Fantasy Adventure Comic

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com
This was actually the first page I drew, then the story ran backwards more than forwards for a while.
 
That's a big step. If youre interested there are free PDFs of word balloons and whatnot online that you could letter seperately from the art and add afterward.
 
Mostly it was just for the sake of the joke, but it would allow some story telling techniques that aren't available in a strictly visual comic.

Right now it's deliberately fast and rough but I've been thinking of going to brush and ink on bristol board. Currently I'm just using sheets of printer paper but I'm finding the brush pens dry out fast and often don't match, even when I buy the same brand and match the cap color. The only thing is that brush and ink is a bit slower. It'll let me do much better shading and blending but I started out with a ten page lead and I'm down to one as it is.

I'm pretty low tech in my approach. I'm just using paint to resize the drawings to 50% and crop the page a bit.
 
You could mix ink pen and brushed ink too. I can see brushed doing a better job for on large background areas, for example.
 
In regards to word baloons, there's a device specifically for laying out text in them that all comicbook artists used before the digitization of the artform called an Ames Guide. I still have one from my days at Kubert. I don't think they are common, but I imagine one could order one through any decent art supply store for a pittance


Only $6 in Canada, probably like 2.99 in the US
 
Well, I'm a page and a half in on the brush, pen, and ink. I'm a little concerned that I finished the wrong page first and might be late with tommorrow's installment.
 
You can an Ames guide on Amazon for less than $10, that's where I got mine.
 
I like that they have a flying ship and use it to pour boiling oil on their enemies. I feel like that's something an actual medieval state would do if they had a flying ship.
 
Scanning seems to really make the colours pop out. Not always to the best effect. The brush strokes look much more pronounced in the sky than it does on the original. Oh well, learning experiences. I need to get some clear base to dilute the ink with water works okay but it causes pooling and hits a point where it's just too thin. On the other hand the white ink is almost too opaque and while that's great for touch ups it's not so good for blending and layering. I wonder if Future would work or would it be too glossy?
 
Clear medium is what you need, although a spot of any glycerine soap will work in a pinch. Both will slow the dry time a bit too, although medium does that better. TristramEvans TristramEvans might know better than me....
 
future or medium will break the tension but not necessarily hide all the brush strokes, and will end up creating more of a wash, like painting with watercolours, which might be what you want, but the increased translucence will give more of a "staining" effect, with the colour more intense as you move outward from where you first lay the brush down.

The trick is really in how you are using the brush. I would suggest treating it more like a tiny mop - get a pool of slightly-thinned ink and drop it on the page then guide it with the brush, held at an angle, as much as possible without touching the brush to the paper itself. You want the ink viscous enough to flow of it's own accord, but not so thin it will spead out everywhere. the trick then is blending the edges - if you start with a new pool where the last one ended, it will give more of a continuous, unbroken effect.

That's one way. Another is to apply it just like you have there, but then, after it is almost dry, going over it all with a verrry thin wash, which will tie it all together and cover up the strokes. However, while the first method requires more control or practice, the second method is more prone to mistakes, trying to control a wash over limited areas.
 
I have, actually. I'm using FW acrylic ink which I have. The advantage over watercolours is that you can paint over it when dry.
 
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top