Traditional Artist Meet And Greet

[a.g.meade]

@gmaximin - Hey! Great to meet you. Wow, I've heard of walnut ink and tea, but never thought about coffee powder or cigarette butts. I'd love to know what led to you using those "inks". I totally hear you about the page composition. There's so much that can be done to tell a story with composition alone... And 6 hours max per page - you work quickly, I see!

[a.g.meade]

@UrMom - Hey! Really nice to meet you. Oh my goodness, that's quite a process for each page - so many layers! But, it definitely gives your work a very distinct, rich depth and look. I like it! Ha - yeah about art tutorials, I totally feel you there. Motion sickness? Oof, yeah, that would definitely not make digital art enjoyable in the least. What kind of Bristol paper, out of curiosity? I've tried a few brands, but have never found one that 'works' for me.

[a.g.meade]

@EmmyPax - Ooh, watercolor! I really admire artists who use watercolor in comics, so cheers! (I have never figured it out and always wind up getting frustrated with it, haha.) Wow, what a process you've got there - but it's clear you've got a method that really works. Your setup of pre-drawing scrollable panels makes a lot of sense, and I'm sure also saves a lot of time of cutting and pasting into a new document. I do agree about traditional comics having a "freer" look to them - a lot more 'organic' looking, I think. Good points about webcomics opening up the field to all kinds of stories and genre variations! Also, what kind of watercolors do you use?

[EmmyPax]

I feel like watercolor is a thing you either LOVE because it's fast and free feeling or HATE because it's so flipping hard to cover mistakes, though I've gotten better at adjusting sections where I make "mistakes" and knowing what I can/can't fix. I honestly don't have the patience to paint with anything else because it takes so long for acrylic and oil to dry. I would go crazy! Plus, I love the transparency mixed with the dark, thick, opaque lines of india ink. It's perfect for comics!

As far as brand of paint goes, years and years ago, my mom got me a bag full of second-hand Winsor and Newton watercolors for cheap off of ebay. As she puts it, this was back before people really priced things appropriately on ebay and you could get some sweet deals! I've gradually added to the collection/replaced tubes as I've used them. Since they were second hand, some things were more used up than others.

I really love them, and I'm very grateful the paint lasts so long. If you're thinking of trying them again sometime, I think there are other high-quality sets that are cheaper, but they're great, reliable paints.

Honestly, the bigger issue with watercolor is the paper. I wish I could afford good paper, but I just use so much making the comic. As it stands, each episode costs about $1.50 to make, just for the paper! And I'm not even using the fancy stuff! Like, I can't count the number of tutorials that try to talk you into splurging on paper and I'm there going NOPE! This girl ain't paying for Arches until, by some miracle, the comic pays for itself!

[EmmyPax]

One of the other challenges of working traditionally that's specific to scrollable comics - big panels!

I really love the long scrolling panels you see in some webcomics on Tapas and Webtoons. For example, I'm thinking of some in Lore Olympus where Persephone's hair just goes on for days and it's atmospheric and delicious. I really wanted to incorporate some of that in my own work, but there's no natural way of doing that traditionally, especially if you (like me) have a scanner that's only the size of a standard piece of paper.

So seeing as I'm not patient enough to measure out linework precisely, my work around has been to hide transitions between scanned artwork in washes, where it's easy to blur out the line between things. So for example, my comic opened with a sequence with a bird flying over the countryside in a long scroll. So when I had to put it in the comic, I hid the line between the transition in the water.

Anyone else come up with work arounds for traditional comics in the digital age?

[gmaximin]

I’m doing black and white (no color), so 6h of pure drawing & inking is a max... it makes sure that I never get stuck somewhere...
Coffee powder: because it was an episode about coffee (Orthotics), and my wife was drying her coffee powder to feed plant (never really understood why, but in any case it’s not really working), so I thought: hey why not give it a try...
Cigarettes butt, that was for an older project, about a smoker, so again it made sense... and I had an ashtray full of it handy...
But, all these are really hard to work with (less to no control), and unless you really scrub it, it hardly marks the paper. So altogether, it’s good for mood, abstract, but not for clear lines... and in both case, I ran out of supply before finishing, and had to use other means (like middle panels in orthotics (https://m.tapas.io/episode/1678201) were finished with graphite).

[a.g.meade]

@EmmyPax - Ha! So watercolor is one of those love or hate things, eh? Alas, I like the look but I think I am far too detail-oriented to make it work for me. I'm glad it works so nicely for you - it's clear you love it from your work!

Ah, I've heard good things about W&N supplies in general. That's cool that you've stuck with them this whole time. I'll keep that brand in mind if I do venture into watercolors again. I still have 95% of the watercolors I tried out

My goodness, I didn't realize that watercolor paper was so expensive. I'm familiar with Arches (and yeah, wow, their stuff is crazy high priced) but WOW.

Oh yeah, I know the types of panels you mean in Lore Olympus (high five fellow Lore Olympus fan!). It's really cool the kinds of effects that can be achieved from long panels like that (though, are those even panels??). It sounds like you've adapted your work well to those really long panels - right on!

[a.g.meade]

@gmaximin - The time limit definitely makes sense to not get stuck somewhere. That's a good idea - the 'done, not perfect' notion for sure.

Oh, how cool that you incorporated items from real life into creating the topics of your episodes! I looked at the page you sent. I wouldn't be able to tell that you ran out of supplies if I wasn't looking for a difference - you blended standard tools with the coffee grounds really nicely.

[gmaximin]

Thanks... but you can see difference in control between:

(coffee ground applied with cotton buds! scrapped... scrapped...)
and

Btw, what's your process for Borrowed Faces?

[UrMom]

I use the smooth Canson brand, it works pretty well. Doesn't warp too easily, isn't overly textured and it has a nice thickness. What media have you used before that hasn't worked with the Bristol paper?

Hah yeah, it is quite a process. Sometimes I wish I went with markers instead, but color pencils were the cheapest option, plus they're really hard to mess up with. The motion sickness thing is kind of funny (wtf funny, not so much 'haha' funny) because about 10 years ago I decided to draw and/or color digitally for a year to give myself the experience. It was just as unenjoyable back then, but for some odd reason I didn't get sick at all, this just happened a couple times when I decided to pick up the tablet again to show examples for an art critique. Got so sick I had to stop everything to keep myself from throwing up. Sooo even if a blue moon happened and I actually wanted to start drawing digitally, I probably won't be able to without getting drugged up first. Lol

[a.g.meade]

@gmaximin - Ah, yeah, I can see the difference in the control there!

My process? Oh, ha, I guess I didn't actually say! Thanks for asking.

I'm not an artist by formal training (writing is my background), so I write my scripts first so I can make sure that the story is what I want it to be. Then I do the pencils, go over it in ink (and fix with white where needed), and scan it into my computer. I go over the panels with a thicker digital line, clean up any smudges, and that's pretty much it! It is probably very simplistic, but I think it just comes down to the fact that I get impatient!

[a.g.meade]

@UrMom - Thanks for the info about the paper! I'll have to give the Canson Bristol a try. I have pretty much every other type of their paper but not that one. I've only really used pen and ink/marker on previous Bristol boards, which I've heard is supposed to be the perfect pairing. I don't know if it was something I was doing wrong, but the ink just didn't look dark enough to me. I tried 3 different brands and only one had the 'look' I was going for, but it wasn't Copic-proof, so that was a non-starter. Alas!

Oh wow, that is very strange indeed - I wonder why digital didn't bother you 10 years ago. Well, it sounds like it kind of works out since it isn't your medium of choice anyway. But yes, there are always motion sickness drugs if you ever change your mind, which might lead to some very interesting pieces!

[EmmyPax]

Finding Copic proof ink is sooooooooooo hard. In my experience, I was able to get my speedball ink to work with Copics when I let the ink cure for AT LEAST an our (longer is better) and was careful not to blend over the ink lines. I did all of Inktober that way last year, and didn't have much for problems with smudging, even though I was using simple sketchbook paper.

[feuersichel]

1. What is your medium of choice?
   For my comic I use Copics / or simmilar markers. But I also do stuff with watercolor.

   1. From thumbnails to final edits, describe your typical process for creating a page. How long does a page take from start to finish?
      Scrap page -> Pencil sketch (I now use erasable color pencils as it makes the editing easyier later) -> inking -> Now I scan it in and erase everything other than the ink, do some corections and print it on some marker-paper -> coloring -> scan again, edits and add the text -> Aaaand finaly upload ^^
      I'm unsure, how long the process takes, as I work batch-wise but I'd say a day per page from scratch to finish.

   2. What's your favorite/least favorite part of being a traditional comic artist?
      I love to work with those mediums and I think I'm faster, than doing everything digitaly. The inks and refils get pretty expensive though :,D

   3. Do you think you'll switch to digital one day?
      Maybe I'll do more digital stuff, once I learn more about my art program (Clip studio) but still, I think I'll keep on doing most of my art traditionally. I feel like, when I work traditionally, I HAVE to think what I'm doing and plan ahead -> Not many options to redo things ^^'

   4. How do you feel webcomics have affected traditional comics, if at all?
      For me personally, it has thought me alot. I get feedback more directly which is a big plus in my oppinion ^^

And this is the comic I'm currently working on. This one basicly was my "learning how to do comics"-comic. So I'm actually working on the redrawing of my first chapters.

The story of Osram | Tapas

[feuersichel]

I got around that problem, by scanning my pages in and printing them out again. My laserjet-ink seems to be very marker-proof. But I haven't found markerproofe ink neighter so far. exept for the pens, copic and some others sell. But personally I don't really like to work with them.

[sushy00]

I use both traditional and digital media for one page, so I would be in the middle of this I guess? XD

[EmmyPax]

Your printer must do nicer blacks than mine. It just doesn't do a dark enough black line for my liking, and then any additional color on top of that seems to wash it out. Baaaaaaaaaaah on my printer!!!!

[EmmyPax]

What parts of the process are digital and what are traditional for you?

[feuersichel]

Do you have a laser printer or inkjet? That might do the difference. Mine manages to do really nice and dark blacks, so I guess I got lucjy with mine :'D

[sushy00]

the sketch and the linework is traditional, after that I edit it a lot and color it.