Forum Trolling?

by Jason Brubaker on January 21, 2010 at 6:00 am
Posted In: Making Graphic Novels

Can Forums Promote Your Graphic Novel?

So I’ve started spending time in art forums these last few months. One of the forum rules is “No Trolling”. I have no idea what this means and when I asked an artist friend he told me it was to sit under a bridge and grant wishes. I looked it up in the dictionary and found that it was either loud singing or a method of fishing. I’m still confused but apparently I haven’t broken this rule yet because I’m still allowed to post.

I’ve never used a forum before a few months ago. To tell you the truth, I am pleasantly surprised with them, for the most part. Growing up, the only way to share my art with others or get critiques was to join a drawing group at the local comic shop (which I did) but joining the local comic shop drawing club had it limits. There were only a handful of us and all our styles were polar opposites. Showing art to the world was just impossible at the local shop too.

These forums, on the other hand, are great for getting critiques from as many people as you can handle as well as helping someone else see something they are missing. Not only that but you can show off your art to the whole world. Since I’ve started trolling I’ve had almost 5000 views of my thread in ConceptArt.org as well as some really great advice on how to make my cover better at PencilJack.com. ConceptArt brought over 200 unique viewers to my blog and PencilJack pulled in over 100. Aside from the numbers I’m totally inspired by some of the amazing artists who post regularly. Some people will start posting as beginner artists and 2 years later their progress blows my mind. It’s been so inspiring to see how people have learned their anatomy through their sketchbook threads at ConceptArt and it makes me want to start doing the same.

This whole idea came about after talking to an amazing illustrator, Ronald Kurniawan, about how to get my artwork noticed. He suggested spending an hour a day in forums both posting work and commenting on others work. He said if you can do that for a month then you will have mad traffic. I started about two months ago and I have…some traffic. But I have to admit that Ron’s work is VERY impressive and I can’t expect to see the same success as he has. None the less, I’ve started getting a small steady flow if traffic to my site which is much better then before when I just had my family visiting once a month.

Now even though I started attending forums to get traffic to my site I have become quite addicted and enjoy it too much to stop now. I can seriously see myself doing this for a long time.

I’ll talk about specific forums next week. If someone knows what a Forum Troll is then please shed some light on the subject.

[Edit] Forum Trolls explained. Thanks everyone!

Artist, Illustrator and Comic Forums

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reMIND – Spread 10

by Jason Brubaker on January 18, 2010 at 6:00 am
Posted In: Blog

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.

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Comic Font Creation – Making Your Own Comic Font

by Jason Brubaker on January 14, 2010 at 6:00 am
Posted In: Making Graphic Novels
Custom comic fonts.
After looking around at all the comic font websites and seeing how much it costs for a good looking font, I had the brain buster idea to look into creating my own font.  I’ve worked with plenty designers and some who even created their own fonts and sold them to companies so I knew it was possible and maybe even easy.

After a quick internet search I found this site with a simple looking program called FontCreator from High-Logic.  It costs $79 for a home version which is as cheap as any semi-good font out there and I could potentially make as many as I want without worrying about any complicated licensing fees.

I did anther search and found this site that looks even easier. It’s called YourFonts.com.  You download a template and print it. Then scan and upload the filled in template and it generates your font for $9.95.  (If you want to buy a font at Your Fonts, please use this link so that I can get a commission for sending you there.)

http://www.yourfonts.com

I downloaded the template and filled it in on my computer using a Wacom Cintiq.  It only took 10 minutes or so just like they said.  Once I uploaded my completed template it took about 40 seconds to create the font ready to be downloaded.  I was really blown away with how easy it was.  My only problem is not being able to control the kerning of the letters but you can do that in Photoshop or Illustrator.  They suggest using FontCreator to get more technical.  But as far as a font made out of your own hand writing, I’m impressed.

Better yet, I happened to stumble across the site when they had a free promotion code so I made a bunch just for fun.  Here they are:

I made a few more just just for fun.  Hey what can I say, they were free at the time.  If anyone is interested in using some of these then let me know.  I’m sure we can work something out.
Here is another font creation site that looks like it takes more time but it might be what you are looking for.

http://fontstruct.fontshop.com/

Here is a tutorial on making your own fonts with Photoshop and Illustrator.

http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Create_Your_Own_Font

And finally here is a FREE font creation program.  It is a bit more complex then YourFonts.com but you can really get in there and control the kerning, add a bold to your fonts and all the nit-picky details that any anal font creator will love.  Oh yeah, and it’s free.  I downloaded it for my Mac and it’s running like a charm but I need to sit down with the documentation to fully use it.  I was able to import my fonts I created at YourFonts.com to adjust a few minor details that were bothering me.  Here’s the link:

http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/

Now I’m not saying I understand everything about lettering or fonts but I do know that in a perfect world I would want my comics hand lettered in a style similar to what I created above.  Most of the professional comic fonts out there are perfect looking. That’s fine if your artwork is perfect looking too but in my case it distracts from the hand drawn artwork.  Plus when I look at old comics that were hand lettered I notice all kinds of random flaws.  It’s those flaws that give it the charm of being hand lettered.

Anyway, I still need to master my word balloons and sound effects.  I’ll save that for another time.  Plus, I’m pretty happy with what I’ve learned this week.

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WordPress or Blogger?

by Jason Brubaker on January 11, 2010 at 6:00 am
Posted In: Blog
Here is spread 9 of reMIND. 
 

I read someplace that you should make rules for yourself when working on your own project like a graphic novel. One of my rules is to have a maximum of 4 panels per page unless it's the same camera angle repeated over and over. This repeated frame technique is pretty much inspired completely from working in the world of animation and storyboards for the last decade. Sometimes it's fun to explore a locked down sequence of frames to show the movements and visually explain how things happen over a period of time.

I guess my decisions here are mainly to show Victuals struggle to leave the comfort of the lighthouse to get back to the water. I'm hoping that my audience will wonder why he left the lighthouse as well as notice the first words coming from his mouth. Cat's talk?

Oh yeah, and I'm not using Comic Sans anymore.

Another thing I have been toying with is the idea of switching from Google's blogging service to WordPress.org.  A few things have come up swaying me to go this route.

Here is a list of my reasons, so far, for switching from Blogger to WordPress.
 

  • WordPress looks much more professional.
  • Since it's open-source it has more options for how to set it up. 
  • Once it's set up right, it's amazing what you can do with it and it's easy.
  • reMINDblog.com will be an actual domain instead of a forwarded domain name.
  • All the content will be on my server and controlled by me.
  • I can use ComicPress to easily display my pages in an orderly fashion.
  • I can have a menu at the top with About, Contact, Links, Tutorials, Etc.
Cons about switching to WordPress from Google's Blogger.
  • Blogger is just SOOOOOO easy to setup, I will miss that.
  • Now I need to pay for a server.
  • Lots of my artist friends are on Blogger so I don't want to be an outcast. (don't laugh at me)
  • I might have to start over trying to get traffic if I switch over.
I'm sure there is more that I can add to these list's but for now this is all I can think of.
 
Anyone want to chime in on this?
 
Also, I wanted to thank Drezz at iDrawDigital for writing an article about reMIND!  Go and check out his blog all about comics if you have a minute.
 
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Lettering – Fonts for comics and graphic novels

by Jason Brubaker on January 7, 2010 at 8:00 am
Posted In: Making Graphic Novels
letterrerrer

To start things off I want to apologize for using the Comic Sans font in my pages up until now.  I just learned a bunch of stuff lately about my lack of skill and understanding of lettering and now I’m kinda embarrassed with what I’ve posted.  I will be updating the lettering fonts really soon so worry not!  Because of this eye opening experience I have decided to do some posts specifically about this subject.

First of all I’d like to thank Jim Campbell for being the first person to point this out to me.  He re-lettered some of my pages to show me how much better it could look if executed correctly and helped me see many things I was overlooking.

To list a few things that I was doing wrong:

  • Using Comic Sans font. Apparently it’s an incomplete font and very hated by letterers.
  • Using an I with the cross bars in the middle of a word. (BIG NO NO)
  • Words completely unvaried. Not showing any emphasis on key words.
  • Not even thinking that anyone really cared about lettering.

First, here is a link that breaks down all the basics of comic lettering. It’s very helpful just to understand strange symbols and to know what people are accustomed to.

Comic Book Lettering Grammar and Tradition – Nate Piekos

Second, here are two sites that sell comic lettering fonts and some are even free.

Blambot Fonts (comic lettering fonts and some free fonts)
Comicraft Fonts (these are really professional looking but cost money)

(Thanks to Ryan Christopher Lord for giving me these links.)

Third, here are some tutorials on Lettering:

Comicraft lettering tips and tricks
Jim Campbell’s lettering guide using Illustrator (download link) [Unfortunately this download is no longer available.]

So now that I have discovered the basics of graphic novel lettering, I need to update my pages to cool the burning hatred fueled from frivolous overuse of Comic Sans.

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Spread 8 – reMIND – the graphic novel

by Jason Brubaker on January 4, 2010 at 10:48 am
Posted In: Blog
Here is spread 8 of reMIND.
 
 
Happy New Year!  My sincere apologies for posting nothing last week.  I was spending Christmas and New Years with my family and enjoying every minute of it.  Speaking of New Years, I've come up with a New Years resolution.  I am going to post twice a week in 2010.

On Mondays I will post my pages from reMIND and on Thursdays I will post information about making graphic novels. 

This way when I have another interview with a graphic novel artist it won't interfere with posting my progress on Mondays.

With all that said, here is spread 8.  Another slow paced establishing shot before things get out of control. I'm not sure if I should have the time narration box or not.  I just want to make sure that everyone understands that it's in the middle of the night but I assume this is obvious because the picture in the dark.  Hmm. I'll let my writer buddy figure this one out.  Who knows.  Maybe there will be narration box in every frame like Watchmen.  I hope not. Otherwise I'd never finish reading my own book.

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The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Creating a Graphic Novel

by Jason Brubaker on December 21, 2009 at 11:24 am
Posted In: Blog

This last week I ordered a copy of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Creating a Graphic Novel and I just finished the first 4 chapters.  Hmmm.  I’m not sure what I think about it just yet but I am definitely going to write a review about it once I’m finished.  My first thoughts?  It’s very long winded and not enough pictures.  Especially since it’s about making graphic novels.

[EDIT: 8-25-2011] I finished reading it finally and I have to admit that there is some great information in there especially with the technical stuff towards the end. The information on distribution, ISBN’s, barcodes and all that fun (non artistic) stuff was the most helpful but there was a lot that I felt didn’t apply to me because I wasn’t trying to make a normal comic. Most of the artistic advice was good for complete beginners  (or complete idiot’s as the title says) and maybe people who want to publish traditional American style comics but I don’t feel like it applies to graphic novels as much. So, buy it if you are looking for some good technical information but I’d still suggest getting Making Comics by Scott McCloud over this any day.

The only thing that really bothered me about it was the constant joke telling. About 50% of the text was a joke. I felt like I had to speed read it to get the good information which became increasingly frustrating as I was trying to figure out when to take it seriously and when it was comedy filler. I admit that it was good humor but, for me, a how-to book needs to have solid information so I can reference it later when needed.

So my final decision is to get it in addition to other How-to books on the subject but not as a stand alone.

________________

Now back to my graphic novel…

The pages below are finally starting to get into the story of reMIND.  The first batch of pages were all designed to give a mood and feeling associated with this story as well as introduce things.  To be a Hayao Miyazaki intro so to speak.  Miyazaki has been a huge influence in my vision for the last 10 years or so.  I am not saying that I understand what he does or that I’m even close but if I can achieve just a fraction of his mood setting genius then I will be satisfied.

If you haven’t seen any of Miyazaki’s films then for the love of everything holy, please do.  My favorite so far is Spirited Away. Here is a link of you want to buy any of them from Amazon.
Miyazaki Films on Amazon.

Sonja (the girl) has always been a huge struggle for me because I never really made a model sheet for her and never really knew what I wanted her to look like.  In fact she was a guy at one point.  Some shots my wife had to pose and some (like these) I was able to pull it out of my head.  I always worry that the continuity will be off but at the same time I love animations and graphic novels/comics that don’t care to much about it so I guess I should stop freaking out.  It is what it is.

Anyway, Here is a progression from my newest page of reMIND.

Line art then a gray tone pass attempted when I thought reMIND was just going to be black and white.  Haha, the days of simplicity are long gone. Then the finished painted art.

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Interview with Ian Hannin a professional comic colorist

by Jason Brubaker on December 14, 2009 at 11:30 am
Posted In: Making Graphic Novels

An interview with Ian Hannin, a professional comic colorist with many high profile titles under his belt including:

  • Batman
  • Superman
  • Spider-Man
  • X-Men
  • Spawn!

JASON BRUBAKER – Hey Ian.  Thanks for taking the time for this interview. 

To start things out, How did you become a comic colorist?

IAN HANNIN - No problem, Jason. I'm a fan of your work- especially, the colors!

Let's go back to 1995. Wow. I was a comic book fan, and a Photoshop enthusiast working at Kinko's in downtown Orlando, FL. On one of my weekly scheduled trips to the comic book store, I found myself with the latest issue of Wildstorm Production's, WildC.A.T.s, drawn by my favorite, the legendary Jim Lee. And to my astonishment, there was an page in the back devoted to their talent search! They were looking for writers, pencilers, inkers and colorists. I figured I'd give it a go since I'd had some traditional painting experience, and was fresh out of Ringling School of Art and Design of Sarasota, having learned Photoshop 2.0! I crafted a resume, collected some of my photoshop work, and dropped it all in the mail to La Jolla, CA. A few days later, I received a call from Wildstorm- a truly life-changing day. I will always be indebted to Alex Sinclair- pioneer in the biz, and Jim Lee colorist to this day, for giving me the opportunity. Within a few short weeks, I had moved to La Jolla, settled into a small studio apt, and begun coloring Jim Lee's comics- with the man himself just down the hall. And by the way, he's still my hero, and a great guy.

JASON BRUBAKER – What a great story.  I remember picking up that same issue of WildC.A.T.S. and spending the next 2 weeks perfecting 4 penciled pages for a submission.  They told me I wasn't chosen but I was second on the list.  Oh well.  So since my blog is about making comics and graphic novels I'll try to get really specific now of your process.

When you color, do you use any photo reference or do you just pull it all out of your head?

IAN HANNIN - If I need photo reference, it's usually for background elements. With deadlines looming, sometimes I'll search online for photos of things I'd have a tough time starting from scratch. A cloudy sky or some ripples in the surface of a pool. Maybe a nice moon with craters and gashes across the surface. In any case, I tweak it heavily- adding contrast, blurring, smudging, adding my own details, and of course changing the hues. By the time I'm done with the reference, it's no more a photo than a Monet is.

JASON BRUBAKER – It seems like that is a pretty common practice now days.  About half the artist I work with manipulate photos for their visual development paintings.  They also make a lot of custom brushes in Photoshop.  Is this something you do as well?

IAN HANNIN - I do have some custom brushes, but I use them sparingly. I'm a big believer of less-is-more. I try to keep the colors simple and clean. Too much rendering is too much to look at. I mean, come on, the reader is READING. If I need some blood splatter, or some rust, then I'll go for the custom brushes. But I don't care for coloring with textures everywhere. Just because you can make blue jeans look real in Photoshop, doesn't mean you SHOULD.

Ninety-Nine percent of the time, I'm using the lasso tool and the airbrush to render the lighting set up by the inker. That's it.

JASON BRUBAKER – I see.  Do you have someone flat out your pages before you start?

IAN HANNIN - I flat my own pages. There's nothing more frustrating for me than to have to clean up someone else's flats before I can get to work.
 
 
JASON BRUBAKER – How long does it take you to color a page?
 
IAN HANNIN - Well, I sure don't claim to be the fastest colorist in the biz. But, the time I spend on a page completely depends on who drew it, and what's happening in the scene. I'm coloring Tony S. Daniel's BATMAN right now. He's a great mix of detail and simplicity. A page of Batman brawling with a foe might be 6 panels with capes and bombs and all kinds of background location. That's probably going to take me at least 4 hours after it's flattened. But I have a French Bulldog who regularly interrupts me to play, so… I blame her.

JASON BRUBAKER – Wow, 4 hours seems really quick to finish a page.  Do you throw down color and then adjust it later?

IAN HANNIN – I generally finish as I go, rather than tweaking things constantly as I work the whole page. When I feel like I'm wrapping it up, I'll give the page a good long look and make some final adjustments, but they are minor. Maybe some contrast here and there, to pop the foreground from the background. I keep an alpha channel of my flats so that I can easily select anything that needs adjusting.

JASON BRUBAKER – And how long does it take you to flat your pages?

IAN HANNIN - It depends on the artist and the level of detail, but anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. Again, French Bulldog…

JASON BRUBAKER – Do you work in CYMK or RGB?

IAN HANNIN - I work in RGB and then change modes to CMYK for the printer. The painting modes just don't work the same in CMYK. Especially "screen" mode which is pretty crucial. Of course, you will see some of your colors transform slightly when you change modes, but if you are conscious of "illegal" colors, nothing should turn to mud.

JASON BRUBAKER – Coloring Batman!  That must be every childhood boy's dream job.  Do you feel like you are at the top of your game now or is there still something that you need to do to feel like you've made it, so to speak.  Or what's your dream job?

IAN HANNIN – I'm a Batman fan. So yeah, I'm honored and excited to be coloring the comic book. In that personal sense, I kind of feel like I've "made it", but I'm not gonna retire early doing this gig. The dream job is making movies. Writing, story boarding, acting, pushing a dolly, whatever. When I'm not coloring Batman, I'm putting a feature film together with a group called UNTAMED CINEMA.

JASON BRUBAKER – I'll definitely have to keep my eyes open for your film projects. I'm sure working in comics helps when it comes to making movies.  In animation, a color script is planned out before production begins to figure out the colors of the scenes.  Do you make a color script before you start coloring a comic?

IAN HANNIN – Wow. I'd love to see a color script! That's a great idea! So, no, I don't do that. I deal in 22 page stories. I can say though, that as I'm progressing through the book, I'm conscious of the need to change palettes from scene to scene. Color is absolutely imperative to letting the reader know they've entered a new location- or even a new situation in the same location!

JASON BRUBAKER – How hard is it to switch styles between books?

IAN HANNIN – That can be tough. But I think there's a switching curve. Once I've figured out what I'm doing differently, the speed increases.

JASON BRUBAKER – Do you think about how to lead the eye around the page with your colors?

IAN HANNIN – Always thinking about that. With panel to panel stuff, that's not always easy, or even possible. Maybe I think about how to lead the eye around the PANEL with my colors.

JASON BRUBAKER – What advice could you give to someone trying to get into your field now days?

IAN HANNIN – Assuming this person already has an understanding of not only Photoshop, but how light and color works, and if I thought I could vouch for them, I'd put them in touch with some of the editors I've worked with. But from what I understand, the only other way is to send samples to the publishers, or show them in person at a convention if the opportunity presents itself. The editors usually have time set aside for meeting pencilers, inkers and colorists. Break a leg, future comic book colorists!

JASON BRUBAKER – And if someone were to show an editor their work…What does it take to get noticed as a colorist?  Or to stand out.

 

IAN HANNIN – I would guess a certain level of dynamism… is that the right word? Dynamic-ness (laughs) is crucial, but also an understanding of psychology. Colors are psychological. Using the right colors in the right places can knock people out of their socks. And finding a way to add something cool to the art… casting a shadow across the hero's eyes for that Noir feel, or planting a bold primary color somewhere ballsy. Sure, it's risky- they could tell you to do it over. Or, they could go apesh*t over your brilliance.

JASON BRUBAKER – Okay, and now for all the self-publishers out there.  I'm not sure if this question is right for you but I figured I'd ask.  What advice can you give me and others trying to make a graphic novel?

IAN HANNIN – To paraphrase one of my heroes, there is no "try". You are DOING it. You're making your graphic novel. To those reading this who's work I haven't had the good fortune to see, I would say only this: Make it your own and do it in a way we've never seen before.

JASON BRUBAKER – Very good advice. And now for the most important question…If you were a color which one would it be?

IAN HANNIN – That would change from day to day, but sitting here right now I'd have to say C 65, M 85, Y 0, K 30.

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Outsourcing to professional flatters

by Jason Brubaker on December 7, 2009 at 11:22 am
Posted In: Making Graphic Novels

Outsourcing 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:

Aaron Daly

Alex Petretich

David Burns

Fred Fries

Ruth Lim

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.

Spread 6 – reMIND

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.)

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Outsourcing Comic Pages

by Jason Brubaker on November 30, 2009 at 10:17 am
Posted In: Making Graphic Novels

Outsourcing Comics

To start this off, I'd like to say that I'm not trying to promote outsourcing. I'm sure someone will read this and be upset with me for showing a clear cut way to outsource your comic pages causing the American economy to collapse…again.  All I'm trying to do here is get my stupid graphic novel finished before I'm to old to draw.  Plus I'd rather spend time with my wife and son then flatting a page on the weekends.  After all, this isn't my job, it's my personal project/hobby.

Surviving the effects of globalization for an online freelancer?

Now that I've captivated you with that last link, I'll plow forward.  The whole idea of outsourcing arose after reading the book The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. This book, in itself, is a controversy. I think Tim is a bit of a salesman myself but I did pick up some interesting things from his ramblings.

Outsourcing was one of them. Outsourcing boring, time consuming, or monotonous things that don't need your special attention so you can focus on things you want to do. 

The book suggests a few websites that specialize in aggregating freelancers from around the globe.  Here are a few of them:

I suggest Elance over Guru. Guru is slow and it's hard to find anyone for a good price.  Why would I want to pay someone $75 an hour to flat out my pages.  Elance, on the other hand is a pretty fast site to look through and you can find people around the world but it does take some getting use to.

I ended up using a small company of five from India called Dream Computers.  They have a few comic coloring samples in their portfolio.  Their hourly rate said $15 but after I paid them for my test pages they emailed me back, dropping their page rate to $15 a page for finished coloring. Just so you know, I never used what they colored because it wasn't what I was looking for but I'm thinking about emailing my contact at Dream Computers to show them a flatting tutorial and negotiate a new price.  After all I don't want to pay them the same price for flatting a page as I would for finished coloring.  My only problem with this method is it seems like you have to spend time and money to get the right freelancer and maybe even teach them what you want them to do.

Even though I can see how this might work out well with the exchange rates, I'm still curious about hiring someone who already knows how to do flats.  I mean how much more could it cost to have a professional flatter?  But where do I find one?

[Edit] Click here to find out – Outsourcing Comic Flatting – part 2 

P.S. I just got reamed the other day about my lousy lettering job in these pages.  I promise I will make it all better once I learn to do it right and I'll post what I learn. 

[Edit] What I learned – Lettering and Making your own fonts

 

Here is Spread 5 by the way.

 

I'm thinking of adding part of a row boat in the bottom left panel foreground. I already redrew Sonja twice and finally asked my wife to pose for me so I could get it right. I worry it looks more realistic then the rest of her frames.  And talk about negative space!

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Comic Coloring – Flatting

by Jason Brubaker on November 23, 2009 at 9:21 am
Posted In: Blog, Making Graphic Novels

Flatting? What’s that?

For about 3 years now, I’ve been slaving away at my coloring process about as slow as possible. I would spend hours and hours filling between the lines all while throwing textures over everything to see how it might look. I would work on a page for half a day and then just leave it alone for a while. Perhaps I might dream of a better color pallet that night. Or maybe I’ll be able to see something better if I open it up in a week or a month.

One time I actually hired some freelancers from India and Japan to color a test page to see if they could match my style and save me precious time. I gave them specific reference of how I wanted it to look and even examples of the color pallet. I even gave them my homemade texture files.
When I got the pages back they looked…well, lets just say I deleted the files even after revisions so that I wouldn’t be influenced in any way by what I saw. Don’t get me wrong, they did a great job coloring the pages but it wasn’t right for my project. Even though it was far from what I wanted, it was money well spent because it sent me on a quest to figure out more efficient methods of coloring my pages.
Later I thought about hiring one of them to paint all the sections of my pages a flat color on layers so that I could easily adjust it all and add textures and lighting myself. This would save me so much time but how would I explain this crazy concept that, obviously has never been done before, to a guy across the world with a language barrier. Maybe I can pay him less if he’s just PREPARING the files for me, I thought.
I never got around to it. Finishing the line work for the first book was all I could think about. Good thing too. It was only a month ago that I came across a blog in which I learned all about the common practice of comic book flatting. Or to flat out colors.
Flatting is what comic guys call preparing line art for coloring.  It’s exactly what I needed the whole time but had no idea what it was called. On top of that, I’m now noticing that EVERYONE ELSE knows what it is. I guess that’s what I get for trying to do a graphic novel all by myself in secret.  Here are a few excellent tutorials on flatting.
[edit] If you’re wondering how I outsourced to a few guys on the other side of the world, I talk about that here: Outsourcing.

Here are some images of my process for spread 4.
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Page Progression: Thumbnails to a Finished Painted Comic Page

by Jason Brubaker on November 16, 2009 at 10:50 am
Posted In: Blog, Making Graphic Novels

I hope you enjoy this spread because I thought about it way to much. For a simple comic-page layout, I must have sketched 20 versions before finally satisfied. I had the idea of splitting the cats head into different panels early on and it opened a giant can of worms. You might also notice the greenish red hand behind the cat which was another time-suck for me. I still don’t know how obvious I want this hand to be. At one point I had a shadow on the cats body but that never looked quite right.

On the right side is my ode to Christian Schellewald I guess. You see, I bought his book, LA/SF, at the San Diego Comic Con in 2006 after looking through the entire convention. It was one of the only books that really stood out to me, besides Joshua Middleton’s Sky Between Branches. Schellewald’s book is filled with amazing little guasch paintings and sketches of completely normal things. Mostly streets, airplanes, and palm trees, but with every sketch is an amazing composition and what amazed me most was his use of negative space. Almost an entire panel would be painted white and then the lower third would be a cool tree or something. This really opened my eyes to a few things. One, negative space is a really good thing. And two, the whole guash painting approach is a good thing too. I know what you are thinking right now. This guy can’t write to save his life. I know, I know, I may not be J.K. Rowling when it comes to sharing my thoughts but I sure know when I love an artistic style.
Schellewald’s and Middleton’s books are some of the biggest influences on this graphic novel. Middleton’s sketches on his blog just make my head spin. You might have to dig a little for them but it’s worth it.

Anyway, I loved the negative space idea and as you can see, I wholeheartedly applied it to the right side of this page.

Below are a few of the steps that I had to take to get this finished spread.

A step is missing here where I blew up this thumbnail and printed it on 8.5 x 11 paper and traced over it using tracing paper and a bald point pen.
This is the final line work after blowing it up again and printing it on two sheets of legal paper (8.5 x 14) taped together.  I used a light table, bristol board and a mechanical pencil. Scanned to Photoshop, adjusted the contrast and presto.

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Before you start YOUR graphic novel…

by Jason Brubaker on November 14, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Posted In: Making Graphic Novels

This article has been updated and moved to MakingComics.com.

Please follow this link to read the new improved version:

10 Things BEFORE You Start a Comic or Graphic Novel

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Publish a graphic novel?

by Jason Brubaker on November 10, 2009 at 10:38 am
Posted In: Blog

Publish a graphic novel?

Most people look at me cross-eyed when I tell them my dream to publish my graphic novel. Most of the time I have to explain what a graphic novel is before I can continue describing my fantasy.  Then there are those who think I’m just a dreamer who’s never going to finish because I’ve been working on this crazy side project ever since they can remember.

Well, now I can proudly just give them my blog address and keep my mouth shut.  
But posting my pages online has been a whole new adventure.  I can honestly say I’m terrified of what people will say when they see what I’ve been meticulously knit picking for the last 3 years of my life.  I just started using Google Analytics last week and can’t even concentrate anymore while at work.  Every second I’m checking my stats.  Just yesterday I realized it only updates once a day.  What a relief.  Now I only check it in the morning. But that doesn’t stop me from looking at my rankings on Comic Blog Elite.  At some point I figure it will all get out of my system and I’ll be able to log onto a computer again without checking my feedback.  
 
Yesterday was rough.  I tried to pretend it didn’t matter and I ended up with a headache and a stomachache. 

Spread 2

by Jason Brubaker on November 5, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Posted In: Blog
 
Here is the second spread (pages 3 and 4) of reMIND. The text isn't final and most likely it'll change because I'm trusting it to Jeremy Barlow who agreed to help me with the final writing of this book. He's a writer for Dark Horse working on many Star Wars titles, graphic novels as well as his own projects. We use to go to the San Diego Comic Con back in the mid 90's when we were young lads. It's funny how we both made a career out of our hobbies.
 
As you can see, every page of reMIND is drawn as a spread. I hear that this method will make it harder to publish with problems like pages not lining up and things getting cut off in the fold but I'm dedicated to this idea and I can't turn back now. Not that I want to. The whole reason I'm building it this way is to control the mood. In film you are forced to feel the mood on screen at any given time and in the same way I'd like to control the colors and feel every time you turn the page.

This is also limiting the formats in which I can publish this. If I publish it as a softbound book then you won't be able to open the pages wide enough to see all the details close to the fold. Hardbound seems like the only way I can go about it, but that's exactly the feel I wanted with this book so I'm not to worried. It does, however, mean expensive printing costs so I've been looking into printing presses in China. The two that I've heard about and briefly talked to are:

I've gone to the Crossblue office in LA about two years ago and I was very happy with what I saw and the quotes they gave me.  I heard about Regent from a friend who published through them but it took about a month and a half just to get some paper samples as well as waiting weeks to hear back from emails.  But the quality of their books are very nice.  I still need to get a quote so we will see how they stack up to Crossblue.

Does anyone have any other suggestions of good printers that do high quality books at a good price?

- Jason

Spread 1

by Jason Brubaker on November 3, 2009 at 11:06 am
Posted In: Blog
I guess I might as well start posting some pages from reMIND.  I have always felt kind of worried about showing too much stuff too early but I’m at the point where I feel like everyone is tired of me talking about my graphic novel and ready to see something.  After all I’ve been talking about it for almost 3 years now, and 10 or more if you count the time I spent making it into an animation.  Someday I might get the nerve up to post some of the animation clips just to prove that it’s come a long way.  I also worry that if I don’t start getting a small audience now then I may never sell enough copies when I finally publish it.
Over the weekend I found the best blog I’ve ever read and it has inspired me in this project like no other.  It’s called Project Waldo by Nate Simpson.  It’s a blog all about him quitting his day job for a year to make a script and animatic for an entire film.  Throughout the process he talks about all he is learning and going through while he makes this film.  Quite a few months into it his feedback on his script revealed that his movie was not getting anywhere quickly.  As it turns out, he scrapped the first idea and started over with a new idea and this time he decided to make a graphic novel instead based on his friends advice.  The pages he’s been posting over the last few months are nothing short of amazing.  It’s some of the best work I’ve ever seen for a graphic novel. If you decide to read ProjectWaldo, I suggest you start from the beginning and read the comments too.  It’s a bucket load of great information on the process of being creative.
Anyway,  I’ll post some new pages of reMIND next week.  Let me know if the pages are too big to view when you click on them.  I can save them a few inches smaller if anyone has trouble looking at it.