Working at Getting My Groove Back... (with a Ditko cover re-creation)

[DGoodhart]

(So, I'm bring this whole thing back to life after a long absence.  For those that are familiar with this stuff already, just jump to page 3 for the new stuff.  And if you haven't seen this stuff before... well, pull up a chair and sit a spell...)

Geez, it's been forever since I posted in this section... anyway, as a refresher, a long time ago I used to draw for a few publishers- Malibu, Image (Big Bang Comics), AC Comics and others... Gradually I got out, due to getting some very good paying commercial freelance work that was just taking away from my comic drawing time, and over time, drawing just ceased from me...

Anyway, I'm trying to get back into it, but it's real slow going- I'm doing a lot of experimenting with a Wacom tablet and other things as well (there's another post way back on Page 2 of this board with my last attempt using the Legion of Super-Heroes character Mon-El), and recently, thanks to Brian Bolland's website, I've really been getting the urge again...

This started off as just another sketch, and it features a character I created... gee whiz, damn near 25 years ago now, shortly after I got out of art school, called Sentinel (actually, if I ever do the strip- for fun, mind you, it'll be called Sentinel:  The Johnathan Kane Chronicles).  Anyway, the sketch was really rough, but enough to work with:



After that, it was back to working with digital inking, using a combination of Adobe Illustrator (for outlines) and Photoshop (for interior detail) and then trying something new for me when it came to color.  In the past I colored my artwork using layers in Photoshop, but thanks to comic artist Brian Bolland's site, I've now started using channels for my coloring instead and I have to say, I love doing this...



Anyway, back at the board again tomorrow to try this again...

[evaD]

Awesome! I hope we do get to see the strip some day.

[DGoodhart]

Awesome! I hope we do get to see the strip some day.

Thanks!  I've got the first story (of sorts) kind of planned in my head and when I finally get around to it, it's the first thing that I'm planning do with the PSP in mind (though I'd also prepare it as a PDF file as well).  I've still got some kinks to work out with approaching my drawings this way, but I've already started another, so we'll see how it works out...

[Joe Willy]

Nice drawing.  Glad to see you're back at it.

I sort of know the feeling. I'm an art school drop out who ended up working in graphic design. As the years went by I drew less and less. As my skills stagnated drawing got less fun because it became harder and I put more pressure on myself, beating myself up for not being as good as I thought I should be. In the past couple of years I drew a couple comic stories for a writer friend and slowly I've been trying to get my groove back. I've been trying to post more art on my blog and force myself to draw every day (where once upon a time I was ALWAYS drawing). Hopefully I'll shake off the rust and improve my skills as I go. it was nice to read your story and I look forward to seeing more from you.

By the way, I hear MangaStudio is really nice for digital inking but I haven't tried it myself. I think they have a free trial you can take for a test drive.

[DGoodhart]

Well, we're playing again...

Well not so much playing, but trying to refine some stuff with another subject... this time, it's DC's original Legion of Super-Heroes as the three founding members appeared way back in the day (though the real LSH fans know they even looked different than this, and here I took a couple of liberties).  This time, I geared my drawing to fit a 16 X 9 format, as if I ever get the little strip off the ground that I want to do, it'll be in this format (designed for PSP viewing- as well as PDF file viewing).  Anyway, again, here's the sketch:



And we went through the same drill, inking with Illustrator and Photoshop and final color with Photoshop- this time though, I'm learning a bit more with Quickmask in that-- there's still much to learn, and I'm not quite as pleased with this one as I was with the Sentinel drawing, but every time I've been back with this, I learn a little something more:



I've still got another couple that I want to try before I start the strip (I've got plans for both a Manhunter-Goodwin/Simonson version- and Shazam drawings), so bear with me...

[DGoodhart]

Nice drawing.  Glad to see you're back at it.

I sort of know the feeling. I'm an art school drop out who ended up working in graphic design. As the years went by I drew less and less. As my skills stagnated drawing got less fun because it became harder and I put more pressure on myself, beating myself up for not being as good as I thought I should be. In the past couple of years I drew a couple comic stories for a writer friend and slowly I've been trying to get my groove back. I've been trying to post more art on my blog and force myself to draw every day (where once upon a time I was ALWAYS drawing). Hopefully I'll shake off the rust and improve my skills as I go. it was nice to read your story and I look forward to seeing more from you.

By the way, I hear MangaStudio is really nice for digital inking but I haven't tried it myself. I think they have a free trial you can take for a test drive.

Thank you very much!  It's nice to know that I'm not the only one...

Actually getting more comfortable with the Illustrator/Photoshop combination the more I work with it-- I've been working with both programs for years and years and it still surprises me at just how much power they have to get what you want out of them (or close to, anyway)...

[evaD]

Great composition and layout on the LSH pic. Can I ask, why do the inking digitally? And have you considered doing everything in Illustrator? Given that you seem to intend to be on multiple platforms, keeping the image vector based would seem to be to your advantage.

[DGoodhart]

Great composition and layout on the LSH pic. Can I ask, why do the inking digitally? And have you considered doing everything in Illustrator? Given that you seem to intend to be on multiple platforms, keeping the image vector based would seem to be to your advantage.

Thank you...

Doing the inking digitally just gives me way more control than what I had doing it by ink.  When I was inking my own stuff in print, I was using a Rotring art pen (and I love those), but every now and then, the damn thing would seem to dry up and I just couldn't get the ink to flow out of it like it should (and this would be just after being cleaned and filled), and of course there was the mistakes... those would just have to be covered up by ink or whited over and then inked again.  Inking digitally just gives me a measure of control that I just never could have doing it by hand (there was a number of things done here, especially around the faces- and I still think they're far from perfect- where things were off when I first inked but thanks to doing it digitally, I could go in and subtly move things or rotate things and get far closer to what I wanted than I would've been able to by hand... Now at the same time, I'll certainly grant that it takes a little longer (at least starting off), but primarily I chalk that up to just having so much stuff at my disposal to work with and wanting to try all sorts of things ("Undo" is a marvelous command).

And I have to admit, there's something cool for me anyway, as far as using the technology for something that I used to do by hand... (though with a Wacom tablet, there's still a lot of that)...

I'm still fooling around with it... so that's what's keeping me from doing something entirely with Illustrator as far as total inking goes.  I'm experimenting a bit with Illustrator's brush tool, so hopefully, I'll try something more definitive with it in the future.

[evaD]

Undo is an awesome part of the digital capabilities of Photoshop and Illustrator. I can see what you're saying about the time element. That and the Wacom tablet are what have kept me from working digitally. All those advantages make it tempting to switch and when I see what you're able to accomplish it makes me think twice. Of course, what you are able to accomplish has little to do with the computer and much to do with your ability to manipulate it and the drawing you start with. 

A final question: You're working with the intention of scanning and doing everything digitally, so why not draw with a Non-repro blue?

[DGoodhart]

A final question: You're working with the intention of scanning and doing everything digitally, so why not draw with a Non-repro blue?

I've just never really worked with non-repro blue traditionally... but, I've been screwing around a little more with the Wacom, and sooner or later I'm going to attempt to try and do the whole thing with it, and probably there, that's when I'll use a blue to just lay in the initial blocking...

[evaD]

I've just never really worked with non-repro blue traditionally... but, I've been screwing around a little more with the Wacom, and sooner or later I'm going to attempt to try and do the whole thing with it, and probably there, that's when I'll use a blue to just lay in the initial blocking...

Let me know how that works out. I'm on the fence on a lot of this stuff and if I thought it would save time or effort I'd jump on the bandwagon.

[DGoodhart]

Let me know how that works out. I'm on the fence on a lot of this stuff and if I thought it would save time or effort I'd jump on the bandwagon.

Well, I certainly do think it's worth trying out, it's not like you have to give up doing anything traditionally at all, and you can do it to degrees... so there is that...

I'm thinking about picking up Freddie Williams' book when it comes out (The DC Comics Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics).  Williams has been doing everything digitally for quite some time now, and his upcoming book is supposed to be pretty comprehensive...

[DGoodhart]

Well, I'm at it again, and this time getting a lot closer to how I want to handle this...

This time, I'm drawing Goodwin and Simonson's Manhunter, and for this one, I thought I'd show the actual steps...

First off, we start with the sketch...



After this, I imported the sketch into Illustrator and inked the outlines with both Illustrator's Brush tool and Pen tool.  this went much, much faster than my previous attempts.  Yeah there's some line overlap, but I erased a lot of that in the next step...



After this was done, I imported the outline inks into Photoshop and created another layer over it called Detail Inks.  I did the rest of the detail inking with my Wacom Tablet and using Photoshop's Brush tool.  The reason why I did that with Photoshop is that that let me get a little more scratchier with it than what Illustrator's brush tool would've done... (it also seemed to let me channel my "inner" Walt Simonson as well... well sorta...)



After this was done, I laid in flat color.  Now some of these things were gonna change entirely, like the sky and the white part of Manhunter's costume, but still this was my beginning with this.  All of the color was done in Channels...



After this, I went back in and using Channels, started to model everything.  After the final color was done, I imported the image into InDesign and added the logo and type (Yeah, I can do that in Photoshop as well, but InDesign sort of is easier for me to handle that stuff in)



Again, this was done with PSP viewing in mind, and I really think I've got this where I want it now... this took me about half the time as the other two drawings to do... and this time, it's way closer to how I would draw it if I was doing everything traditionally...

[Justin]

I love your stuff. And in my opinion your groove never left!

Keep posting the art, and I'll keep admiring.

[evaD]

I really like that you made changes to just about everything as you went from one stage to the next. Your focus on all the little details really makes a huge difference in the final product. 

[TimothyObriant]

That looks really good, I love what you did with the sky in the final step.  I need to learn to do stuff like that but I get intimidated in photoshop once I put my flat colors in.  Did you use a gradient and then add in some details or did you approach it in a more painterly style?

[DGoodhart]

That looks really good, I love what you did with the sky in the final step.  I need to learn to do stuff like that but I get intimidated in photoshop once I put my flat colors in.  Did you use a gradient and then add in some details or did you approach it in a more painterly style?

First thanks a lot guys!  I really appreciate the kind words and it really makes me want to do more... one thing that I haven't really talked a lot about on the board is that, as of the start of the year, I lost my job from the last nine years, and still being unemployed, I've had a lot of free time on my hands.  Now I'm doing OK financially (though I've cut down the comics I was buying quite a bit) and have had a lot of freelance work in that time, and I'm still looking for another job and confident that I'll get one (I've been a Graphic Artist for over the last 20 years working in Advertising, Retail Advertising and Manufacturing so I have a decent portfolio), but it's just going to be a long haul process, it's been one of the things that's sort of kept me from posting more here, but I've been trying to get back to it... Anyway, as I said, I'm doing fine, and at least so far, nothing to worry about financially at least for a few more months, then after that, we might have to break into the 401K money, but I digress...

If there's been any upside to this though, it's that I have gotten back into drawing, and just having more fun with it now than I have before, and with each new piece, I just want to keep at it and not let it slow down any more... I've got a couple more straight drawings like this that I want to do, and then I think it'll be time to plunge into some continuity again...

Anyway, Timothy, yes I did use a gradient and then after that I added more using the Wacom Tablet and the brush tool set to airbrush for the cloud effect... I'm still working with that stuff though, as I'd like to get a more "natural" cloud look (I might try something further with that in the next couple of pieces)...

Dave and Justin (and Timothy), thanks so much for the kind words, it really made my day...

[evaD]

Happy to make your day. Especially when it's as simple as telling the truth. Your work is really cool. I'm sorry to hear about your job loss. My wife spent about 15 years on the writing end of advertising/marketing etc. so I've had a front row seat to watch some of the ups and downs of that industry. She's out of it now, but I would imagine things are really tight.

You keep posting, I'll keep looking. I love what you're doing.

[TimothyObriant]

Things will work out if you keep your best foot forward, just keep your eyes open for oppertunities as the arise.  Thanks for the explanation on your coloring process, it's something I'm working to wrap me head around. 

[DGoodhart]

Again, thanks guys, I appreciate it... and a new one will be coming soon, next up... Shazam!!

One thing I forgot to add... Manhunter's throwing stars... those were actually done drawing them straight forward in Illustrator, just using the Star and Circle tools and then compounding the path... those were then imported into Photoshop, where I could twist them and warp them to my content to get the right perspective on them... Before, those would've been tough to just hand draw and get them right and consistent, so this was a good shortcut and time saver, if I was drawing the character in continuity, I would just do the same process each time... I figure I'm gonna do that again with other elements in the future- for instance, drawing a high tech computer console and showing it's display, that sort of thing...