I am not dead, just very busy. Hopefully there will be an update soon.
Last Christmas I posted the pencils for Page 20 of Issue 10. (I’ve since taken down that page so it won’t interfere with the archives.) Now let’s take a look at the whole process for this page.
The first step is a rough “thumbnail” version of the page. This establishes the panels, basic character placement, and first draft of the dialogue.
Moving to the Bristol board on which the comic will be inked, I draw the inking guidelines in pencil. This includes all the artwork and the lettering. At this stage I also make the final decisions about the artwork and finalize the dialogue. I draw the lines for lettering using an Ames Lettering Guide, a tool which I would highly encourage other cartoonists to check out.
In the inking stage, I first go over the panel borders with a simple Sharpie pen. Next the lettering and balloon borders are traced with fine-line art markers (0.3mm for the letters and 0.7mm for the balloons). The artwork is then inked with a Hunt 100 crowquill pen and sumi ink. I also put in some of the spot blacks at this point, using permanent markers.
Now it’s time for the tedious part. The inked artwork is scanned in and edited in Photoshop. At this stage I remove blemishes and mistakes, add spot blacks as needed, and paint in the gray tones. Once it’s finished, it goes up here for you to look at.
I started working this way beginning with Issue 8 (although for that issue I wasn’t using the painted gray tones yet). Prior to that issue the artwork was penciled on paper but inked digitally. I switched to physical inking in part to reduce the amount of computer time required for each page–and then, of course, started doing this digitally-painted graytone thing that takes almost as long. Oh well.
So that’s how it’s done, buoys and gulls.
Well, the holiday season is impending, and come Friday those of us in America will all be either 1) going shopping, or 2) staying as far away from stores as possible, depending on our inclinations. But, my friends, there is at least one fine gift which can be acquired without ever setting foot in your local Buy and Large outlet. I speak, of course, of the famed Sunrise 2012 Calendar, which is available now via print-on-demand from Lulu. Click here to check it out.
All twelve (12) months of the upcoming orbital cycle are included, each illustrated with beautiful color Sunrise artwork. This includes the covers of issues 2-10 and three exclusive, original illustrations. The covers have been “remastered” to fit into the calendar shape, with new artwork seamlessly filling in the margins. The three extra images are all original to the calendar, and are full-fledged color artwork, not just old concepts from my sketchbook. Here is an enticing preview if you still don’t believe me:
For small, blurry color previews of this and the rest of the calendar, please check out the listing on Lulu. The other new illustrations are a beauty shot of the Akhenaten and Nefertiti, and one with Dr. Norton.
So do take a look. Drop hints about it, buy it for a friend, buy it for an enemy (and turn him into a friend?), buy it for yourself. Look you’re planning to be alive next year, right? You’ll need somewhere to write important notes like “Call Joe” and “Beware impending apocalypse.” So why not buy this one and relive airship adventures all year?
Hello, faithful readers. As you may have noticed, updates have been somewhat irregular lately. I have been working (that is, “work” working) too much and it’s disrupting my schedule. For the time being, I’m putting Sunrise on an irregular, but hopefully complete, schedule. By this I mean that I still intend to post two pages a week, but they will not necessarily come on Tuesday and Friday. Thanks for your patience, and enjoy Issue 10.
