Comics Feels

[potofsoup]

picapicae:

potofsoup replied to your photoset “Whoever left the “chainsaw should perch on adam’s head” tag on the…”
> “how do people comic” — LEMME TELL YOU ALL MY FEELS

tell me your feels! (are they “oh god is this supposed to take this long” and “oh god i need to do more life drawing” and also “it can’t possibly be this difficult to draw the same face in every panel”? because those are pretty much mine. :D)

YESS ALL OF THOSE

“Oh god you mean I have to draw it AGAIN?!”, both in terms of drawing the person again, but also in terms of the fact that you have to pencil then ink then color basically 30 little pictures for a 6 page comic. Usually after I pencil I’m like “I’m done, I don’t want to draw any more, everyone can read my circular scribbles right?”

And

“How can I make this panel different?” If you’re approaching from the movie tradition, you’re used to having a still camera and with each panel just show the bit of the action that changed. (Which then gets you stuck in the “shit I’m drawing the same person multiple times and they have to look consistent” trap) It’s hard sometimes to remind myself that NOT EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE MIDGROUND SHOTS. That’s... kind of the magic of comics? Like, “let’s make this panel TALL” or “let’s do a close-up of the hands” or whatever. EXCEPT then you’re stuck being like “HALP PANEL LAYOUTS”

And

“Who designed this freakin’ costume with all the twiddly bits?!!” The answer is, sadly, often me. But I basically have no patience for drawing that page after page. SO MUCH RESPECT for all the people who just face up to the hard work of drawing ringlets of hair or 3 necklaces or armor plates or jackets with complex designs. People who step up their art efforts to match what they want the comic to look like visually, instead of what I do, which is simplify the visuals of the comic to match my art efforts. People are good at figuring out that rectangle-face with blond sideburns is Steve!

I’m not saying my way is worse, it’s just taking the other path. Like seriously, a major reason I draw so simply is because I *know* I’m gonna be drawing the same damn thing over and over again.

[Reblog/Like on tumblr: http://potofsoup.tumblr.com/post/127992923307/picapicae-summercomfort-replied-to-your-photoset]

Comments

[sabeth]

That second point is absolutely a trap I'm likely to fall into, so something to keep in mind for me. I think with the last thing I drew I felt I should keep the camera static for comedic effect (i.e. to emphasise the guy just sort of standing there as the bird does its thing) but could have thought about zooming in more.

For the third point I guess I'd personally like to find a middle ground. Like, I totally see the wisdom of drawing simply, but I also think that careful linework is one of my strengths & that my work loses a lot of appeal if I don't pay attention to it.

(This also touches on the "crap, I need to do more life drawing" thing because (surprise surprise) practice is hugely useful in making things look good without having to refine them for hours.)

There's another aspect to this though, which I'm also trying to keep in mind: over-rendered imagery can actually distract from the flow of a story. I feel like Teahouse (nsfw!) exemplifies this? The detail and rendering effort in some of those panels is astounding, but the overall effect can be almost incohesive & the action is frequently not clear. It's just too much visual information crammed into too tiny a space, I think.

(also hello it is i, picapicae, as you've probably gathered from the icon and also the link up there. i support your tumblr/DW linking effort! i just feel like i should maybe lock all my whiny old journal entries if i'm gonna resurrect my journal haha.)

[potofsoup]

I think keeping the camera steady was a good choice there given what you wanted to do, it was just also a very obvious thing? Like, when I saw it, I was like "whoa, static camera angle with widescreen panels".

Re: careful linework -- oh yeah totally! I (a) don't have a lot of art background, and (b) don't have a lot of patience, so I tend to veer to the "draw simply and move on" type. Plus I find that when I try for realism, it actually makes my work less expressive. But there are also times when I wish my style was more ... detailed. For example, I don't draw lips or fingernails and such incidentals, which then cuts out a lot of character finesse that I could have otherwise. So there are certain types of gritty/realistic comics that I can't really do.

On the other hand, I usually regret a certain degree of rendering. In the comic that I did for the HTP book, I felt like I over-rendered because I was fiddling around with MangaStudio brushes, and it would have worked better if I used thicker lines and simpler shading.

Looking at Teahouse, I think the thing you're pointing at is lack of clarity of form and blocking. Since so many comics are about characters and their emotions, those *really* have to pop: you need to be able to tell at a glance from arm's distance away what's going on.

[potofsoup]

And hey! Thanks for commenting over here!! :D I, too, have many MANY whiny journal entries. Which is why I created a new one for this sort of stuff. I'm still keeping my old one for whiny purposes, though! And not to worry about whiny posts -- truth be told, I think the secret power of DW is that no one will ever bother to read old posts. Heck knows I don't bother to re-read what angst I was feeling 10 years ago.