Outsourcing to professional flatters
on December 7, 2009 at 11:22 amOutsourcing to professional flatters
In my last post I brought up Elance or Guru for outsourcing. This has been useful to know but I almost hate the process of finding the right person, spending money to test them, possibly train them and the whole time wondering if I could just find a more direct route to a professional flatter in the comics industry for a good price.
Enter GutterZombie.
This is an awesome forum started by Dave McCaig, pretty much dedicated to the comic coloring world. These guys really know their stuff and when I asked about flatting they laughed and directed me to a "work for hire section" that is full of Flatters just waiting to get work. It looks like the going rate is about $10 a page. That's not bad in my opinion. I can see paying ten dollars instead of using 3 hours of my free time and I don't have to teach them about Flatting.
Here is a link to the work for hire section: Flatters!
There are several people offering their service as flatters but it looks like posting a thread about your project is the best approach. It seems like everyone finds someone when they post a thread.
I dug through some of the posts and found a few professional looking websites of flatters. Here are the first five I found but there's plenty more:
I talked to Aaron Daly by email and he offered to flat a page for free to show me how it might work if I hire him for more. He finished the page I sent him in a flash and it looked amazing! We talked about a page rate and I must say that it is much better then I expected (sorry I don't want to say his price because he's doing me a favor since I'm paying for this out of my own pocket.) I'll share what he is doing for me in a future post but feel free to check out his samples here.
In conclusion, I'm pretty convinced that finding a flatter through GutterZombie.com is the best approach when looking to outsource. I know I've found my guy and it was pretty easy.
Here is spread 6 along with the pencil lines. Sorry I'm starting to impose my name and the date of conception on my work. I've noticed some sites are posting my images which is very exciting but also makes me kinda worried if I don't watermark it from now on. I hope it's not to intrusive into the art.
Here are the final pencil lines of spread 6.
And here is the final colors (I think). Notice almost a year passed between the pencils and colors. I'm sure you're also noticing that I'm milking the splash page spreads here. Don't worry, the whole book isn't going to be like this, although it will have splash spreads throughout. I just wanted the first chapter to be a slower pace to force the mood and feel of the world onto the reader before I jumped into heavy story.
(All this information about outsourcing is my unprofessional opinion only. Please contact your CPA for any tax related questions about outsourcing.)
Nice work! The splash above is really cool and Aaron Daly's work looks awesome too! All the best and I can't wait to read the book!
Thanks Steve for stopping by and your comment. Your blog is really interesting! I know I will be following it.
thanks for showing your process once again Jason. I am really enjoying the pencil to color transition. It's amazing how well you simplify from pencil. The final is gorgeous.
The other thing I keep noticing is how well the your pencils transfer to a digital environment. I'll have to think about that for future projects.
Jason and Steve – Thanks guys. Yeah, my idea about coloring is to preserve the lines as much as I can. I love seeing line work in art and it's always sad when coloring downs out that aspect. One thing I noticed about Joshua Middleton's work was how he used pencils as his final lines. That really opened my eyes and convinced me that I could do a whole graphic novel without inks.My inks suck by the way. And I'm always surprised how many people think my pencil lines ARE ink. Thanks for the comments!
Dear Jason! you were right! that link was wrong. here is the correct address to my blog. like i said, it's still in it's early stages. hopefully by the end of this week i will have the first images done of chapter one posted. keep in touch!-erich
http://feathyrcomplex.blogspot.com/
Jason,
Can I first and foremost say that you are an incredible package of inspiration, talent and resource.
This is the first time I’ve looked over your site (I saw an ad on TopWebComics.com – awesome animated banner btw) and in less than 4 hours I’ve been overwhelmed by the friendly advice you give to people (from all the tutorials and discussions you have about graphic novel making and publishing), your humble nature and the concept concept (plus it’s execution).
It has been an absolute joy browsing through your articles, your comics (I don’t plan to read anymore than Pages 70-71 (via http://www.remindblog.com/2010/07/12/pages-70-71/) because of the KICKSTARTER advertisement. I was going to get the book, signed copy with a sketch of Victuals) but the target has already been achieved! Darn it I was late! Anyhow I’ll get the book as soon as it’s printed in MAR2011.
Also, it’s been real cool to get insightful tips about where best to get your work published and such. It’s cool to see what are the pros and cons of the options you and peers have discussed in the blog. I’m currently selling my own graphic novel via INDYPLANET.com which is affiliated to KA-BLAM.com (http://ka-blam.com/printing/front/). I’m not too sure if you have heard of it, and if you didn’t I reckon it’s a good place to check out – it is potentially an alternate means of self-publishing graphic novels.
I’ve been a hobby artist for 8 years now and I’ve just recently (in fact only 2 days ago – http://www.darkspeeds.deviantart.com/) left deviantART to start afresh and inspire myself to try something different. Because of visiting this site I’ve been refueled with an extra flame to continue my journey of drawing comics for a hobby.
Thank you Jason, it’s been an experience just browsing through your site in just 4 hours. If you don’t mind, may I have your permission to allow me to add reMIND to my ‘MOST WANTED’ list? (as seen on the bottom-left hand bar of my website – http://grandhunter.darkspeeds.com/)
Kind regards,
Elson ‘Darkspeeds’ Wong
P.S. And what the hell? You’ve answered my question on how to find ‘professional colourist/colour flatters for hire’ at competitive rates. Bless you mate – just when I’m in the midst of hiring people to colour my graphic novel. *thumbs up*
It’s comments like this that keep me going! Thanks for all the kind words. You are more than welcome to link to reMIND on your Most Wanted list. I would appreciate any exposure you can give.
I’ve used Ka-Blam as well and think they are an excellent POD company for comics. I’ve talked down towards POD companies before but they definitely have a role that needs to be filled. Ka-blam is perfect for a hobby comic or just trying to get your book out there for little or no money. I’m thinking of doing a How-To POD book in the near future. Anyway, thanks again for the feedback. Good luck with everything.