adamwarren
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WORK STAGES: The ongoing blueline nightmare of THE CHASTE AND THE CHAINED's page 1!
🕑 Added 2023-07-17 13:00:10 +0000 UTCWellp, this month I tried out a new "hybrid workflow" on more early pages from The Chaste and the Chained, with an approach that used digital roughs and analog pencils & inks. This workflow has, alas, proved direly unsuccessful in various ways, as I shall discuss in the days and weeks to come as I post Work Stages on the five-page opening scene of The Chaste's first story.
However, as I've been scanning and processing the finished pages from this test sequence, entirely new realms of non-success have confronted me in an ongoing ordeal which I'm still trying to puzzle my way through.
Anyhoo, for the opening page of the story, I worked up a digital rough in Clip Studio Paint, which was pasted into a scan of a DC original artboard page (hence the bluelines):
Then I converted the rough into theoretically non-repro blue lines, and printed that out on the blank backside of a DC artboard, as my snazzy new printer could not possibly be trusted to insert the rough precisely into existing blue lines on the artboard's face:
Then I used 8B(!) pencils and PITT Artist Pen inks to draw finished artwork over the bluelines, as seen in a subsequent color scan of the original page:
Ah, but when I got around to trying to remove the bluelines from the artwork, I soon ran into weird problems that remain unsolved for the time being, as my usual array of Photoshop adjustments couldn't process the page to my satisfaction. (I'll have to consult with more knowledgeable Photoshoppers this week re: these matters.)
For one thing, the process of printing out the bluelines on my new Epson Workforce apparently introduced an odd pattern of teeny-tiny dots of color—imperceptible to my naked eye, at least—all over the original artboard:
To quote Francis Dolarhyde, "Can you see? Can you see?"
Anyhoo, these tiny dots certainly popped up quite clearly in the 600dpi scan and are proving weirdly pesky to my Photoshop fumbling, hence the lack of a final, fully processed jpeg for this page. Ughh.
Wellp, next up in this failed experiment with a hybrid workflow for The Chaste and the Chained, I'll post the Work Stages on the epic, sprawling double-page spread for opening pages 2 & 3. That panorama, thankfully, didn't use the blue-lined-rough approach of this page, so it should prove earlier to process in Photoshop (he typed hopefully).
NEXT TIME ON THIS HERE PATREON: Ehh, might be the brand-new Life Drawing piece I'm planning to finish up as soon as I schedule this g-d post. (BTW, I just blew three g-d work hours struggling with this page's g-d Photoshoppery and setting up this g-d post. Yay, g-d comics!)
Comments
Sabrina Pandora
Might a new brush set help? The artists I work with swear by Lando Calbrushian... here's a link, if it might help. https://frenden.myshopify.com/products/clip-studio-800-brush-set?fbclid=IwAR2cCNYZi_1VcW5iBpqhU8ywg0Oj_RIM8l1M-TSHpBsBRxTQLEor5Zi-EPU
Burninator
Seriously though, might be worth checking the print head thing the previous commenter mentioned first.
Burninator
Ah, OK. Hope the feds aren't targeting my contacts specifically.
Adam Warren
So far, I can't get even remotely acceptable ink quality in CSP; also, another aspect of this hybrid workflow was to generate original artwork I could theoretically sell, which is no small issue for a creator as marginal as I am. Howeva, as I'll address ere long in future posts, this hybrid approach appears fatally flawed, and I'll likely have to go back to grinding away at CSP until I get viable output.
Adam Warren
I think that's what they might be, as I certainly can't see 'em on the originals, and the pattern extends all across the page. The printer works fine otherwise, though.
Sabrina Pandora
Out of curiosity, why print it out on artboard? With the rough in Clip Studio, why not ink there?
Burninator
Im wondering if those might actually be tracking microdots the government makes printer manufacturers put in so they can catch spies and counterfeiters. Also, if the printer is really borked and you wanna return it, message me so I can make arrangements.
Otaku Twenty-Four Seven
Not sure if this is a similar problem to the one you have encountered here, but unwanted fine spray can be indicative of print head issues https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/522720 Or maybe they were present already on the blue line scan?
