Replacing the pencil outlines with G-pen ink
When I started the book, I imagined Jimmy Jay and Betty Burro running from the Monarch Butterfly sanctuary to Guadalajara. I got frustrated with the background and decided to just sketch the two of them running and move on. I would come back to finish the page later. It is now later.
My plan is to re-ink both characters, re-color them, and then add a jungle background.
Page 54 needed some work — the volcano monster didn’t look like she was in enough pain as the water caused her to devolve back to her original shape. She’s definitely a work in progress. I’ll revisit her tomorrow. “Tomorrow” is now one of my most useful words.
As her magic powers wash away, the volcano demon becomes her true self, a tiny tabby.
My initial sketch for Page 41 shows Tuca putting a gas mask on Betty Burro so that she can continue her climb into the volcano. She’s going to confront the volcano demon and rescue her friends. Tuca, at this point, has decided to confront his fear of the demon and help Betty even though he’s still crazy scared. Well, who wouldn’t be afraid to go head to head with an angry, spiteful volcano monster.
My work flow goes like this.
Envisage the characters in action
Sketch in Photoshop
Import the PSD into Clip Studio Paint
Do the inking in CSP in a vector layer
One reason for using vector layers for inking is that I can change the weight of any line. In this image, I inked with a variable width brush and it looked like crap because I didn’t maintain consistent pressure. To fix the mess I used CSP’s “Correct Line” tool to set the width of all lines to one unit. CSP doesn’t set line widths to pixels, just something called units. The Correct Line tool is a life saver when the line widths are all over the place.
At last I have all five characters on the same page. It took me two weeks to get this page in shape. Drawing fire taxed my newbie drawing abilities and I struggled to draw the fiery volcano demon. Everything I tried was ghastly. In the end, I reused the demon drawing from page 22. Perhaps, before the book is done, I’ll revisit this page and come up with something original.
I was able to spend most of the day on this picture. Before I could begin painting, I had to learn how to use CSP’s 3D objects. I found that iIt’s time-consuming to arrange all of the joints for each pose, but Clip Studio Paint comes with a large library of common poses. I found one called “funny running” that comes close to what I wanted my characters to be doing.
I have to paint two more characters (Tupa Moai and the volcano demon), then add in the shadows and background.
Digital
Pencil and paper
I’m having a hard time creating a graphite feel using digital painting programs. I’m sure it can be done, but I can’t do it. When things get tough and I get lost in Photoshop or Clip Studio Paint, my first impulse is to simplify and removed rendering.
When I look at the two pictures above, the digital drawing looks flat. The pencil and paper version has a gritty texture that I like. I didn’t have to know any tricks to get the texture — it’s built into the paper. The kicker is that the pencil and paper version was completed in one hour, while the digital version is unfinished after three hours. I think my problem is that I really haven’t mastered Photoshop or Clip Studio Paint. I’m still a rookie at digital painting, and pretty much everything else.
I do think the digital version will be just right for my online comix. By the way, I think about that imaginary community college every night before I fall asleep. I’ve given it a name: Subliminal Community College located in the city of Sublime, California.
