Thursday, January 13, 2011

A question from an old friend about drawing comics

I got a text message from a good friend in Naperville, Illinois this morning asking me about how I work.

When you're doing the artwork, do you draw each panel larger and then shrink them down, or do you draw it to the size of the final product?
Pat


Answer is that I do draw larger and scale things down to production size (thank heaven for In Design.) However, I don't use the traditional 10 by 15 inch formate like most mainstream comic book artists use. Rather, I use the back of the manga paper which is 220 by 310mm because I like the surface texture and quality. The tips of the quilt nibs don't bleed on the paper which is great (and plus the paper is quite affordable.)

Another issue is that you need a scanner that's going to be large enough to accommodate large artworks (good quality ones from Epson run around 2,500.)

2 comments:

ALECHO said...

Howdy! First time to your blog, and I'm glad I stopped by. First of all, great work! I'll be reading the rest of the blog after this. Second... I have a quick question. I'm currently drawing a simple comic strip, but I want to also draw a comic/manga style too. I realized drawing panels and perspective is challenging. What is your advice on learning the skills of good panels and perspective, thanks! :)

KENSUKE OKABAYASHI said...

I recommend watching a favorite movie with the sound on mute. Pause the frame at a favorite scene. Armed with a sketch pad, quickly block down the layout of the composition. While it's important to understand the one point perspectives, etc., don't get frustrated if all the perspective lines (orthogonal lines) don't line up perfectly. It's more important to arrange the larger and smaller shapes in such a way it tells a story.