Before Our Love Fell - Page 7

Process:

The overall design for this page didn't change much at all, beyond giving more emphasis on the movement of the 'camera' in the bottom four frames again to keep the frame from looking too still.

Before Our Love Fell - Page 6

The darkness on this page is very fitting for the mood of the story.



Process:

This one had a bit of fixing to do in the final stages. One thing that people always have to remember is that a camera is never still, even in movies, it's always either zooming in or out extremely slowly, or panning across the screen in some subtle manner, etc. People don't always notice these movements (nor are they supposed to), but they are there because if the camera had been completely still they would notice the stillness.

With comics, you have the same issue. If you have too many frames of sameness, it will look flat and unmoving, so I had to create a dynamic scene on the bottom four frames, zooming out of Anne as she waits outside the door. It also helps the movement of the scene and denote the passing of time.

It also was changed because having the vampire bending over Adam in the first of the four frames made the transition awkward too, and this was a more graceful flow.

Before Our Love Fell - Page 5

I had a bit of fun playing with the shading and giving the outdoor atmosphere around the vampire a darker feel. Making things seem darker where she was as if it was almost palpable.


Process:

This page was a little difficult. I couldn't really decide on a final design for the home that Anne and her lover lived in. At first I was thinking some sort of apartment/tenement type place, and then was thinking townhouses, etc etc.

 You'll notice in the final draft I also shifted one of the boxes for better flow. The jump from facing Anne as she walks with the vampire to her approaching her front door was a bit jarring, as you weren't directly connected with the destination from one panel to the other, so I switched the order slightly to allow for better flow and the destination to location to connect properly.

Before Our Love Fell - Page 4

 

I really liked how this page turned out. From the fear from Anne and the conflicting anguish from the vampire as Anne pulls her heart strings. From toying with one's food to feeling sorry for it, damn!

Process:

 Notice how the sketch follows the action lines. I did that on purpose. ;D















 On this page, it was surprisingly difficult to figure out where the speech bubbles were going to go once I fully realized what I wanted to do with Anne's hair. I didn't want any bubbles too close to the lower panels where her hair overlaps, because there'd be too much in that area and it would take away from the overall picture.






 

Before Our Love Fell - Page 3

 One thing I really liked about this page was how in the previous two pages, the lighting was more natural, and then when the vampire makes her appearance the atmosphere suddenly gets darker. Almost as if the entire world seems to darken in her presence.


Process: 

Before Our Love Fell - Page 2

 

Don't worry, it's just those two lines that are in Russian (transliterated). Since I didn't actually write the story, I can't tell you the exact translation, but basically, she is saying "I seek the one who lives here", and the reply, "You spoke well."


Process:

In the final draft, I also started to figure out where the speech bubbles were going to go. 
















I want a house like this one!

Before Our Love Fell - Page 1

Page 1 of Before Our Love Fell


 Process:

 The sketch I drew teeny tiny (well, I hadn't noticed that photoshop had a fairly big file, I was zoomed out so didn't notice til after I saved and was all, "Woah, that size is funky" and checked the image size) just to get the idea down.


 







I then took it into a more final sketch, to get the idea more solidified, and lock the shapes and ideas into place. The blue overlay is a "Sacred Geometry Template", which the lines correspond with planes of interest where our eyes are happiest focusing on and finding the subjects along those lines. Even before they (the comic industry people) started actively working with this template, if you overlayed different templates on older comics you'll find a LOT of the lines of action correspond with the characters and action within the imagery. It's pretty nifty.
















Step 3 was to create a final draft. I had the layout and where everything was going to go, I had to work on finalizing my work and get it ready for inking (or just final lineart, since it was digital). I created finished boxes, and started working on the layout of where art would not be present (the white).













 Last step before I colored, the lineart.
The reddish lines around the image are my crop marks, where the page will be cropped to once it's printed.

As I colored, I stuck mostly to shades of grey, only bringing out specific colors (eyes mainly), with an overlay to create a papery texture and a somber blue hue over the entire image.


The next 7 pages will be posted every three days, just to keep you on your toes. I probably won't write too much about the process on those pages, since the process for them was just like this one, but I will post the visuals for those steps just like I did here.

Busy Busy Life of a College Student!

Wouldja lookie here! Seems school caught up with me a little bit (or a lot a bit), and distracted me from posting things on my blog! It's finals week, I've been working on a lot of crap, from writing scripts to studying social habits of people, to sculpting my head out of clay, to making a graphic novel. I'll be posting a bunch of things from the latter two things in the coming weeks, once my finals are over and I'll have time to sit down and discuss the process and thought behind the pieces and whatever techniques and general feelings about the project were.

Until then, here's the first page of the mini comic book, Before Our Love Fell.

I will post more about the process on in in the next few days/week!