My Comics Process Part 3 - Lettering

Welcome back. If you haven't been following, part one is here, and two is here. I hope you find these useful, and always, if you have questions feel free to ask.

Well, first and foremost, I finished my newest mini comic, an all ages story about a Shaolin monk who must save the village from a wild ogre. The comic is totally free to read online at Graphic.ly: http://graphicly.com/jesse-acosta/shaolin-monk-the-tale-of-zhao-and-meng/1

The book will also be in print and can either be purchased in my Etsy store (soon), and at any future comic conventions until copies run out.

Shaolin Monk cover!

So now on to the comics process. Every mini comic I take on, I try to work on a couple key points to expand my chops. The two big things for this book were environments and lettering by hand. Last comic was a little background-light, so I really pushed it for this book. As for that, I don't think I need to go into much detail. As in part one, I found a lot of reference photos to use for locations in the comic.

But lettering, that's what I'd like to talk about. As I've heard countless times in Jessica Abel interviews and lectures, hand lettering can make a world of difference. Also, in my portfolio review a few months back, this statement was also reiterated. Word balloons, dialogue boxes, sound effects, they are all a significant part of the art as a whole. They shouldn't deter from the art, they shouldn't be an eye sore, they should be integrated. Hand inked sequential art can clash against streamlined perfectly smooth vector balloons and fonts.

If you know much about lettering though, it's all about laying out an ames guide, ruling out lines, and creating word balloons with french curves. My art style doesn't express complete perfection, and I was looking for a quicker turn around for lettering. So I came up with an alternative approach: creating the balloons and text digitally, then printing them as non photo blue, and inking it by hand. This way you get a lot of precision, while still getting the uneven individuality of every letter by hand. Interestingly too, even though I'm going over a certain font, my own hand gestures make it in. The outcome is a blend of my own handwriting, a touch of varying line-weight, and slightly reminiscent of the original font.

The most important thing is the tool for inking the balloons and letters. I choose the Pentel Sign Pen SES15. The tip is pretty rad, it has a lot of give to it, but it's not uncontrollable like a brush pen can be. They are pretty awesome tools. The one trouble I have with them is that they don't seem to be waterproof. That leaves marker coloring and watercolors on top of inks to be slightly a messy situation.

Here is a comparison between my hand lettering, vs the digital fonts and vector balloons I made. Click on it to zoom in, and compare. I think it's not bad for my first attempt at this method. I also really dig the brush style letters, it feels very calligraphic. It's fitting for a story about a Shaolin monk.

This page is my digital lettering, colored in non-photo blue (Cyan 7%). I scaled the letters at 200% larger than the size it will be in the printed book. I printed it on bristol, then started to ink.

Here's what I came up with. I scanned it in, and placed it over my finished pages, and that's it!

I really like this outcome. If anything, I think the brushwork was a little thicker than I planned. Next time, I'll try printing the balloons out at 225% - 250%, thus making my signpen lines a touch smaller.

Have any of you tried out this method before? It saved me time, while giving me some nice unique letters and balloons. It really matched the book.

Sketchbooks

Today I thought I would have a brief blog about sketchbooks. As a comic artist, or any type of artist really, I believe you should have a sketchbook on hand at all times. I also believe you should be drawing often in these books. Just let artistic diarrhea take place. Just eject whatever without filter. Mimic an illustration you saw, perhaps you are impressed by the location you're at and what to draw it. As a comic artist, I see all sorts of things that I'd like to incorporate one day into my comics. This could be a unique tree, or the interesting skyline, or perhaps an old beat up pay phone. As a comic artist, you draw everything, even if it's not too exciting. You have to be able to convey an entire story, not just two guys in spandex punching each other. This is why you should be ready at a moment's notice to draw whatever intrigues you.

But if you really work like this, your sketchbooks will pile up. I know some people think it's sacrilege to toss sketch books. I honestly believe after two or three years, scan through the books, keep pages that interest you, and toss the rest. I have one exception though: childhood art. I still have a couple sketchbooks and comics from my youth, and I hold onto them dearly. They are a glimpse into my child self. Anything before 18 I think are really gems, and I'm so glad to still have a few things. Not only do I see a growth, but I also see what has stayed the same. I'm still making comics, at age 10 or 30. I still have ridiculous stories of fantasy and science fiction.

Another alternative is to scan your sketchbooks. It is the digital age, an external harddrive is smaller than a room full of sketches.

One last thought about sketchbooks. Always date the sketchbook. Occasionally date the art in there as well, just for a reference of when you drew it.

American Red Cross Donation 1

Hello! Because of my initial Etsy sketch of Batman to raise funds for American Red Cross Colorado Chapter, someone special contacted me for a personal commission. They asked for a Batman with Catwoman sketch, and I was excited to do it for them:

I sent the illustration out today, and I also transferred the $25 proceeds to the American Red Cross. I took a screen grab of the donation here:

I'm still hoping Batman will sell as well, it's still available here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/105258616/5x7-batman-marker-illustration-proceeds

Also, another person contacted me about a Robin and Batman commission. This too will be used to raised funds for the American Red Cross. As a comic fan, artist, and avid movie goer, I'm doing what I can to help those in need. Art can change lives, and I know it makes my life better.

Batman Illustration being sold to collect donations

Selling this 5x7 Batman sketch on Etsy. Proceeds will be donated to the American Red Cross Colorado Chapters to assist with the victims of the tragic shooting in Aurora, CO. Please reblog, share, and retweet to get the word out.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/105258616/5x7-batman-marker-illustration-proceeds

5x7 marker and pen illustration on bristol board

Illustration will arrive to you in an archival sleeve for protection.  

If this sells as quickly as I hope, I will try to make at least one or two more illustrations in the coming weeks to also help raise donations. If you can, please share my Etsy link on your social media site of choice! Thanks!

Lion-O of Thundercats

On Sunday, I spent the evening at Starbucks sipping an expensive chai and drawing Lion-O from Thundercats:

5"x7" bristol board, pencils and prismacolor pens (Not favoring them much anymore. They aren't as black and bold as I'd prefer).

Afterward, I wanted to color this guy up in Photoshop for the heck of it, and this was the result. The actual bristol sketch will be colored with prismacolor markers and colored pencils. I've been reading about people mixing the two mediums and making amazing results. The final piece will pop up in my Etsy Shop. If you are interested in a commission, let me know! I'm willing to do something like this, or anything else you'd have in mind!

This also leads me into my next point of interest. I have applied for an artist table at Emerald City Comicon again! I haven't been in nearly three years. It's March 1-3, so I have plenty of time to save for the event. This is why I am promoting commissioned work right now. Everything is being packed away for the trek to ECCC in Seattle. So, if you want some art, I can hook you up!

Thanks!

Making a Mascot

Last weekend I was approached by a coworker to design a mascot for his flag football team. The design will be screen-printed onto jerseys and a flag. I was pretty excited for the opportunity, and I figured it would be a good blog entry to share my process.

To start, I spoke with my friend about the design. His team is called "Empty Pockets" since they are a bunch of drinking 20 somethings with no money. I decided to go with a classic football player type with the leatherhead helmets. These were my initial pen sketches I did on scratch paper at work:

He really dug the idea, so I proceeded to sketch on a 9x12 piece of bristol. I inked the head, and that was enough of a sketch to start creating a vector illustration from.

I decided to use Adobe Illustrator because I wanted to have an ultra smooth vector illustration that would look great blown up on a giant flag. So I put this guy together.  For the fun of it, I also colored him just so my friend could have a cool phone background image.

He hasn't gotten the shirts back, but I decided to make a mock design for him. He told me the jerseys would be navy blue, and the design would be screen printed in gold. If they look anything like this, I'll be stoked.

My Comics Process Part 2

If you haven't yet seen part one, please check it out here!

So since part one, I have drawn thumbnails for my pages. The thumbnails are atrocious, mostly just scratches and near stick figures. The thumbnail process is essentially doing long hand division by hand on scratch paper before writing the final answer on an exam. On the thumbnail stage, I need to make sure the page make sense and carries the story. Once I'm confident it will work, I start penciling, ruling out panels, then inking.

Here's what I've come up with so far:

Page 2 of 8

Page 3 of 8

Page 4 of 8

The first thing I like to do is rule out the panels. I use a ruler and pencil them, then I set the ruler aside and rule it by hand. I actually was thinking of just digitally ruling my panels for precision, but since my portfolio review with Jen Vaughn, she made me see how well it complements the art in a hand done style.

After I ink the panel borders, I start penciling the pages. I think part of the reason I've been so pokey slow with this project is because I've been working  in sequence. Since I have a script, I have thumbnails, I don't really need to work in sequence. My last project, Clashing Swords, I think I worked faster for two reasons. 1) I worked on 8.5"x11" pages and 2) I jumped around to the pages that intrigued me at the time. Opening this comic has been a little tedious, which is why I haven't inked page 1 yet. If I start page jumping, I think I'll get moving a little quicker.
Regarding paper size, I actually switched from 8.5x11 to 11x14 after inking two pages. I felt things were getting too tight on such small paper, and needed to move up. Also, with  every new project, I'm trying to add one or two new tricks to my bag. For this project, I want fuller backgrounds, which means bigger paper. Redoing two pages kind of killed some of my drive. But now that I have three complete pages, and page one is coming along, I have mojo again.

Seeing your finished work pile up builds mojo. It's like magic. I remember having the pile of pages for Clashing Swords, plus interior spot illustrations, and the cover and feeling like I just did a triathlon. I think that's what drives those artists who make Odyssey or Ulysses size comics.

Now it's 1:05am, and time to crash. Hoping to get page one completed, then I'm going to return to the script and see which of the final pages excites me the most and get cracking. My deadline for this project is August 1st, which means wrapping up by the 15th so I can set time aside for toning, lettering, and file prep, then finally printing and putting together the books.