While I’m in the middle of doodling ELF `n TROLL issue 10, I’ve been playing with an idea that could possibly sprout some fruit somewhere down the line. I’ve been playing with the idea of producing pages directly from my pencils and skipping the inking stage. This is something I’ve been playing with for a while now and seems to be something of a recent trend in comics these days. It’s not a new phenomenon by any means. If you’ve been a fan of Euro-comics over the past 20 years you’ve seen this before. I’m not sure how it’ll work out but it’s fun trying. I just need to purchase a much better scanner.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Something New?
While I’m in the middle of doodling ELF `n TROLL issue 10, I’ve been playing with an idea that could possibly sprout some fruit somewhere down the line. I’ve been playing with the idea of producing pages directly from my pencils and skipping the inking stage. This is something I’ve been playing with for a while now and seems to be something of a recent trend in comics these days. It’s not a new phenomenon by any means. If you’ve been a fan of Euro-comics over the past 20 years you’ve seen this before. I’m not sure how it’ll work out but it’s fun trying. I just need to purchase a much better scanner.
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Wicked cool, Tony. I would never have known it was from pencils.
ReplyDeleteThis is really great because I've often toyed with this idea as well. In fact, this is how I'm doing Cyd Clark-Praxis' "Xrox" chapter two (which is way, way overdue). I just pencil the pages and basically make the lines darker in Photoshop.
But I'm wondering how it would work with traditional media. I guess it all comes down to how clean the pencils are. I'm afraid of making a muddy mess.
Also, I'm an old school small press comics guy...so ink is in my blood. Still I love the idea. You've stirred up the nasty goblins in my skull again. Damn you.
Pencil Inking is a very cool technique. I like how it keeps more of the artist energy vs. tight inking (a good example would be Hero Bear and the Kid). There are some artist who go to a lot of trouble to do super tight pencils that are beautiful and then ink over them, which seems silly sometimes.
ReplyDeleteGene Colan has produced comics of late that use this technique very well (http://www.genecolan.com/).
I personally have been experimenting with photoshoping over ink washes which is sort of the same idea.http://atomic-bear.deviantart.com/art/Wash-Comic-Page-test-81000833
This is interesting -- it does look really good. I am still attached to inks as well, but doing comics is such a laborious process, and the number of pages I can produce always lags way behind the number I can imagine. I guess it is a trade-off between quality & quantity. With webcomics it seems that more frequent updates = more page views = more revenue. So anything to speed up production has got to be considered. I remember Gary Chaloner telling me years ago that he often uses this technique. I'm not sure my pencils are clean enough, it's almost like I need the ink stage to bring everything into focus.
ReplyDeleteThe more I look at this the more I love it, Tony. It really does keep that engery Brian mentioned.
ReplyDeleteYour pencils must be really tight!
ReplyDeleteI pretty much hate inking and have no real desire to work with ink. I've gotten spoiled doing charcoal drawings in my fine arts classes and think they make good looking comics.
My pencils are fairly tight to begin with; it's just something I'm pretty anal about. For this process, I've actually been trying to loosen-up a bit as to retain some of that "energy", for lack of a better word. My goal isn't to just replace the inking stage by darkening tight pencil work; I want to try and retain that looseness, if it's possible. Right now it's just a game I'm playing to find a happy place where I like what I'm seeing. I've seen it done successfully with the early Conan work from Dark Horse and I've also seen it done really bad. In the end I'm just hoping for a certain look that I see in my head. I don't want it to feel like a gimmick. Beyond the actual pencil work, I feel that for me, the coloring will be the key. I wish that I was as brave and talented as Mr. Van West to do the coloring by hand. I'll have to settle with manipulating photoshop. At least there's plenty of "do-overs" with that. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments and input folks. This project is a ways off but, I'll try to share when I can.
Actually, I have the same issue with digital coloring. It terrifies me.
ReplyDeleteTony, you mentioned that you didn't want to make this seem like a gimmick. I found that statement very interesting. This might be a tangent, but it's something that struck me.
Why would we think any particular way of working is a gimmick? Isn't that kind of funny? I mean, the holy trinity of pencil>ink>color is so enshrined in comics history that view any alternative process as strange, bold, or weird. It betrays a great deal about the nature of comics history. The fact that the printing process of days gone by was so rudimentary and cheap you had to have extremely clear artwork with simple lines and colors so it would translate easily onto cheap newsprint and the 4-color process.
In small press you don't even get that third level of the trinity...you just get the pencil>ink level. Photocopy machines traditionally hated anything that wasn't a binary black and white image. Now we're trained to think of that as the default way it is supposed to be.
But this is 2008. We have the internet as our first line of assault on the world. I say do what you want, do it however you want, and let tradition be damned!
I think that what I meant by "gimmicky" is that on certain comics, if the artist tries something different, you notice it right away and sometimes it becomes a distraction for good or bad. Either way, it's a distraction. I guess what I'm trying to find is a place where it doesn't look like I'm trying too hard.
ReplyDeleteLOL I know what I mean! :)
I understand what you mean by gimmicky. The art has to serve the story, not be there for its own sake.
ReplyDeleteMr. C. Clark-Praxis...you have deciphered my nonsensical rambling eloquently sir. Thank You. :) I really do think that I need an interpreter sometimes.
ReplyDeleteNah, you were pretty clear. I just had a thought and went on a tangent.
ReplyDeleteIronically in my role as counselor I serve as others interpretor, but most of the time I need one of my own.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand.
ReplyDelete;-)
LOL. What a wise ass that Van West is!
ReplyDelete