ramonn90

Reflections on Making Comics

Published: January 7th 2025, 5:00:15 pm

I had my doubts about whether I was making comics or not, since comics, for me, were a more complex subject, and I was merely making a few frames out of a poem, kind of storyboard-like, I felt. But according to the definition of comics, I guess that's what I was doing.

That being said, my approach to the latest comics consists of trying to say something that's important to me, first of all. After envisioning one frame I consider interesting, from that point, I decide if I keep developing frames around it or if I just sit and write a bit about it.

I decided to make the length about 4 frames or lines because of social media purposes. It is easy to follow a four-image post on X, so it works for Instagram and X as well. Besides that, I consider it challenging to say something important in the simplest way I can, like in one frame (illustration) or as little as I could. This forces me to remove all the unnecessary information that doesn't bring any value to the comic or poem. This approach, I must say, is very annoying because, for me, it's difficult to compile everything in a few frames, yet I feel "smart" when I manage to do it.

How does one choose one frame as a kickstart? Like the plot of a movie, I often choose images I find shocking or beautiful, for example, two individuals taking their skin out of passion, or a child cooking with its parent. I cannot manufacture these images, they pop up while I watch references or simply live. Some days, nothing comes up, and others, I just catch them randomly while walking to the kitchen. I guess the best one can do to create these things is to live, but mostly, to pay attention to what might be interesting to see.

From that point, I tend to attach some meaningful, universal subject, like life, death, existence, love, etc., things most of us experience or will, for sure. I think that makes me feel like I'm tackling something real, something that's important, at least for me. Nothing wrong with making stories about something casual or mundane. In fact, if I keep doing these, I might run out of ideas, and in that case, making comics about simple things might be the way to go. But for now, I'd like to talk about those things.

Once I have a subject and a frame I like, I try to think about how the other three frames could be built around that main one, in no particular order. It all depends on the subject. Sometimes, I just write four lines first as a way to define the concept a bit better. I like when the poem feels profound and a bit romantic. It gives a certain beauty, in my opinion. I'm not a writer, but I'd like to try to convey emotion through words. I think writing helps shape thoughts, and I often tend to have a mess of ideas in my head, so it's a really useful skill to have.

The first comic I did was the one about "art block." It was not easy but quick. I came up with the idea in a few hours, but the more I care, the worse the process gets, to the point I don't know what to do now haha. I guess I want to make something better, that's my problem. I keep raising the bar with every new thing I try till I can no longer move forward, and I think it is not because my ideas are bad, it is because I "think" or "feel" my ideas are bad. This is a problem I often run into, and normally the answer is to either ignore myself or trick or distract myself just to start anything and find something cool throughout the process. We will see.

Technically speaking, in terms of the drawing execution, it is very similar to what I was doing previously in the character designs. Because the characters in the frames are not full body and do not have to represent any costume design, I don't stress too much by searching for references. I guess that's what's cool about comics. If you can draw character faces, you can get away with a whole page out of just that, even just eye drawings, etc.

What has changed a bit is my render or painting technique. I'm inspired by the storyboards from Miyazaki and other artists who use watercolor as well. I like to split the values into light and shadows, where the light is purely white and the shadows are where the colors are. This kind of look gives me a feel I cannot describe. Like it's fresh, I don't know, I just like it.

The brush I'm currently using with the watercolor texture is one from Kyle Webster. Great one, by the way. It's called "Kyle's Real Watercolor - 175 Broad Washer Rough." I don't know which of the many packs from him it is, but I'm sure you can figure it out after a quick search.

Last but not least, I burn out the colors a bit to boost the saturation I tend to miss at the beginning of my process and add some filters to get that classic look I like at the end of the process. That's pretty much it. You can watch the full-length process video of those here on Patreon in case I might be missing something. Nevertheless, feel free to ask any technical questions, and I'll be more than happy to help you.

Today, I wanted to make a quick sketch for this article. Wait for more art coming soon. Take care and thanks for your support.