#friendly reminder i make art for fun and am a disabled person not a fulltime career artist

[rielzero]

From Script to Comic Page

I thought it would be fun to show how my process tends to go, in some minor detail. (this is not a tutorial)

This is page nr 7 (page 5 if you do not count the cover and warning page) of Night one: Sleep? What even is sleep?

This is an excerpt from the script, when I am making thumbnails and eventually working on what dialogue comes on the page, I tend to change it. The script is never the final result, sometimes all the things inside the script won't fit on the page, the dialogue is too long.. Or it just isn't vibing well enough, so It ends up different on the page.

The ''not a chef'' line ends up on the page before it, so the dialogue got adjusted for this to an inner monologue, to increase Locke's sense of denial. Gale is aloof, lost in thought.. Processing the day while Locke can't make up his mind about the vision of death.

After the thumbnail phase is done, I do page layouts, which requires me to go into the game and take screenshots inspired by the thumbnail's angles. Since a 3D environment works different, the thumbnails don't always reflect the end result.

I don't enjoy drawing backgrounds, so using ingame screenshots is my way of cutting corners. I have very limited energy to work with, so investing it in learning a new skill would just take the fun out of it for me. Needless to say, it might make the environment feel ''off'' for the average person or skilled artists who are much more perfectionistic than me. I don't add shadows beneath characters or extra rendering detail for this work.

3D posing can be time consuming the more I have to adjust poses. If something very dynamic is happening (physical interaction, or combat scenes) it can become very time consuming. Easy poses take about 20 minutes or more to set up, while a large render can take 1 hour or much more if I'm nitpicking on tiny details or angles. If characters are close to each other I am not posing them separately. Gale's model and Locke's model are posed on different 3D layers here.

I go directly to lineart from here, (sometimes I sketch first, but not for comic pages.) Color coding my layers, bg layers and 3d layers are in folders. I'm using color layer mode(blue), multiply and lowered layer opacity to make it easier to work.

Now it'll be easier to draw on with black, mapping pen on 5.0

(this canvas size would be 4093 x 5787 px 350 dpi.)

And from there after all the linework is done, comes flatting- eventually I merge all flat layers.

I have a specific fill color for this comic's setting since I'm trying to simulate this ''its getting late'' vibe- therefore multiply on the flatcolors.. It will make it look like it's darker, then there's this gradient filter on the top that's on overlay mode, so that the backgrounds and everything blends better as well.

So, afterwards the final touches for the comic include.. Adding light effect (reflective feel from the fire) gives characters a lil sense of depth, gives the page more of a vibe. Highlights- (motions and lil lights in the eyes) Lastly I put all the character layers in a folder, copy the folder, merge the copy folder- turn the copy folder in a gaussian blur layer and lower its opacity.

It makes it feel glossy! I like it. Real camping out with the dudes vibes.

Full work will be up on @ohnoestherestadpoles by the time this post comes out.