Monday, February 28, 2005
Welcome to a little documentary about how the strip is made, for those who are interested. I did a previous thing on the journal that was terribly verbose, and included a lot more advice than I wanted to give, so this time I'll keep mainly to how *I* do the comic, using #183 as the example.
THE IDEA -> SCRIPT -> ROUGH DRAFT
Obviously, the first part is the idea. I do get a lot of E-mail asking where I get my ideas, the answer is, I don't really know. They just happen. It's a totally unpredictable thing, so I can't really say how it happens. Somehow I get an idea, and it usually comes in a "bite size". By #183, it was established that Chie Sakamachi was living with Madame X, so the idea that Chie would answer the door when Touro comes calling was a pretty logical step. The link I needed was how it would all go wrong for Touro, and I jumped on the idea that Chie would wear a scary mask to protect her face from potential bukkake fans. That was the idea, and with that bite-sized idea, I wrote a script for it.
Since I've done the same first two panels almost a dozen times already, I just wrote the script for the last two panels. Normally I'd write script for all the panels, but I make up swearing friend dialogue on the spot anyways.
When I script it out, I wonder how it looks on the page. To get an idea what the finished strip will look like without actually spending the time FINISHING the strip, I draw a rough in pencil. The sketch usually takes about 5 minutes to do, and gives me a good idea how the layout works, the timing, etc. This is an important stage because I believe if it works in a 5 minute sketch, the joke will work when I sit down and draw and color the thing for real.
HOW THE STRIP IS MADE (PART ONE)
Welcome to a little documentary about how the strip is made, for those who are interested. I did a previous thing on the journal that was terribly verbose, and included a lot more advice than I wanted to give, so this time I'll keep mainly to how *I* do the comic, using #183 as the example.
THE IDEA -> SCRIPT -> ROUGH DRAFT
Obviously, the first part is the idea. I do get a lot of E-mail asking where I get my ideas, the answer is, I don't really know. They just happen. It's a totally unpredictable thing, so I can't really say how it happens. Somehow I get an idea, and it usually comes in a "bite size". By #183, it was established that Chie Sakamachi was living with Madame X, so the idea that Chie would answer the door when Touro comes calling was a pretty logical step. The link I needed was how it would all go wrong for Touro, and I jumped on the idea that Chie would wear a scary mask to protect her face from potential bukkake fans. That was the idea, and with that bite-sized idea, I wrote a script for it.
Since I've done the same first two panels almost a dozen times already, I just wrote the script for the last two panels. Normally I'd write script for all the panels, but I make up swearing friend dialogue on the spot anyways.
When I script it out, I wonder how it looks on the page. To get an idea what the finished strip will look like without actually spending the time FINISHING the strip, I draw a rough in pencil. The sketch usually takes about 5 minutes to do, and gives me a good idea how the layout works, the timing, etc. This is an important stage because I believe if it works in a 5 minute sketch, the joke will work when I sit down and draw and color the thing for real.
The original sketch for #183 is this:
As you can see, I didn't plan on any dialogue for the first two panels, since I didn't think it mattered that much at the planning stage. It is very rough, everyone is just slightly defined stick figures, sometimes with the character's name written to indicate who they were. All dialogue is written on the right. This kind of rough image is something I've done from very early on, and I think it's a good tool, especially for a comic that plays with different camera angles and cuts as opposed to the static two shot of other online comics.
HOW THE STRIP IS MADE (PART TWO)
PENCILS
The paper I use is B5 sized DELETER paper, 135kg KENT paper. It holds ink like nobody's business, and isn't fibery like other kinds of paper. Kent paper is the standard of comics in Japan, and it's cheap -- 40 pages of B5 for 300 yen (less than $3US). It also has all the standard rules in light blue, which is handy for drawing straight vertical and horizontal lines.
For pencilling, I split the paper up into 4 sections, each section is a panel in the strip. I then pencil the strip:
INKS
For inks, I generally use a maru-pen and standard black comic ink. For straight lines and sounds I use liner pens (Copic multi-liners). When I'm finished inking, I naturally erase all the lines in prep for scanning.
Large black spaces I fill in later in a graphics program. This is basically what the art looks like when I feed it into the scanner and assemble the panels vertically into the final shape of the strip. The squiggles at the top are me testing the nib before inking the pencil lines.
SCANNING AND FORMATTING THE STRIP
I have a standard layout that I use that's 500 pixels across, with a 2 pixel border on every side. My first job is to scan each panel into the program I use to format the strip, the GNU utility called GIMP. I scan each panel at 300 dpi in line art mode. Since what I'm scanning is inked, this is the best way to do it. I shrink it down to 500 pixels across (vertical size is variable). By scanning it large and shrinking it down, I get a less pixellated-looking line. Panel by panel, I add a border, fill in the blacks, and add dialogue balloons. The font I use is called "Wild & Crazy" ... I got this off L0cke years ago and I have no idea where to locate it on the web now. I assemble the formatted panels into the template for the strip:
COLORING
There are millions of tutorials out there for coloring comics, so I won't bore you with the particulars. For #183, I was still colouring with just the GIMP, but since then I incorporate other programs such as Painter 8 and Photoshop 7 for coloring. In a nutshell, I make the layer with the artwork the top layer and set it to multiply. The bottom layer is plain white. I add transparent layers inbetween the background layer and artwork layer, and these layers are the ones I color in.
When finished, I flatten the image into one layer, and resize it to 325 pixels across. That's the version you see on the web. Click below to see the final coloured version as is displayed on the site.
Click here to see #183 ¶ 7:26 PM
THE IDEA -> SCRIPT -> ROUGH DRAFT
Obviously, the first part is the idea. I do get a lot of E-mail asking where I get my ideas, the answer is, I don't really know. They just happen. It's a totally unpredictable thing, so I can't really say how it happens. Somehow I get an idea, and it usually comes in a "bite size". By #183, it was established that Chie Sakamachi was living with Madame X, so the idea that Chie would answer the door when Touro comes calling was a pretty logical step. The link I needed was how it would all go wrong for Touro, and I jumped on the idea that Chie would wear a scary mask to protect her face from potential bukkake fans. That was the idea, and with that bite-sized idea, I wrote a script for it.
Since I've done the same first two panels almost a dozen times already, I just wrote the script for the last two panels. Normally I'd write script for all the panels, but I make up swearing friend dialogue on the spot anyways.
When I script it out, I wonder how it looks on the page. To get an idea what the finished strip will look like without actually spending the time FINISHING the strip, I draw a rough in pencil. The sketch usually takes about 5 minutes to do, and gives me a good idea how the layout works, the timing, etc. This is an important stage because I believe if it works in a 5 minute sketch, the joke will work when I sit down and draw and color the thing for real.
HOW THE STRIP IS MADE (PART ONE)
Welcome to a little documentary about how the strip is made, for those who are interested. I did a previous thing on the journal that was terribly verbose, and included a lot more advice than I wanted to give, so this time I'll keep mainly to how *I* do the comic, using #183 as the example.
THE IDEA -> SCRIPT -> ROUGH DRAFT
Obviously, the first part is the idea. I do get a lot of E-mail asking where I get my ideas, the answer is, I don't really know. They just happen. It's a totally unpredictable thing, so I can't really say how it happens. Somehow I get an idea, and it usually comes in a "bite size". By #183, it was established that Chie Sakamachi was living with Madame X, so the idea that Chie would answer the door when Touro comes calling was a pretty logical step. The link I needed was how it would all go wrong for Touro, and I jumped on the idea that Chie would wear a scary mask to protect her face from potential bukkake fans. That was the idea, and with that bite-sized idea, I wrote a script for it.
Since I've done the same first two panels almost a dozen times already, I just wrote the script for the last two panels. Normally I'd write script for all the panels, but I make up swearing friend dialogue on the spot anyways.
When I script it out, I wonder how it looks on the page. To get an idea what the finished strip will look like without actually spending the time FINISHING the strip, I draw a rough in pencil. The sketch usually takes about 5 minutes to do, and gives me a good idea how the layout works, the timing, etc. This is an important stage because I believe if it works in a 5 minute sketch, the joke will work when I sit down and draw and color the thing for real.
The original sketch for #183 is this:
As you can see, I didn't plan on any dialogue for the first two panels, since I didn't think it mattered that much at the planning stage. It is very rough, everyone is just slightly defined stick figures, sometimes with the character's name written to indicate who they were. All dialogue is written on the right. This kind of rough image is something I've done from very early on, and I think it's a good tool, especially for a comic that plays with different camera angles and cuts as opposed to the static two shot of other online comics.
HOW THE STRIP IS MADE (PART TWO)
PENCILS
The paper I use is B5 sized DELETER paper, 135kg KENT paper. It holds ink like nobody's business, and isn't fibery like other kinds of paper. Kent paper is the standard of comics in Japan, and it's cheap -- 40 pages of B5 for 300 yen (less than $3US). It also has all the standard rules in light blue, which is handy for drawing straight vertical and horizontal lines.
For pencilling, I split the paper up into 4 sections, each section is a panel in the strip. I then pencil the strip:
INKS
For inks, I generally use a maru-pen and standard black comic ink. For straight lines and sounds I use liner pens (Copic multi-liners). When I'm finished inking, I naturally erase all the lines in prep for scanning.
Large black spaces I fill in later in a graphics program. This is basically what the art looks like when I feed it into the scanner and assemble the panels vertically into the final shape of the strip. The squiggles at the top are me testing the nib before inking the pencil lines.
SCANNING AND FORMATTING THE STRIP
I have a standard layout that I use that's 500 pixels across, with a 2 pixel border on every side. My first job is to scan each panel into the program I use to format the strip, the GNU utility called GIMP. I scan each panel at 300 dpi in line art mode. Since what I'm scanning is inked, this is the best way to do it. I shrink it down to 500 pixels across (vertical size is variable). By scanning it large and shrinking it down, I get a less pixellated-looking line. Panel by panel, I add a border, fill in the blacks, and add dialogue balloons. The font I use is called "Wild & Crazy" ... I got this off L0cke years ago and I have no idea where to locate it on the web now. I assemble the formatted panels into the template for the strip:
COLORING
There are millions of tutorials out there for coloring comics, so I won't bore you with the particulars. For #183, I was still colouring with just the GIMP, but since then I incorporate other programs such as Painter 8 and Photoshop 7 for coloring. In a nutshell, I make the layer with the artwork the top layer and set it to multiply. The bottom layer is plain white. I add transparent layers inbetween the background layer and artwork layer, and these layers are the ones I color in.
When finished, I flatten the image into one layer, and resize it to 325 pixels across. That's the version you see on the web. Click below to see the final coloured version as is displayed on the site.
Click here to see #183 ¶ 7:26 PM
