Untitled Project MPP1 Visual Story 012

Dragon Bone Cave


(Note: I will be at the WonderCon this weekend booth 717 "Orange Shirt Studios". The guys and I will be selling our first comic called "Unforeseen Voyage"; of which the first chapter of 3Rings is included. I'm so excited! Trey )

3 Rings Comic Process: Panel MockUp

Learning and Troubleshooting

I think everything is a process, and learning the process is the hardest part.
I made the Comic to learn the whole Comic Making process.

Some of the things I learned were:

Story Process and Phases
Character Designing
Working in the Comic Format
Making Backgrounds in WaterColor
Inking
Lettering

I Learned a lot in the making of the comic, and now I have a better idea about how to improve the process which leads to Troubleshooting.

Troubleshooting.

So you can't change the past but I can make improvements for future comics.

Difficulties:

Time (not enough of it)
Over estimated my ability
I hobbled everything together
I was wasteful.
time issues
little time for quality check, adjustments and corrections

The biggest issue is Time. I did not know how long making a comic would be. It took me over one year (1 year and 3 months) to make a 18 page comic. It seemed that everything took at least 3 times as long to do. Now some of that was my inexperience, I also overestimated my own abilities to a great extent.

Solutions

Make a Dummy Comic for every phase from Thumbnail to Final. Work out everything by making a dummy comic as close to the actual comic, including panel placement, lettering, character placement from the very beginning.

The biggest solution is to give yourself enough time( this is huge).

So this is what I learned from my first comic, and now on to the 2nd Ring.

Trey

Untitled Project MPP1 Visual Story 011

Yama's Path

3 Rings Comic Watercolor Backgrounds

3Rings Process: Backgrounds

For the 3 Rings comic all of the backgrounds, props, and animals are all painted in watercolor.

Why?
Well, for a few reasons.

I had seen the french comic 'La Chronique des Immortels' by Eckartsberg, and Kummant. The book is beautiful!

At around that time I was also doing experiments in using traditional medium for background and using the computer for character work to get a bit of the animation cel look. So the french comic was a lovely example that it could be done.
But then I thought, could this be done in a comic by me.

These were some of the main reasons for making the book using watercolor.
But it was also great practice, it gave the backgrounds texture and some random noise that gives some contrast to a computer colored character.

The first page is all the props and animals
1-3 are just about all of the background that went into making the comic.
Page 4 is one of the backgrounds that did not make it into the comic but is one of my favorites. This is an example of the black and white background study, which is what I make in preparing for the painting.

Next 3Rings Comic Process final week: What I Learned and What I would do Differently

Untitled Project MPP1 Visual Story 010

King Yama

3 Rings Comic Process: Characters

3Rings Process: Character

Some samples of how the characters for the 3 Rings comic were made.
Start with a ruff sketch, (usually in red pencil)
then to a tight pencil, (usually in blue pencil)
then ink (ink without eyes)
then color (color in photoshop)

The eye is made later in photoshop then placed on the character in the final scene. I do this because the characters were all drawn separately and out of context and if inked often not looking at what they should in the end scene. So I composite the eye in after to make the scene complete.

Note. Sometimes I will skip the tight pencil phase if I know what I want or have a drawing I like. But this is rare, and I usually need to ruff out the character before tightening the pencils before inking.

After inking and scanning I get rid of the white of the paper in photoshop so there is only the clean lines, and then use the color bucket to drop in color.

This was my process for making all of the characters in the 3 Rings Comic.

Next week process: Watercolor Backgrounds

Untitled Project MPP1 Visual Story 009

To the King

3 Rings Comic (WHY)

WHY?

Have you ever wondered if you had it in you to ...

For me it was I wonder if I can make a comic.
This all started by getting into the Long Beach Comic Con 2009, and sitting there with relatively little. Frankly I was a little embarrassed, sitting at a comic convention without a comic. So me and my con table mate Robert, thought what if we made a comic.

That started a more than a year long journey. Yep, starting in January 2010 we had a meeting with the guys to go over story ideas, and today I got my part of the a group comic to the printer. Now I feel a mix of elation and extreme tiredness.

But again why. I am a big fan of comic books. I started reading comics in the late 80s, and early 90s. Which was an interesting time to be reading. I remember the Image guys coming up, but my favorite comic was the Uncanny X-Men. I came in at the end of Marc Silvestri run and the Jim Lee start on the book, and I was astonished. The characters, the artist, the stories. I had a great time.

But then I got older, and I guess I out grew comics. My greatest reason was it seemed the stories started to repeat, and I could only take so much of a characters death, and then return. It was about that time I found manga. I think I was drawn to manga because the stories are have greater variety of genre, and the characters actually age. Manga started my learning Japanese,and even my doing a study abroad in Japan. I still read some of the series that I read when I was there. So now with my comic eyes were open I began looking at everything.

Then walking through San Diego Comic Con, I started to notice some of the European comics, and my mind was blown again. It was the european comic that made me stop and think of all the similarities and differences of approach to comic. The American love of superheroes, the Japanese use of the long narrative, and the European incredible artistry in style and genre. It is all beautiful.

All of these experiences made me think; I wonder if I have it in me to make a comic.

Untitled Project MPP1 Visual Story 008

Majlis al Jinn

3 Rings Comic Sample

Some friends and I are giving an anthology comic a shot.
My story is about 18 pages but here is the first 5.
We hope to have the anthology printed by WonderCon.
So until the con I will break down my hows and whys of making my first comic.

Next week: Why make a comic.

Trey