my canvas is by default 2000×3000 for sketch, 4000×6000 for color and rendering, unless it’s a print! some of my tarots have been upside of 8000, but that really strains the computer.
For layers i…. usually try to keep figures separate from each other if possible until I get values in, then I’ll render on top.
@nevyns thank you so much! (and sorry for the screenshot–xinbox ate my draft)
so, here are the basic stages of that last anders pic. i’ve actually been experimenting a lot with my process lately, though, so this is more in the spirit of shop talk than a tutorial or anything. take from it what you will!
1. Photostudies of people slouching on one leg, pose idea sketches, color test. for a more complex picture i’d do proper thumbnails/comps and way more studies. i’m including this bc it seems like a lot of painting step-by-steps leave out the planning stage, which is really too bad–as a beginner it took me years to knuckle down and do this and figure out how much it helps. time spent planning your image is exponential time saved later. i know i just said this post isn’t advice but this part absolutely is, haha
2-3. Final sketch taken just far enough to get the gesture and proportions down, then straight to blocking in colors. thinking in shape and tone feels easier/more intuitive to me than accurate contour lines, but on the other hand my stuff would probably benefit from tighter underdrawings, so i don’t necessarily recommend this way if lines are easier for you? idk, “how much of an underdrawing do i really need” is one of the things i’ve been experimenting with.
anyway, the important thing here is to make sure the major shapes and value structure are working. if an image doesn’t read at the block-in stage, no amount of polishing will fix it.
4-5. I’m, uh…sorry if this kinda looks like that “draw the rest of the fucking owl” meme. the rest of it is pretty much just “paint til it’s done.” minimal layers, hard-edge brush with some texture, opacity set to pen pressure. i don’t really use a special technical process, so tbh i’m not sure what to say about the render stage without just going off infodumping in 20 directions
which! i definitely don’t mind doing lol. if there’s some particular aspect you’re looking into, i’d be glad to share what i know or point you at some resources. not to be a mushball but i love digital painting A Lot and it makes me super happy to see people getting into it! i hope you’re having a good time 😀
and i hope this was at least a bit useful/interesting. thanks for the ask!
First, comics are exhausting. Seriously like, dragging yourself over a bed of nails for 7 years straight exhausting. If you don’t passionately love what your comic is about and/or you don’t have a style that’s manageable and time-efficient, you’ll find it very difficult to produce your comic to completion.
@cooncomic is done in a super simple but efficient style. I use just Indian ink and a quill. I made it as manageable as possible so I wouldn’t grow exhausted with it over time because believe me, I get tired with even the simplest projects after the first 6 months months. SORRY I’M RAMBLING, THE POINT I’M GETTING AT: cut corners at every available opportunity. Find out the quickest, most efficient way to get the final product that you need. Even if that means relying heavily on digital touchups to support your traditional work.
I scan my pages as a .png (retains more data than a jpg) at 800dpi.
Sometimes the panels are ROUGH. Ink sometimes dribbles, it smears. And often I don’t want to wait an hour+ for large ink areas to dry, so I don’t even bother filling large areas in. I just wait to do it digitally.
Could I have gotten the edited version without using digital effects? Yes. But it would have been far more time consuming than was necessary. For me, the key to not getting sick to death of comic-making is to find a way to get a quality product without sacrificing time. But if I did the comic completely digitally, it wouldn’t have the same soul to it. Personally I don’t really enjoy working digitally and it shows–my traditional art has more personality.
After a page is scanned, I play with the tone curve and contrast until it looks how I want, white out the edges of the page so it’s clean, and then I draw on top with white, sometimes dark colours, for touchups. This differs for each page and depends on what you drew the comic in. Ink scans are easier to edit because ink is so harsh and bold, it’s easy to clean up. So here’s an example with pencil:
Jack with the tone curve tool until it looks contrasted enough. (I also white out the borders of the page where the scan gets darker edges)
Then, on a new layer, I draw on top of the page with white, doing touchups and cleaning up details that didn’t scan well. I always use a natural pencil brush so it looks traditional:
There’s no really right or wrong way to clean up traditional scans, just fiddle with it until you get to the product you want.
Traditionally drawn comics are really underrated, I wish there were more. Best of luck with yours!
I don’t use them for @cooncomic because the pages are very short and straightforward with the briefest dialogue. So for the sake of this answer, I’m talking about my more graphic novel style comic work.
Creating the layout of your panels and the composition within them is an art form in itself. It’s storytelling. You’re showing your audience your story. I always think more along the lines of cinematography than illustration for this.
I begin my composition with the last panel in mind. The final panel of your page–that’s your punchline. That’s your climax. It’s not at the middle, it’s at the end. That very last panel is the one I want to leave the viewer focused on. Awed by. Stung by. Melted by. Humored by. Offended by. Whatever the point of your storytelling was. So that’s where I start and where I put the majority of my focus. My final panel is the punchline that everything else will just be leading up to, whether it’s with the dialogue or just the imagery.
Then I have to come up with composition. How many panels do I need leading up to that final panel? How many snapshots will be necessary to set the scene, the setting, the mood? I need to portray these things in the most concise number of panels. So I do a series of thumbnails playing with different numbers of panels, different arrangements of panels, etc. Typically I do this traditionally, on scrap paper. Very quickly. Scribbles, stick figures. I’m just figuring things out. Unfortunately I don’t have many good examples of this to show, because they’re for upcoming projects I’ve yet to announce.
SUPER rough. I do this every time. I never start a serious comic page without testing compositions on thumbnails to help me pick the arrangement that best suits the flow of the storytelling. I need something that will best lead up to that final panel on each page.
Then I pick the thumbnail with the arrangement of panels I like best and redraw that thumbnail digitally, fleshing out the composition in each panel a little better. You can see examples of that in the top left of these pages I’ve done:
But seriously color theory is really hard for me still, takes a lot of trial and error until I’m happy, and my method is too hard to write out and explain. I have a few tutorials and videos on my Patreon, though.
Each shot of the In the Valley of Gods trailer went through a number of iterations before ending up in the final cut. The idea of this opening shot—a cramped silent film frame blooming open into a wide, dramatic desert vista—was established pretty early on in our development of the trailer. It sets the tone, it hints at the scale of our story, and it gives us a target for how we want our sweeping outdoor spaces to feel in the final game.
I started with a series of quick studies from Lawrence of Arabia to get myself in the right mindset. If anyone knows how to make a lot of sand look exceedingly dramatic, it’s cinematographer Freddie Young:
The vista for this shot draws inspiration from the wide, terraced hills above Luxor, to lead naturally into the temple facade in the next shot being nestled in the recessed limestone cliffs.
We vacillated between modeling out this vista in 3D, vs. a 2D matte painting, but in the end it made the most sense to paint it as a matte painting that we could have far more control over, and redirect Jane’s efforts to more pressing environments in the trailer. Jane modeled and lit a rough layout based on my early concepts, and from there I just painted the dang thing until it was done.
Everything behind the foreground sand-dunes is hand-painted, with additional heat shimmer and sand FX to break up the shot courtesy of Matt Wilde.
From top to bottom: Rough Storyboards, Color/Composition Studies, Final Concept, Final Shot, Lawrence of Arabia Studies, Final Shot In Motion
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