Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Working Digitally. No, wait. Working traditionally.


Artwork © 2011 Gene Gonzales

I am still working on my own project when I have the time. I had hoped to be further along than this, but these things take time. One part of the process that has been frustrating for me is the drawing. Not drawing in and of itself, more to the point, digital or traditional.

The digital process explained: The above image is a good example of how I am working on my pages. I do a rough layout (blue) of all the panels for the page in Photoshop. I then put in the rough dialog. After that I take different elements from the page, in this case the main character, and put them in their own file/document. I tighten it up just a bit using a different color line than the initial rough. I keep doing this until I am happy with the final line art. I will then copy and paste that figure back into the panel of the page. Later it will be colored with the rest of the page. When I don't feel like messing with line art, I paint the backgrounds. In this case, I have digitally painted the backgrounds in all the panels for this page. I shared this part of the process here.

The traditional process explained: Rough layout at actual print size. A lot of erasing. Scan. Enlarge. Print out rough layout on tabloid paper. Using my light table, light pencil transfer of the layout. Erase. Tighten it up. Erase. Ink. Erase. Fix ink smear. Scan. Digitally clean up (Erase). Letter. Color. Save. No surprise here.

Depending on the day of week, I want to draw digital. Other days I want to draw with a pencil.  Both have it's positives and it's negatives. Some times the two can work hand in hand. Other times, not so much. And so goes the inner battle of creating.

This is Post #1249

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I love how dedicated you are to posting something everyday. Its really kinda inspirational. That and you are so easy to talk to.. You are amazing. Just wanted to say thank you for being awesome and sharing things in your life with us loyal, crazy fans :)

Gary M. Peiffer said...

Regardless of the process, you get the same great end results Gene!

Gary

Gene Gonzales said...

Thanks Lisa. When I started this blog experiment, the goal was to post new art everyday. Since I draw everyday, there is always something to post, good or bad. And because sometimes the commercial work I do can't be shown, roughs and sketches have to carry the day. Sometimes I feel bad that somedays are just scribbles, but that's how the day goes sometimes. The important part of this blog is the interaction I get with you and everyone else who drops by and comments. This blog gets even more visitors who don't comment and I consider that a positive "interaction". If it wasn't for all of you, I probably never would have made it through the first year. So it is all of you who are amazing, coming by here to see my doodles. Wait, that didn't sound right. :)

Thanks Gary! :)