Art Comments

[BoydDesign]

So, I thought I might interject some comments here concerning the art questions that have been posted in the past.

Since the thread for that seems locked, I thought I'd throw a few new ideas, or at least some I haven't seen discussed, out there.

First, a basic question concerning page size; While it is true that most finished comic art in the industry is 10 inches by 15 inches, the truth is, any size can be used where the height of the page is one and a half times the width of the page.

For example: 8 x 12 or 9 x 13 1/2 or 6 x 9

For layouts I use 6 x 9 because it easily fits on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of standard printer paper.

Also, I buy my paper at a paper supply store and a ream at a time. I can buy 500 sheets of 60 or 80lb card stock for around $30. That's 8 1/2 x 11, btw.

For finished layouts, I also buy at the paper supply store, or, if one is not available in your area, a local printer will do. You should be able to buy paper by the ream a LOT cheaper this way. Use 11 x 17 for finished layouts, and buy the heaviest stock you can afford; I usually opt for 2 or 3 ply card stock. You can ink on it and still use it with a light box if you need to.

I also like hot press, not cold press, paper; but that's a personal preference. I don't like the "tooth" of cold press and it gives a jagged edge when inking the work. But, if you are using smears or gradated pencil as a technique, you may prefer paper with this surface. Experiment with the surfaces. Ask for sample sheets. A printer will give one or two sheets for this purpose, usually.

I use Adobe Illustrator for word balloons and panel borders. And text. DON'T hand letter or hand ink mechanical stuff if you don't have to. NOTHING says amateur more than bad lettering and badly inked buildings. Also, I know some artists like Michael Lark that use 3D programs, Mike uses Sketchup, for their stuff, printing them as grey lines and then hand inking them.

For figures, I always sketch roughs, scan them and then layout the pages from the scans, using Photoshop to resize and adjust the images as needed. I have a tendency to draw my figures a little skewed sometimes, so I am able to fix that in these scans. I can also fix proportion problems before I go to my finished pencils this way. I then lay my figures into the backgrounds, either Illustrator drawings, photos that have been greyed down, or sketches I've greyed down, using Photoshop layering processes.

Work in your word balloons and text boxes at this stage to make sure you can fit everything together and make it readable and clear. Check for misspelled words as well. Again, nothing says amateur like... well, you know...

This technique gives me unlimited possibilities and I can concentrate on drawing first, composition later.

Lastly, once I position art as needed, I print the pages at a local Kinko's or some such quick print place, making sure that I am printing the sketch art at 2 or 3% black or, even better, pale blue.

Once these rough layouts are done, I have guidelines I can use to create the finished pencils and inks from. If I am going to have mechanical objects where I can use the Illustrator art, I may even leave them 100% black and then just add or subtract a few lines to suggest a more organic look. To a car, for example, I may add reflections in the Illustrator line art. The text and the panels are already inked, so I don't have to foll with them and I can concentrate on the more organic aspects of the art.

Now, this approach is more tailored to realistic art, I know, but the same ideas can be used for really stylistic stuff as well and this allows for much more freedom while giving an artist lots more control.

Hope this helps a lot of people...

Mark Boyd
469-258-7325
james.boyd2@tx.rr.com
http://s864.photobucket.com/user/jamesb ... t=3&page=1

[PatriciaLoupee]

Bump.