). Digital art seems especially useful to me for colouring, not least because any mistakes don't ruin your original and can more easily be corrected.

Mind you, even if/when my friend starts teaching me, it will take a while before I will be able to create anything presentable, I guess. So for the time being you are still stuck with my usual work :).

Hee. I'm glad the story seems to be back on track for you :).

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Ah, this clears it all up!

I adore the last panel of the first page, with her finger on his lips--just lovely and heartfelt, and very sweet.

The plot thickens!

[sigune.livejournal.com]

I'm relieved the mojo seems to be working again ;)! I'm thinking the greatest problem last weekend was that the selection of the pages was unfortunate. But I had no choice.

Ah, Gorlois and Ygraine - they are all idyll and romance. You can bet it won't last... *evil grin*

Thank you!

[the-bitter-word.livejournal.com]

I'm getting re-engaged in the story now! I think the change in the characters and the prologue confused me, probably the result of following a work in progress for which I know too little of the background material.

You have a natural feel for laying out the story on the page, by the way, or so it seems. Does the layout come naturally, or do you plan it carefully before putting anything on paper?

You may have noticed a comment I made in my IJ journal about how Craig Thompson shows his process on his blog. He uses Photoshop to align pencil drawings, then paints somehow. It's all unclear to me. His work is beautiful, though.

You're lucky someone has offered to teach Photoshop to you. I'll probably have to find a class to learn it, if I don't go back to my old software (assuming it will run on a new computer).

[sigune.livejournal.com]

If I tell the story right, you shouldn't need to know any of the background material! It's important that the comic works independently of its source material. So by all means let me know when it is moving to quickly or things are unclear! Of course the work-in-progress aspect still remains. If you could have read page 7 immediately after 6, you would have known already that the woman is indeed Ygraine, the same person Klingsor was talking to.

The layout - heh. In this storyboard the layout is anything but careful. I feel like I should save the care for when I do the 'real' thing, because my experience with the Snape comic is that I can ponder a page's layout for days, even weeks. That's not the way to go if you want to update regularly ;). So yes, this is pretty intuitive, but on most pages it feels rather basic to me. That is, I am telling the story without frills.

Thanks for the tip about Craig Thompson's blog! It looks really interesting and I intend to start checking it regularly. Thompson's inks are fabulous :D. Would you believe that it actually took me a while to figure out that the inks I loved so much in Blankets were done with brushes? I have real trouble sometimes to determine how an artist achieves a particular effect *g*. Once I realised that he got his by using brushes, I started to consider brushes instead of pens too. But I am such a long way away from anything resembling Thompson's, er, brushmanship.

The Photoshop lessons haven't actually been arranged yet, but I do hope we'll get there :). Even apart from the possibilities for the comic, I'm mystified by the programme and would really like to know it better, especially for graphic purposes.