Small Update on the Public Domain Book Project

I'm around two-thirds of the way done adapting the book I've been dealing with lately, adapting it to a comics format from its prosaic origins. It currently stands at twenty-one pages so far, including the small segment of the last section that is yet to be adapted. My estimates of it reaching thirty-one to thirty-three pages long is still true and strong. This is only with the first chapter though, I don't particularly plan on drawing the rest of the book as I think of this project as more of an exercise in how well I can adapt things from one medium to another and honing my storytelling abilities as an illustrator within the Comics-bande-dessine, or the Ninth Art as it is sometimes called, tradition of the Fine Arts.

An interesting thing to note is how my paneling style has changed with my adoption of a new technique*. There was a constant appearance of these styles of comics paneling, in part or in whole:

 

 

2X3

3X3

There was also a significant presence of a Howard Chaykin-esque panel style, I could not find any passable examples online so this sketch by myself must do to make the point.

It's a mix between the 3X3 and 2X3 panel styles in the number of panels per row, the rows themselves coming closer to the 2X2 panel style. One of my favorites was the mix of the 2X2 + one row from the 3X3, becoming much like what you see just above this paragraph but with another set of the two panels.

Intersped in all this I also have those little panels within panels that Mike Mignola and Howard Chaykin use so well and interestingly.

It's just interesting to see this constant pattern appearing in the thumbnails of the comics adaptation.

*Said technique being similar to Chester Brown's technique. I would draw each individual panel as its own entity before arranging them in pages, but my own technique is different from Brown's in that I still punctuate things by beats and significant events that I feel could mark the end of a page/ the start of a new page. Chester Brown, from what I know, just draws each panel as he writes and only arranges them into pages once done drawing them all.

Perspective and depth

Nothing much this week, I've been reading Norling's Perspective Made Easy (again*). In one of the final panels of Dart With Destiny, the panel I was redrawing was a perfect opportunity to utilize perspective and the elements which were already there weren't going to be changed too much in order to accommodate it. It was fortunate to say the least. Thinking in perspective again was fun, not just focusing on the arrangement and foreshortening of characters to offer a feel of depth.

Grinding boxes

 Have a sketch.

*I say again as I read around a third of it in the past but forgot all about it. I've been fixing that.

Public Domain, I Thank Thee

So, the one project that I've set aside years ago is back on again. The book is apparently on public domain, I had verified it mainly by searching said book on Gutenberg and Librivox, two book services that offer public domain books with the latter offering community-made audiobooks.

Updates when they come.

Realizations and Reflections Thanks to Figure-Drawing

A lot of studies lately, mainly in improving my realism, my gestures, my drapery, and experiments in my inking. I've learned a lot in this time, I hope you would see what I've learned too.

 

Nothing really interesting here but it's something I've drawn and from what you can see here, I've still got a long way to go with making my drapery buttery, smooth, and technically correct. I just slapped them on without thinking too much about forming it around the figure. I should fix that.

 These ones were semiserious studies where I tried to study gesture in particular. 

My inking here is quite poor. Sadly I didn't get a picture of the pencils but they were so much better. I need to reform my inking, I was too quick and not careful here, the careful linework I've worked into with the pencils was lost in the spirit of the moment. I've even fucked up the anatomical details for crying out loud. Oh well, it's a learning moment. 

 

Some gesture and drapery studies where I did a lot better. I played with markers and brush liking here, it was really fun.

Preparing to Finish "Dart with Destiny"

Dart with Destiny is a comic I'm doing with a friend. I'm playing around with it now, final edits and fixes.

Greater contrast or the lack thereof, etc.

300dpi, no contrast

300dpi with contrast

600dpi, no contrast

600dpi, with contrast