There's a pile more of tediously dull, bill-paying work from the last few months as well, but the sooner that stuff is forgotten, the better as far as I'm concerned.
That's because I think I have to. Apart from storyboards, which have mostly been black and white, most times I've been allowed to noodle at assignments until I was happy with 'em - -getting to spend a whole day or two drawing and then a whole day colouring, with the potential to have a day to reflect and tweak for an illustration is standard, but doesn't work for comics. I had to work faster than my ability to think on ASHES. Since my part of that book was started further behind than I understood, I very quickly had to ramp up to a page and a half a day, start to coloured finish with no time to plan an approach.
I think Jimmie would be cool if I shared the pages here for discussion and feedback, but I'd rather wait to be certain.
So, do you think your style for drawing sequentials on a schedule is different from when your time is "unlimited"?
Is there a certain look for comic book Richard Pace as opposed to illustration Richard Pace?
I wonder sometimes how I'd cope with it if I had to produce scripts on a schedule, rather than just as-time-allows. I guess you develop new muscles for that kind of thing and find appropriate shortcuts, shorthands and time saving techniques. And I'm sure that the more you do it, the better you get at it.
The main difference is drawing to satisfaction against drawing to schedule. For expired I'll need to be as close to a page a day as possible, which means layouts/pencils have to be done in 2-3 hours, inks in 3-5, and colours in under three. I suspect there'll be pages where that isn't feasible, but that's what weekends are for.
Been working on getting all the remaining covers completed so I just have to focus on interiors and build an effective rhythm for the remainder of the series.
Okay - -here's the first 5 pages from EXPIRED, unlettered,
I described what I was doing to a friend -- applying a base colour to the scene, low saturation rendering for highlights, shadows and local colour, then applying a filter -- and expressed my concern I was relying too much on the filter. He suggested I take a look at the JJ Abrams level of digital tomfoolery on Wytches.
I have, and now I feel much more comfortable with the bits and bobs of texture and filtering I'm dropping into this colouring.
Comments
More stuffs:
First is a poster for an event in Baltimore that very likely won't be used. . . .
I spent last weekend and Monday figuring out a way to colour at a speed to meet the deadlines and still be happy with the results.
Was weird colouring and then recolouring pages to a stopwatch and trying to decide what can go from my usual process.
Been working on getting all the remaining covers completed so I just have to focus on interiors and build an effective rhythm for the remainder of the series.
I have, and now I feel much more comfortable with the bits and bobs of texture and filtering I'm dropping into this colouring.
*skill envy*