The Art School of Hard Knocks, or The Plight of a Self-taught Artist

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Two days ago I created the storyboard for the final pages of my third book. I can post the pictures now that I’ve finally figured out how to use the Mac Screenshot tool. My frustration level is now so low that I’ve stopped quivering and whining about macOS.

My job as a part-time, temporary substitute project manager will be ending on May 31. It won’t start up again for three months. During the hiatus I’ll be free to finish the book I started writing and drawing 18 months ago. Hardly a day has passed that I haven’t given it some time, my daily inch of progress. In those 18 months I’ve created a monumental number of sketches, experiments, and failures. I’m hoping those failures have been my Art School of Hard Knocks. I’m optimistically believing that I’ve learned something that will help me work more efficiently on my next Jimmy Jay book — Jimmy Jay and the Dolphin Who Took on the Robots. That’s going to be the working title that will inspire me for the next year.

Storyboarding the next five pages

I re-story-boarded this pages to see if they move the story forward in a sensible way. The top picture shows the volcano demon promising to remove the curse on all of the Moai so they can go back to their regular lives. The middle picture shows her apologizing to Tupa’s father and on the right, we see the volcano demon playing soccer with her friends. The last picture shows her doing a bicycle kick, which she always wanted to do.

I realize that I need to add a page where she says, “I’m so happy to have friends. If I get all crazy and start turning people into statues, just pour a buck of water on me!”

Starting the Storyboard for My Third Children's Picture Book

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Stuck in traffic on a rope bridge

Today I officially started creating the storyboard for my third children’s picture book. For the first two books my strategy was essentially to do what what was fun, which is really no strategy at all. As a result of my having so much fun, I wasted enough time to write another book. With a few lessons learned, this time I’m creating the dialog bubbles and text first, then I’ll compose the pictures around the text blocks. I’ve also set up Clip Studio Paint to display pages in pairs, which will help me to keep the flow of the images in mind, and to keep the colors harmonious from page to page. I’ve come to truly appreciate Clip Studio Paint EX — it’s got the tools I need to work quickly and stay organized. I just have to use the tools.

In the past I did the story board with pen and paper, then scanned the pictures, then imported them into my graphics software, which was Procreate for the first book. For this book I’m doing the storyboard entirely in Clip Studio Paint EX. Feeling comfortable enough to do the preliminary sketches with my digital tools will save me many hours.

TOOLS USED FOR THIS POST
Clip Studio Paint EX

More Storyboarding

More storyboarding. I worked with Clip Studio Paint again. I spent some time trying to create the wall the kids have to deal with when they cross the border into Mexico. I want to get the hang of Clip Studio’s perspective ruler, which does simplify getting things that should have perspective and be straight to actually look straight. I like a hand-drawn look for many things, but I’m fine with using a ruler when a line is supposed to be straight. This monster wall doesn’t deserve to be treated like it’s in any way comic — it’s a damned serious wall. It has to be drawn as a hard, soulless, heartless mechanical object.

This the image for Book 2, page 9.

Working on the Storyboard

I’m seeking an efficient work flow. I have a ton of pages to create and I don’t want to get bogged down, as I did with the first book Yet, as much as I yearn for speed, finding the way to produce a lot of successful pages has been as elusive as tracking down the Holy Grail. Just as I think I’ve found The Way, I realize that I’m dealing with a mirage that vanishes when I try to grasp it. I’ve tried the iPad, traditional media (which I love), and Photoshop. But I haven’t clicked with them.

Yesterday I put away my Wacom tablet and took my Huion 22 inch pen display out of mothballs. Working with the tablet is good, but I’m slow. I wanted to see if I can work more efficiently with a pen display. The answer is Yes. Today I worked with the pen display and Clip Studio Paint and was able to work smoothly for hours generating pages with the proper bleed lines (a critical time saving feature). I’m using the Pro version of CPS (Clip Studio Paint). Creating one image at a time creates a directory full of files. I’m considering the CPS Ex version — it generate and organize all of the pages the entire book and export all of the images as a PDF, much like InDesign. Clip Studio Paint has awesome features for generating comics and surpasses Photoshop and Procreate in that respect. Looks good.

Bettina is a new character. She’s friendly, loyal, strong, and cheerful, and she’s on her way to Mexico, too.