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THE CHASTE AND THE CHAINED: Page roughs for 2nd scene (pp.06-09)!
🕑 Added 2023-03-08 14:00:59 +0000 UTCBehold, my initial page roughs for the second scene from the opening story I'm writing and drawing for The Chaste and the Chained, the previously mentioned fantasy comic I'm using as a test bed for digital art production in Clip Studio Paint.
The first scene from the opening story proved a bit too ambitious to tackle right off the bat, as it involved not only a scantily clad distressed damsel but also crowds of mutated cultists, a giant (alien?) war machine and an ill-defined but vast underground chamber, as vaguely hinted at in this early analog-media rough:
(The final version of this page will be an even more ambitious double-page spread to set the stage, BTW.)
Anyhoo, I had trouble making much progress with such a challenging task at the start, so I skipped ahead to story pages 6 through 9, which flash back to a strolling conversation 'twixt Elf Mage and Human Paladin that lays the expository groundwork setting up the overall narrative:
Only two characters and a wee bit of background work, which naturally proved less daunting to lay out.
On the other hand, I soon ran into trouble with the main Paladin figure on the next page:
...as I have great difficulty with drawing male figures at certain original sizes and particular camera angles. In fact, I had to sketch the figure very small, at a scale that avoids this odd artistic block of mine, and then scaled it up in CSP.
Gotta say that I was pleased to work in overt hints from the first pages that the Paladin is already struggling with the whole "purity" thing.
Note also that his panel 1 dialogue re: "every man-jack with a pulse and some rope" is a repurposed line from that Rose & Lily story with the potion-shop gnomes; I liked the phrase enough that I thought it could be used in a "real" comic.
I should also note that the dialogue in these roughs is "for position only," an only semi-legible scrawl intended to give me an idea of how large the word balloons should be. See, I intend to go "manga style" with the lettering and ink the balloons directly into the artwork, but use software-generated fonts for the actual text.
And here's an overt flashback to his even less pure days before taking up the mantle of Paladinhood.
Anyhoo, this initial, layout-style work stage went pretty smoothly, though with the disturbing side effect that I feel much more run-down than usual after an all-digital work shift.
This effect might be in part caused by how I'm hunching over a Cintiq that's resting on a flat tabletop, raised up at only a slight angle by the tablet's truncated "legs," as opposed to the steeply angled drafting table upon which I draw all my analog material. Clearly, I'm gonna have to look into setting up the Ergo Stand I bought with the Cintiq, even though my cramped workspace is ill-suited to fit the g-d thing at present. (The quite literally more flexible Ergo Flex arm might be a viable alternative, come to think of it.)
Ah, but these roughs were definitely the easy part, folks. The real challenge will come when I try to produce finished artwork digitally, which is what I'm currently grinding away at with already frustrating results.
I should further note that, while I plan to show Work Stages on pages like these to the $3 tier on occasion (and the $1 tier more rarely), only the $5+ tiers will have full access to the scenes involving "damsel in distress" imagery, such as the opening scene mentioned earlier.
NEXT TIME ON THIS HERE PATREON: Not sure at the moment as to exactly what's coming up in the next M/W/F slot, TBH. Let's find out together, shall we?
Comments
KranberriJam
I'm loving the look! Also struggling with you while trying digital art. My current table has zero room for my small Huion tablet, so it lays flat on my lap, which makes drawing while looking at the computer screen very awkward.
Sabrina Pandora
Ahaaaaaa, I gotcha now. I am really excited for the Last Party. I gotta say it's cool you went to the trouble to brew up a concept just as a workflow exercise!
Adam Warren
Ah, no, they're over in separate project THE LAST PARTY, along with the half-elf and the human mage from HUSHED HALF-ELF. In theory, at least, CHASTE is trying to nail down a digital-art workflow I could later use on the much more ambitious PARTY project.
Mark Magagna
Wondering if you have tried putting the Cintiq flat on your drafting table, to make the experience closer to the analog mode? Or perhaps given your experiences with analog, that might cause other problems.
Frank Innes
Hopefully the so-far-unrendered cultists are robed so only the odd protruding horn or dangling tentacle is needed to sell the mutatedness!
Matthew Rogers
I’m picking up traces of the Caged Demonwolf’s (to borrow terminology from hip hop/ rap), ‘flow’. Which has lead me to imagine The Chaste and Chained as spawned forth from Emp, Jette, Thugboy and the Caged Demonwolf playing D’n’D together, very meta. Also, crossover potential ahoy!
Strypgia
Pretty sure someone must have warned him all those sacred oaths and paladin-ing in general was going to be hard. They were just non-specific as to the particular torments involved. Should have listened, son. Layout and flow looks good even in this rough state. Can't wait to see the finished product, and throw money at it.
Andrew Dederer
One little note/warning. There was a Xxxenophile story way back with a similar pairing (but the issue there was uncontrollable strength/Elf of Kleenex) involving a spider web. You might want to avoid spiders for an arc or two (or look it up and put in markers to show you know of it Specifically a "scoober" spider).
Sabrina Pandora
Will this story include the characters from the previous Party story, the half-orc gal and her dwarven lovah? I know you have likely addressed this but I can't recall.
Davehiws
Thank you so much! I've tried going analog to CSP and haven't found it to be a fun experience so I was wondering how it went for you. Thank you for your advice!
Adam Warren
An early and VERY loose rough was done in analog media to give me an idea of the panel sizes, which I then redrew by eye in CSP (without scanning the initial rough) for these pages. This process went smoothly enough that I'll probably do all my roughs digitally from here on out, even if I have to do the finished art in analog media.
Davehiws
Forgive if you addressed this already but are you doing the lay-outs in pencil and the scanning them into CSP or doing it all in CSP. I'm interested in how that goes for you.
