Is having nothing to do.

This weekend finished part four of the Dredd story I’m doing (it’s six parts – two more to go! Always excited to finish something, a final sprint towards the end) it started with me determined to do the entire thing with a brush, but, frankly, my hands and eyes and possibly glasses aren’t really up to it. It went to half brush/half pen, and finally all digital.

I think everything is now likely to be digital (though I’m aware, I’ve been here before).

Managed to wrangle it back on deadline too.

Did a couple of pages of a pitch series too – three pages of that to go.

And just started a new thing. Five issues, 20 pages per issue.

There’s an unfortunate bit of overlap, but hopefully it won’t be too bad – now kids are back in school and my wife’s arm is healing enough to get some work done.

Tomorrow I head off to a local TV company to do some story boarding, tbh I could do without it – but it’s hard – impossible even – to turn down work, especially when I came into this year with nothing at all lined up, except bills.

The five issue series should see me through to the new year with work (sept/oct/nov/dec/jan) and after that, who knows? 

Hopefully one of the random pitches will find a home. I’d like more american work, this five issue is with a US company but I struggle to get US work (I want to say I’m a poor networker, but I’m good at meeting people I’m just horrendous at follow up, and it’s follow up that gets the work – there’s a part of my brain that just doesn’t do well at contacting people after a few months and saying “Oh hey! Remember me!” but we all gotta do it.).

And that’s the news…

Everything has to be designed. EVERYTHING.

Here’s an attic sketch. It starts with a quick google sketch and then picking some elements of an attic I think will quickly distil the essence so we can see it’s an attic from multiple views. It also needs to break a couple of rules (gotta be taller to fit in what I need to fit in). Then you play a game of “how many things can I think of that will fit in here” (and you amaze yourself with how limited your imagination is). Try it!

Attic: boxes. Big bags filled with stuff. Old mirror. Bird cage. Rolled up carpet. Stacked newspapers of a specific date. Brush. Light bulb hanging from ceiling (which means you need to figure out where the electric is coming from, so probably visible cable of light bulb tracing down to either a wall socket (unlikely) or a cable trailing behind a bolstered wall), a entrance (is it a side entrance? unlikely, from below? probably, trap door like thing) more boxes and er… oh god.. 

And then you try and not draw all of that stuff because the story isn’t about that (unless there’s a specific prop you’ll need later)

I can’t remember when or where I first read this little bit of writing wisdom, certainly it was a long time ago and it’s stuck with me, though not for writing. It’s from the book “100 ways to improve your writing” by Gary Provost, I’ve since ordered the book up (it’s a fun little collection of snippets like this that I’m sure can help any writer). I’ll let you read it and tell you what I think…

This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important.

So write with a combination of short, medium, and long sentences. Create a sound that pleases the reader’s ear. Don’t just write words. Write music. 

Ok. Now, as this applies to comics – writing comics isn’t writing. Your reader will only ever read the words you’ve written if they’re included in dialogue or captions (or any other narrative tricks you’ve picked up), for the most part you’re writing for an artist and there it’s about clarity and being succinct. (Five words sentences? Great as long as it’s of the line “Dredd stands firm, looking grim.”)

But what is important is that the lessons within this little gem be applied across the board to your comics. Instead of “five word sentences” think “small identical sized panels” – a few? ok, But then let them explode! Build up energy with a bunch of panels, burst out with a splash. Make the panels interesting to look at and it will be interesting. Humans are easily bored, it’s a genetic thing (I once saw an experiment with a sea cucumber showing how even something with barely a brain can be bored) it’s why flashing lights attract us, why sitting still can make things invisible and why the coctail party phenomena works.

Your comics can be guilty of many crimes, but boring should never be one of them.

If you’re a reader of my old blog, you’ll have read periodic updates on how I work – primarily because like me in a party, the moment I feel like I’m comfortable I have to upended a table and jump out a window (or find a tiny kitchen corner to hide in).

The current process goes like this:

Read script.

Create a multi page document of the length of the script + a few pages at the back for layouts/designs.

Use a page at the back, creating a page frame (a specific layer in clip studio paint) and divide it so it’s exactly nine frames, which I’ll use as my guideline for thumbs.

Digital thumbs, I find drawn this way are actually more detailed than my normal pencilled thumbs, and can sometimes double as pencils.

Happy with thumbs, I’ll cut the thumb out for the first page, then paste that into the first document, scaling it up to fill the page.

I’ll create a “pencils” folder (setting it to draft – again a Clip Studio Paint specific thing) and make it a pale blue colour, dropping the enlarged thumb in. I’ll create a new pencil layer within that folder, and trace/finish the rough thumbs into useable pencils.

Once I’ve got my pencils, I’ll create an inks layer, and just ink the damn thing.

That’s it.

I’ve a couple of rules of thumbs for making the digital work go smoother, but you’ll have to be a backstage patreon for that!

Sometimes I get a big chunk of a page done on one day, but don’t count it as a finished page, then count it the next day when finished. On that basis, I finished two pages today and, I think, two yesterday? Can’t remember. Sometimes you work so fast you lose track.

Luckily it’s all digital so I don’t have to keep piles of paper beside me. (That’s a nightmare, three pages a day of paper printout, sounds great but try managing all those sheets of paper coming off your drawing board like you’re a printer with the output tray disconnected)

Anyway here’s a dredd head I’m happy with (Dredd in winter gear)

I’ve never drawn this many Dredd’s in one strip before. It’s funny how your strength can suddenly become a weakness – I had a great dredd chin down pat, but suddenly I’ve got to draw lots of Dredd’s and you’re desperate not to repeat the same old face/expression.

Behind the scenes, I explain what’s going on with this scaffolding I’ve drawn all over Dredd’s face, but here’s the picture for everyone else!

Look, I’ve drawn the world’s angriest lawman professionally for coming up on 16 years (and a stint as an enthusiastic amateur for the best part of all my life up until then) and I still haven’t figured him out.

This Dredd head (Dredd is in a winter outfit, so it’s a little different to his normal gear) looks ok, probably – perspective on faces/heads is tricky since we’re not perfectly square shapes (well, my head is, but your’s probably isn’t).

If you haven’t spotted what’s desperatly wrong with this pic – it’s Dredd’s helmet (and the bit of neck that’s missing, but we’ll ignore that)

But drawing a very simple perspective cube over/ around the head though, we can get find points which should match up (without trying to plot the entire shape in perspective) and these points can then help us correct the shot – I’ve drawn a rough perspective cube in red, with guidelines, and put little blue arrows where I think the corrections need to go.

I pick points on the helmet that I think SHOULD line up and then fix the drawing to do so.

Looking at the blue arrows on the bottom (left and right) it should be very obvious that the bottom of Dredd’s helmet doesn’t match, in effect making the right side of his helmet look longer than the other side.

The blue arrows at the top (again on left and right) should match up where the eye slots are, but again, should be obvious here they just don’t.

(You can see this is a really rough perspective grid though, so I’m not overly fussed on 100% accuracy, just a rough “looks about right” which is far easier)

But editing the drawing and making these things match up, we get this…

We’ve used those little blue arrows to help us place the features of the helmet so the line up in perspective.

Without the grid…

It’s a subtle thing, but I think this is a better dredd (oh, I added that bit of neck)

No… to erase this dredd forever since I didn’t draw him quite angry enough for the script… bugger.

Two pages completed today.

WIP on Dredd…(following the post on reflections, I got this in to a panel that I’m pleased with)

And did a second page today, can’t speak about it – it’s a pitch, so it’ll be long time before it’s firm enough to speak off, but you can see this…

Kids back at school, wife at work. Got plenty done. Still doesn’t seem like enough though.

(These pages are entirely digital)

Spoiler free, look at those idiotic tanks.

Pencilled and inked a page today, of which this is a part – hot off the digital tablet.

Even at two pages per day this month I may not catch up on everything I have to do.