You're seeing more and more of it. I've tried it and my verdict is this. Some people can do it and get the look they like, and others, myself included just love to cross-hatch way too much. For me I guess it boils down to subjective standards of how you want the finished artwork to look. I know when I got into drawing comics I just loved the insane cross hatching work guys were doing and knew that I wanted to emulate it in my own work. The work done that way to me just looks uber sexy-even though on a complicated piece it can take a lot longer and may not even be noticed by anyone but me. I love it so I do it. More and more people who hire freelancers and artists to work on comics are wanting to see the ink wash style done and there is certainly nothing wrong with it. I don't think it looks as good, but that is really only an opinion and to some it probably looks better that all those crazy lines. For me I gotta stick with what I love in order to love what I'm putting out, so I'll just keep hatching.......It's never about the time spent, it's about looking at the finished work and simply loving it.....So do what you love guys!!!! All the best!
D
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Making sure Freelance doesn't just mean free...
Guys I don't want to lecture or sound too heavy about this but it's something I see more and more as a freelancer. so I wanted to ar least comment on it and describe the way I deal with it.
I've had it happen. I've got friends who've had it happen. Chances are you may have had it happen. You run into a snake charmer who sells you some story about how they've got all the talent in the world as a writer, or are the next big indy publisher, and need someone to draw their comic for them, but the kick is they've got limited funds and can't really pay you what you are worth. Right there is the telling point. They are trying to test you out to see if you'll take less that you think you are worth. There are exceptions to every rule kiddees but the answer is almost always sorry, no. I have rates that I must adhere to that keep me doing my best work, which is all I want to put out. I try to be as flexible as I can and I've even worked out deals with people to do piecemeal work as they can afford it, but do yourself a favor and stick to your rates. Don't ever let someone else tell you that their financial bottom line is more important that yours. After all without your art, their comic is just words on a page. Remember where you stand in terms of how much work you do as opposed to a writer. With services like Kickstarter and Kabbage it's easier than ever to get funding for projects.
Ok with that said it's tough to get money up front in the freelancing world so how do you protect yourself? Well I like to use watermarks and also send low res images out for samples and never release a high res, un-watermarked image as a sample until I'm paid. Yes people will try stuff like,' I can't make out the image clearly with that thing there', or 'can I get a higher res image to look at?' Both are usually signs that they are fishing for free work to use. It's sad but true if you believe the stories people tell these days you will inevitably get burned and the more trustworthy you are, the worse it will be. Protect yourself, and treat transactions in a business-like manner and don't trust the charming guy who is suddenly your long lost best pal on the other end of the email until said guy coughs up the fee you agreed upon. If you do you will suddenly stop hearing from him or her in the middle of a project and often times see your work pop up finished or colored by someone else in a manner that you aren't happy with and often times are powerless to stop. People also use this trick to build fake portfolios to shop around. It's happened to me and worse to other people I know. None of which deserved it. It really benefits nobody, as the people who are content to steal partially finished work and who have a string of dupes working for them are taking what would have been great work with soul in it and turning it into sample quality work that they can't see the flaws in, with no heart or soul. Sad but true. There are a lot of these folks out there and they all have a good story to tell, but I mean if you are going to work for free dust off that comic you wrote but haven't had time to work on and do something great with it in your free time. Don't do someone else' work for them, especially if they aren't willing to pay you anything. They don't deserve your artwork or your time. Take the time and make yourself a watermark, and make sure to send optimized images out at 72 dpi for samples, trust me they show people what they need to know, no matter what they say. Trust your gut on people but protect yourself so that they cannot take advantage of you. I know how hard artists work, these people often times think it's easy for us and/or just don't care if we put in a full week/month of 14 hour days on their project. Their goal is to get it done and spend little or nothing on the artwork. If we all get wise and protect ourselves soon enough they won't have artists to exploit and these folks will go away in large part. They don't appreciate art and therefore don't deserve your time or effort, and certainly not the art you slaved over and put all your heart and soul into. It's a real problem these days but one that we can all deal with simply and methodically. Best Wishes!
D
I've had it happen. I've got friends who've had it happen. Chances are you may have had it happen. You run into a snake charmer who sells you some story about how they've got all the talent in the world as a writer, or are the next big indy publisher, and need someone to draw their comic for them, but the kick is they've got limited funds and can't really pay you what you are worth. Right there is the telling point. They are trying to test you out to see if you'll take less that you think you are worth. There are exceptions to every rule kiddees but the answer is almost always sorry, no. I have rates that I must adhere to that keep me doing my best work, which is all I want to put out. I try to be as flexible as I can and I've even worked out deals with people to do piecemeal work as they can afford it, but do yourself a favor and stick to your rates. Don't ever let someone else tell you that their financial bottom line is more important that yours. After all without your art, their comic is just words on a page. Remember where you stand in terms of how much work you do as opposed to a writer. With services like Kickstarter and Kabbage it's easier than ever to get funding for projects.
Ok with that said it's tough to get money up front in the freelancing world so how do you protect yourself? Well I like to use watermarks and also send low res images out for samples and never release a high res, un-watermarked image as a sample until I'm paid. Yes people will try stuff like,' I can't make out the image clearly with that thing there', or 'can I get a higher res image to look at?' Both are usually signs that they are fishing for free work to use. It's sad but true if you believe the stories people tell these days you will inevitably get burned and the more trustworthy you are, the worse it will be. Protect yourself, and treat transactions in a business-like manner and don't trust the charming guy who is suddenly your long lost best pal on the other end of the email until said guy coughs up the fee you agreed upon. If you do you will suddenly stop hearing from him or her in the middle of a project and often times see your work pop up finished or colored by someone else in a manner that you aren't happy with and often times are powerless to stop. People also use this trick to build fake portfolios to shop around. It's happened to me and worse to other people I know. None of which deserved it. It really benefits nobody, as the people who are content to steal partially finished work and who have a string of dupes working for them are taking what would have been great work with soul in it and turning it into sample quality work that they can't see the flaws in, with no heart or soul. Sad but true. There are a lot of these folks out there and they all have a good story to tell, but I mean if you are going to work for free dust off that comic you wrote but haven't had time to work on and do something great with it in your free time. Don't do someone else' work for them, especially if they aren't willing to pay you anything. They don't deserve your artwork or your time. Take the time and make yourself a watermark, and make sure to send optimized images out at 72 dpi for samples, trust me they show people what they need to know, no matter what they say. Trust your gut on people but protect yourself so that they cannot take advantage of you. I know how hard artists work, these people often times think it's easy for us and/or just don't care if we put in a full week/month of 14 hour days on their project. Their goal is to get it done and spend little or nothing on the artwork. If we all get wise and protect ourselves soon enough they won't have artists to exploit and these folks will go away in large part. They don't appreciate art and therefore don't deserve your time or effort, and certainly not the art you slaved over and put all your heart and soul into. It's a real problem these days but one that we can all deal with simply and methodically. Best Wishes!
D
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
The importance of the pencil to me....
I've certainly stated before that I almost always start a composition in an analog fashion. Usually I start with a marker sketch or pencil drawing depending on what I'm working on and the way I plan to finish the piece. Sometimes I just happen to be doodling when on the phone or in front of the TV, etc. I wanted to relate the reason why and the relevance of such in this modern digital age of Wacom tablets, and cintiqs. First of all I'll admit something. I draw poorly on tablets, even on my intuos 4. I've have many tablets and upgraded over the years trying to find the magic bullet, and finally came to the conclusion that it just isn't the tablet. It's me. I draw in long sweeping arcs with my arm, and very little with my wrist, aka I draw like a painter and not like someone writing. With that said I realize that embracing the digital works for some, and I'll be the first to say that if it works for you, then you don't need to be reading this! My drawing skills were learned largely while ignoring my teachers and spending my school days creating in notebooks intended for other purposes. I'm rooted in the pencil, pen and paper world, and I'm cool with it. I'm also much faster and more dynamic with a pencil in hand. I simply can't hold my Wacom stylus right for how I draw. I hold my pencil at it's very end and lightly sketch, refining and darkening lines as I go but rarely grip my pencil toward the tip until the very end of a drawing when I'm heavy into detailing. Ok enough technical stuff. There is an even more important reason I use the pencil rather than embracing all the wonderful digital tricks and such. It's just that, I want to avoid the digital tricks and relying on them. I know them. I use them but I don't want them to become part of my style and be a slave to them. Every time I screw up with a pencil guess what? I have to erase, evaluate and do it over. Do you know what effect that has on me? It forces me to learn from every mistake and to improve henceforth. Consequently my learning curve is better and faster simply by using a pencil and paper and allowing myself to mess up and correct things. I know that you're thinking, 'Oh but that's so much work!' My answer is simple. You should not be thinking of drawing as work, period. It's fun and even if you are a professional, the mindset that drawing is work, lends anxiety to your effort which ultimately hinders you and steers you toward comfortable places within your skill set, taking shortcuts, and settling for sub standard work. You have to be fearless when it comes to your artwork, and unafraid to take chances or throw something out. I mean come on, if you mess up, it's only a piece of paper and some time spent at your desk. If you learned from the mistakes or came out the other end with a really kick ass drawing that you never would have thought possible, then you have lost nothing. Time has to be irrelevant to you. Besides every time you overcome challenges, you know that you've improved as an artist, and that is a great feeling, even after a long day of struggling with something hard. It can be mentally taxing, but it can be ultimately rewarding to win at the end of the day as well. I love the feeling of turning off my light at the end of the day and know that I struggled through, didn't accept defeat and nailed it in the end. It gives me more confidence to approach the next day's artwork. See what a pencil can do? As always this is just my insight and what works for me. I think the mindset can be applied to anyone's working style and it is indeed the mindset that matters. For me the pencil and the analog is the way but for you just using fewer digital tricks might be the way to mastery. If you understand the value of mistakes and working through them then you're already well on your way to being great. Once again I hope my ramblings on technique and artistic mindset are helpful to you in finding your inner greatness. Best Wishes and much love to all!
IIID
IIID
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Clearly defining depth in your pencils
Whether communicating with an inker or just to keep track of them for yourself, having clearly defined foreground mid ground and back ground elements is a must for bringing your work to life, and of course communicating depth and space to your readers. This is something that is very easy to overlook as the trend these days is to simply pack as much detail in to your panels and possible. While this can work some of the time. It's a bad idea to do all of your work this way. You work a great deal harder and actually flatten out your drawings. When it comes to detail, you have to know when to just 'leave it out'. The first person I saw who really relayed this idea to me effectively was Alvin Lee. His work is so clean and economical in terms of line and detail that it's staggeringly beautiful to me. I find it's harder to achieve than work that really has it all packed in there as it is easy to cover up fundamental errors with detail. It's something I strive to master. Really good manga artists are great at this type of work as well. Always think level of detail, backgrounds have little, mid-grounds some, and foregrounds have tons. One simple, fairly mechanical, trick that has helped me though is the use of three different leads. I use 2h, 4h and 6h Tombow mono's respectively for foreground, midground, and backgrounds. Even though it's a bit of a hassle to use three leads, I find that it allows me to draw each area in my natural style, with little or no alteration in physical technique. This allows more natural and flowing strokes in all areas of my work, and doesn't stifle my hand from trying to draw lightly or more heavily in various areas. The reason I use Tombow's is also important. All of their leads are virtually smudge-free and erase very clean which is great for peace of mind, They are a bit pricey but well worth it. I use regular pencils but I believe you can get mono lead for holders as well. I use soft lead for sketching, layouts, or to work fast, but always finish my work in harder lead because soft lead blunts way too fast, and to strike clean lines with them you have to exert enough pressure to actually 'etch' the paper or board, which makes clean erasures impossible, so naturally I recommend getting used to harder leads for finished work. If you really focus on seeing the depth in what your drawing and 'organize' the spaces within accordingly you will find that you pages instantly become more three dimensional and communicate so much more with your audience. Best Wishes!
IIId
IIId
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