Conceptualizing an Illustration

by on July 10, 2010 at 1:48 pm
Posted In: how-to

This promo illustration for The Last of the Polar Bears, portraying an iconic scene from the first chapter of the story, had a pack a lot of punch with a minimalist execution. With so little detail, it wasn’t difficult to draw, but every aspect of it needed to be just right.

I find it very helpful to create a number of tiny thumbnail sketches, to quickly try out different takes on an idea. Working with a general idea of a polar bear cub poking his head out of the den for the first time, finding himself surrounded by an unending sea of white snow, I created a couple of concept sketches:

In these examples, note how composition, placement, and size of the cub play a big role in mood and feel.

  • #1 is a strong close up on the cub’s face, grinning as he takes a peek at the outside world – cute, but completely at odds with the title of the book.
  • #2 is closer in feel – the landscape is vast, the cub is small–there’s a real sense of loneliness going on, but it’s so far pulled out from the character that scene no longer feels intimate.
  • #3 is almost right on target. The cub is cute and awestruck without looking too giddy. But the centered figure is boring and predictable.
  • #4 takes the aspects of #2 that I liked, but moves the cub into the lower corner. The title is placed in the upper right corner to balance the piece.

Once I had the composition figured out, I set about drawing the character.

He went through several drafts (including some slight variations with him smiling, not shown here) before I finally hit upon a version that worked for the poster.

And here you have it, the finished line art of the cub seen in the poster (flipped in the illustration):

Stay tuned for lots more. I look forward to introducing you to this little guy and the rest of his family. 🙂

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Comic Page Layout Template

by on July 10, 2010 at 4:00 am
Posted In: how-to

Here is the page layout template I’m using to storyboard Last of the Polar Bears. You’re welcome to download and print it out for use in your own comics.

The template is sized for printing on standard letter-sized paper. There’s a space for you to draw your comic page, a place to keep track of the page number, and a place to indicate starting date. I find marking the date useful for keeping track of my daily page output. The empty space has a purpose as well. This is where you can break down panels, write notes, and try out different ideas for panels configurations, poses, and expressions before you commit to them in the actual layout. See my Creative Process for examples.

I originally created this layout for use on Peach Fuzz, so the trim and bleed sizes are suited for a standard 5″x7.5″ “manga”-sized graphic novel. The black bars on the top and bottom are there as space fillers because the dimensions are intended for penciling on a traditional 11″x17″ comic page.

Book sizes vary, as do individual publisher’s designated trim and bleeds. For example, I use a different page template for penciling comic pages for Archie Comics. Think about your desired final output size and plan your rough layouts accordingly.

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From Text to Art: The Storyboards

by on July 10, 2010 at 1:54 am
Posted In: how-to
I’ve finished scanning and compiling the roughs for the first chapter of The Last of the Polar Bears, so I thought I’d talk a bit about my storyboarding process.

Because I am both the writer and the artist, I bypass the step of writing a traditional script for The Last of the Polar Bears, and work straight from a detailed synopsis to rough thumbnail pages. This allows me to be very flexible with my roughs. I read over my synopsis, then visualize the look of the pages as thumbnail drawings while I’m breaking down the actions panel-by-panel. In this way, I can quickly discover whether scenes that are easily described in text work visually, and make necessary corrections.

Here’s page 17 and 18 from synopsis to rough thumbnails, in which the twin polar bear cubs Stella and Nanook experience the outside of the den for the first time:

Synopsis:

Stella asks Nanook what’s up there. The next panel is his point of view. Endless white snow, and arctic twilight. Frostbite (an arctic fox) is also in the shot, but she is well camouflaged. Her tail is wrapped around her face so that she looks unremarkable, like a lump of snow. “Nothing. Everything’s white!” A cold breeze sets his teeth chattering. “It’s cold up here!” Shivering, brother cub tumbles back into the den, and falls on top of Stella. Stella protests and goes into battle mode, but he just huddles against her for warmth. It’s no fun to play with an unwilling partner, so she gives up and calls him a wimp . She asks him if he saw “it”. He shakes his head no. “Just lots of snow.”

I breakdown this description into a list of panels, each with a short description of what I want to bring to the attention of the reader. My thumbnail page layout (template here) measures 4″x6″ on an 8.5″.x11″ page and contains pertinent information such as trim and bleed so that I can plan out the overall look of the page along with composition, actions, and word balloon placement.

Sometimes the pages come together in a very straightforward fashion. Sometimes I’ll end up trying multiple panel configurations. On page 17, you can see that I’ve come up with alternate takes for panels 1, 3, and 5.

Once the thumbnails are drawn, I scan them into the computer and assemble the pieces. Here’s how 17 and 18 currently look.

These thumbnails are my roadmap for the next step: penciling the pages at full size. With composition and content of the panels figured out, I’ll be able to turn my focus to drawing the characters tighter, cleaner, on model, and anatomically correct (to name just a few of many things I’ll be keeping in mind as I work through the pages).

I’ll continue to delve further into aspects of my comic creation process in upcoming blog posts, so stay tuned for more.

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Last of the Polar Bears pg 1

by on July 2, 2010 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Pilot

And so, it begins. Enjoy!

(Something fun to note is that all of the panel borders on these pages are “hand-drawn”, that is, without the benefit of rulers. I wanted them to have a very organic, rough quality to them. That’s why they have little squiggles and imperfections. Requiring a very steady hand, they take a lot longer to do, but I love the effect.)

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The Last of the Polar Bears Begins

by on July 1, 2010 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Pilot

Edit 6/12/12
Important Note: This is the “pilot” version. Click here to read the new version of The Last of the Polar Bears Chapter 1!

Welcome to The Last of the Polar Bears, a work-in-progress graphic novel about a mother polar bear and her two cubs in the warming Arctic of the near future. I’ve spent the last year developing and plotting out the story in detail from beginning to end, and now I’m ready to move forward with the creation of the comic itself!  Every week I’ll post new pages, two at a time, in a book spread format. I look forward to introducing you this little guy and the rest of his family, and hope you’ll join us on their epic journey across the harsh environment and into maturity.

Click next on the navigate bar above to begin reading (or if you’ve been here before, click latest to zip to the newest page)!

-Lindsay

 

 

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