Works-In-Progress | Hunters Prologue Page 12 Redrawn

There's a lot of effort that goes into drawing even the simplest of comic pages. Well, maybe simple isn't the right word. These aren't easy-to-draw black-and-white pages like you might find in some traditional comics or manga; they're grayscale. Linework is the focus of black-and-white, whereas in grayscale it's the combination of everything else. Varying shades, tones, and pressures associated with certain objects and lines work together to make grayscale work. Even 7+ years prior this was true.

Color can make things much more complicated. But even with grayscale, there's a process to creating or recreating a comic page.

The first step I try to accomplish is to create the most basic outline of the panels. In the original pages I would create lines of my own, though with recent pages I used a ruler to accomplish this task. To create the straightest lines possible, I would measure and make tick marks to align lines with the edges of the paper or other panels. This can take longer than some people might think. But once the initial outline is completed and looks clean, I can then create general outlines of positions of the characters or primary subjects of each panel. I do this to ensure I have an idea of how characters, scenes, and dialogue will play out before drawing any details (and suddenly realizing I made errors that are difficult to fix). And, I still will use basic shapes to get me started on characters in particular, like the constant use of circles for heads and rectangles for legs.

The next step is to work further on the details of the characters or subjects in each panel. Details include certain unique physical characteristics, expressions, and sometimes even dialogue. Some of these outlines will go through a couple of revisions with occasional adjustment as I try and work out the best possible outlines, so during this stage my lines are still fairly light.

The next step involves finalizing outlines of both the panels and subjects. I will first outline the panels, with the ruler just as I used it to I initially create them. Outlines will typically be slightly thicker than 0.5 pencil lead, meaning I eyeball the panel lines to double the thickness of each one. I've performed this method so often for years that I've become rather good at this particular kind of eyeballing.

Once the panels are darkened, I outline the subjects next. I make sure to outline the detail carefully, most notably the character physical unique traits and the fur in this case. By this point I've made all necessary adjustments, but on occasion I will make slight tweaks in the final outlines. Once this is completed, the panels are ready to be filled in.

I have a habit of dragging the side of my hand across the paper as I draw (and I am right-handed). So in the cases of grayscale, I will typically work left to right on these particular pages. I will fill in the subject and backgrounds with pencil marks of varying pressures and strokes (the night sky will be full of long and dark pencil strokes, whereas fur patterns usually consist of short strokes that follow certain directionalities based on the part of the body where I'm drawing the fur. It's also important that I examine previous pages, so that if I have enough reference, I can match backgrounds from previous pages to the best of my ability. I also must ensure that I keep the patterns, locations, distance, and pressures of the pencil marks as consistent as possible.

I could at this stage choose to be a little more detailed with the fur strokes, since I consider my style to be semi-realistic. But to remain as consistent as I can with previous redrawn pages, and for the sake of time purposes, I will primarily focus on the darkness of certain colors in grayscale, the direction of certain patches of fur, and surrounding lighting and shading effects. 

I continue sketching and stroking in lines left to right. For this page in particular, I am vividly aware of the position of the characters and the moonlight, which as a half moon in this specific scene shines brighter than even a full moon on a cloudless night. I remain acutely aware of this fact as I keep in mind the shading of details in the panels, such as Nylin's dark fur growing lighter the more moonlight hits her back, to the black markings on Seldrad's face as light as about 50% gray based on how the light hits the character. I kept this in mind also for the trees in the background as they are also lit up by the moon's light at certain angles.

After I've finished filling in the panels, backgrounds, and characters, I will one final time go over outlines to ensure distinction between subject and background and to make sure the page in general looks clean for final presentation.

And we're done! The redrawn page is finished, and will eventually be submitted to the art communities I am a part of. Lots of steps go into creating these pages......but as an artist and a writer, the results are always worth it!