So just to prove I’ve actually been working on it, here’s a page’s roughs (basic blocking and rough drawing before going in to do the tight pencils) The lower right hand corner hasn’t been blue’d yet because I’m not content with the layout of that panel, once I am, I’ll blue it, then do final pencils/inks.

The story got a bit of a rewrite so that page I showed earlier that I said was page 1 is no longer page 1, THIS is page 1, that other page can be used later as a throw away one shot, it stands alone fairly well and can be used as filler sometime. The story changes are for the better and will really help move the plot along. The characters are less cookie cutter and have better defined histories and motivations, at least in my mind, and hopefully that will come out on the page. Anyway, the story changes have me jazzed to draw so I’ve been drawing almost every night this week even if only for an half hour.

So I feel a little guilty doing two non-art-related posts, so here is what I was working on last night, the pencils for the last panel of the first page and yes, I both ink and pencil a page at the same time, it’s a benefit of being all digital.

This is the first time I’ve done a drawing of this character that I’m mostly happy with.  I’ve been trying to find a look for her face using various actresses and models as reference.  Funny enough, I get a look I’m happy with when I’m not using any ref, go figure.  This, by the way, is one of the three main characters, the other two are introduced in subsequent pages.

I learned a lot just doing this first page, first, that I can get away with just doing loose sketches for backgrounds before going to the “ink” step but for characters I definitely need to do tighter “pencils”.  This drawing resulted from an aborted attempt to do my inks over a very rough sketch of the character.  Maybe after I’ve drawn her a couple hundred times, and I’m better at getting ink strokes I’m happy with I’ll be able to do that, but not while I’m still figuring both her and that process out.  Second, don’t be afraid to scrap work and start a section over, thats the glory of layers, I can hide a layer of work I don’t like and try again, and choose which one I think is better.  Third, sometimes it’s just better to move on and call something good enough.

And for those going “Wait, you are still working on the first page!?”  Yes, I’ve had a bad bout of migraines lately (that’s where the Pained Brain moniker came from), and the last thing I want to do at the end of a day of toiling on a computer with a migraine is to get back on another computer to draw.  It’s also why I want to build up a good buffer, just for times like these when it’s just physically impossible for me to work on it.

I have finally done some actual work on the comic that wasn’t “prep”.  Here is a sneak peak at page 1, panel 1. Tip for aspiring comic creators, don’t make the first panel you draw a big detailed establishing shot that’s going to take forever to ink.

It still needs color as I plan on doing a full color comic, and some of my inking decisions were based on that fact, for example the trees in the background will be more numerous but the furthest ones will just be light shades of gray and won’t actually get ink lines.

I struggled with the tree. The sun is right behind it and I’m not really satisfied with how I inked it, but I need to move on, I’ve spent enough time on this panel and want to get the rest of the page done!

Update: To answer the question below, the “ink” in this instance is digital ink.  I am completely digital at this point doing both my rough drawings to final inks completely inside Photoshop.

An update to the update I previously updated: I fixed the ground shadow of the tree and did some work to ground the trees in the background, sorry for getting rid of the older version of the image, but I was rushing a bit. To those who saw it, lucky you.

In the process of planning out the comic I’ve been working on, I have been trying to commit to a medium to actually produce the comic in.  When I first thought of doing a comic, I wanted to do it all in traditional media, Bristol, pencils, inks, etc.  Then, after reading about so many artists digital workflows I thought, “hey, lets try to do it digital”, at least for the inks.  So I whipped out Photoshop, scanned in some pencils I had done for character designs and started doing some tests, with less than stellar results.  I think some of those early failures was simply me not having the experience necessary to “ink” in Photoshop.

I didn’t realize it then, so I went to something else and tried “inking” in Illustrator.  I got better results mostly because Illustrator smoothed out my shaky lines.  I thought “great, I can ink in Illustrator and I’ll have easy to scale line art!”.  Only problem is, Illustrator is the most artist unfriendly piece of software on the planet.  It’s interface just doesn’t make sense (don’t believe me, without looking in the manual or using the help, or Googling, find the toggle that will make a brush stroke maintain it’s transparency setting, go ahead, I’ll wait). Plus the more I worked with it, the more I realized it made my stuff too clean.  I did get to the point where I was even sketching in Illustrator, but I just wasn’t happy with the final product.

I thought about going completely traditional again.  Then I gave Photoshop another chance just the other day.  I started just doing some pencils in it, using some of the lessons I learned from Illustrator (zooming in close is your best friend).  Wonder of wonders, I was enjoying myself and more importantly, getting results I like.  I haven’t tried inking yet but I think I’ll have better luck this time.  I’m even thinking of doing the comic in a more painterly style rather than the traditional black lines and shiny color.

Then again… maybe I’ll just draw it all on bristol and ink it with a brush.