Click image to enlarge.
I have to say that this is almost my favorite finished spread. I just love how the lighting turned out with the warm sun blasting everything in the bedroom and kitchen. This was also around the time I started running out of large Bristol board sheets in which to put a full spread. I wanted to finish another page that Saturday and I had a bunch of animation paper laying around so I decided to draw individual frames on it instead. What I discovered changed my whole process and I've never looked back.
You see, back in the day it was ingrained into my mind that I needed to layout a comic page on Blue Line Pro. When shrunk down 65% it fits exactly to a standard comic size page. Everything had to be perfected on that Blue Line Pro because there was no Photoshop at my fingertips to edit any mistakes. Until recently I always felt like I needed to draw all the panels together, after all, how would I sell the originals if it wasn't nicely arranged exactly as it is in the comic.
Well, I'm here to tell you when I tried to sell original art at the Ape Con a few years ago along other graphic novel publishers, I had more luck selling small originals then selling large ones. In fact I sold about 20 small originals that were 4" x 4" and three that were 4" x 8". Nothing larger then that sold. Hmmm. Maybe my large artwork sucks but that's not the point.
To this day I draw all the frames separately except for sometimes with a few small ones. I like the idea of arranging it all in Photoshop however I want. I still stick very closely to my original thumbnail and sketches which are all still drawn as a whole. The only things I'm still unhappy with, on this page, are the ugly blue sound effects. I really need to draw something better to replace them.
Here is the thumbnail.
And here are the finished frames.
Stephen – Thanks for comparing this page to Joshua Middleton! What a compliment! His Sky Between Branches work was one of the big reasons I started this book in the first place. It's interesting to hear of professionals drawing panels separately too. I also heard that some European artists do the same with their graphic novels.
Well, I'm glad you like the pages and I also added Near Death to my Links list!
Oh, thanks! I'm in good company there with Nate.
Beautiful, easily my favourite pages so far. You’ve got a bit of a Joshua Middleton vibe going on here, especially in the colours. Bryan Hitch of Marvel fame used to work a similar way, drawing each panel on a separate bit of paper and then tracing them through onto the final board.
Cool stuff! looking forward to seeing the final graphic novel! I went from Graphic Design to Animation so your work is twice as interesting for me. All the best!
Thanks Simon, Yeah the graphic design world is a great place to learn some good tricks. I’m nowhere near the designer that my friends are but I feel like I learned many things in that field.
BTW, I moved your comment from my links page. I hope you don't mind. I didn't realize that someone could comment on my links, about, and contact pages so I turned that feature off just now.
Man, the colors on that page are really wonderful. Also, the subtle coloring of the line is a really great touch.
Awesome work.
S.M. Vidaurri – Thank you!!
Much of my style here is an inspiration of Joshua Middleton's work. He has an amazing way of lighting everything and fading lines just right. Have you ever seen Sky Between Branches? It's soooo beautiful. http://joshuamiddleton.com/galleries/skybetweenbr…