adamwarren
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The final WORK STAGES from a (semi-)recent short story!
🕑 Added 2023-11-17 14:25:08 +0000 UTCUPDATE: This post was originally scheduled for next week, but I'm hastily pressing it into service after running into problems with the content I originally had in mind. (See final paragraph for more info on that front.)
As I desperately flail around for Patreon content after expending my post buffer, I recalled that I've only shown Work Stages for pages 1-7 from that 8-page Harley Quinn #29 back-up story I wrote and drew for DC earlier in the year. (Ackshully, I finished it last year, but whatevs.) So, take a gander at my process for the final page from "Hyena Anxiety," a surreal and/or nightmarish lil'l episode featuring of ol' Harl confronted by a series of upsetting variations of her pet hyenas Bud and Lou. Story and line art by me, colors by Alejandro Sanchez.
Overall, a fairly enjoyable experience, but sweet Jesus was this story ever time-consuming to grind my way through. Then again, I was reverting to my old, old workflow of roughs/tight pencils/tighter inks on full-size comics artboard, a wildly inefficient process I abandoned way back in 2000 after struggling through the miniseries Dirty Pair: Run from the Future (as discussed in a recent text post).
Not much time for commentary, but note that the first image in the gallery is my "color guide" for minor tweaks I wanted made to the final colors, mostly removing the border lines of the panels where the word balloons intersect with 'em:
...and the previous stage of colors:
TBH, I probably should've removed all those panel borders in the inks stage, but this might be a conclusion I reached only after the inks had been submitted. Speaking of which, here they are, as carried out with Pentel Pitt Artist pens, sizes S and XS (along with Sharpies to fill in the blacks):
..and the pencils, quite lightly drawn on DC art board but jacked up in Photoshop to make the very faint linework visible to you:
..and, continuing this hellishly slow and redundant workflow, here are the Empowered-style underdrawings I worked up on individual sheets of letter-size paper for each tier of panels:
Note that I did "draw through" the upper part of Harley's torso to make sure the visible portions of her were proportional.
Finally, let's go all the way back to the initial page rough, as scribbled on 8.5" X 14" copy paper cut down to under-13"-length comic page proportions:
And thus endeth my brief Harley Quinn sojourn, folks. Had fun with (and developed a new appreciation for) the character, but this artistic workflow unsurprisingly proved far too slow and grinding to be viable for anything other than a short story. Wouldn't mind doing s'more HQ work down the road, but I have nothin' lined up at present.
NEXT TIME ON THIS HERE PATREON: No idea, TBH, but something should be coming up in the next M/W/F slot. Let's find out together, shall we?
UPDATE: Was originally intending to post a truly unusual Failed-Project Friday post on a gig that seems to be going belly-up in real time, but decided to hold off as the ill-fated freelance job might not yet be entirely dead. I was also intending to feature an update on a new "hybrid workflow" art test based on a page from potential fantasy comic The Last Party, but figured I might as well hold off until the experiment's artwork is finished; yes, amazingly enough, I've found a digital/analog combo technique that wasn't covered in this summer's myriad tests with The Chaste and the Chained. (Not holding out much hope for this new approach, but what the heck.)
Comments
Mark Magagna
Something slow that ends up with a finished product is better than a faster process where you end up with nothing I guess. I'm a software developer. I've run into this where a client wants to do X and thinks it will take a certain amount of time, and I look through it and say "What about part Y?" "Oh, we'll worry about that later. It's not in scope." Later comes, and they're in a panic because part Y is required to actually get stuff done. Although some clients are canny enough to realize that they can't do part Y in the budget - so doing part X gives them leverage to get part Y funded... Not particularly relevant to your workflow, but I thought it might amuse.
Adam Warren
Yes, this workflow is definitely inefficient as heck, but DOES allow me to produce finished and print-ready artwork, which I couldn't do at the time via digital means... and, alas, still can't. I could put up with this slow, tedious approach for an 8-page short story, but wouldn't do so for any longer pagecount.
Mark Magagna
I think I missed something. Why revert to the old workflow if it's inefficient? Does it allow you to feel your way through problems better?
Karlos
So cool to see the curtains pulled back on your work, Mr W. And yeah, those bills need paying, sir!
