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Attempts at the sample scripts

Started by Emperor, 19 January, 2010, 08:08:19 PM

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Mike Gloady

Can I just chip in again to say how much I like the inking?  Like it a lot.
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pauljholden

Quote from: locustsofdeath! on 21 February, 2010, 02:28:19 PM
Jim, how did you letter before all this computer wankery? I've always wondered what letterers did 'before'. Just have steady hands? Use some sort of typewriter keys? Pardon my ignorance.

http://www.blambot.com/handlettering.shtml

-pj

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: locustsofdeath! on 21 February, 2010, 02:28:19 PM
Jim, how did you letter before all this computer wankery? I've always wondered what letterers did 'before'. Just have steady hands? Use some sort of typewriter keys? Pardon my ignorance.

I didn't letter pre-computers. My hands were never steady enough -- OTOH, I was waaaay ahead of the curve for using computers to letters and I spent many years waiting for the fonts to get good enough to be viable.

In the old days, there were two methods:

In the US, the letterer used to letter directly onto the pencils, drawing the speech balloons and ruling in the panel borders, and then the inker inked around the lettering. See here for Todd Klein's short piece on this, and here for Nate Piekos' more in-depth article.

In the UK, because the artwork usually arrived at the editorial as finished, inked artwork, British letterers lettered onto adhesive-backed paper, cut out the speech balloons, stuck 'em down on the artwork and usually added the tails with process white. Some artists drew empty speech balloons onto their artwork (I've seen some Cam Kennedy pages that appear to have been done like this) and obviously extra-talented bastards like Dave Gibbons lettered their own work.

(Gibbons, I believe, used to letter his work as soon as he'd laid down the rough outlines on the page, so as not to waste time pencilling or inking anything that would be obscured by the letters.)

Cheers!

Jim

(Dave Gibbons was my favourite artist when I first started reading 2000AD and I attribute the fact that he also lettered his work to my lifelong fascination with lettering ...)
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

James

Cheers Jim, I kinda know my way around Photoshop, but never had much need for Illustrator in the past. Since I've been doing my own lettering these things have bugged me a bit.

I have in the past just opened up a previous lettered document and copy/pasted a bit of text onto the new and just rewrote/pasted the new dialogue. Using an eyedropper to do the same thing sounds like the work of genius. Well done, sir.

I should get a manual.

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: James on 21 February, 2010, 03:06:38 PM
I should get a manual.

Forgive me for stating the bleeding obvious, but you have seen this, haven't you?

That's a guide to how, Blambot has an excellent guide to what and why, that I've already linked to, but will link to again.

Cheers!

Jim
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

James

I have now, thanks Jim, your lettering guide is great, I hadn't read that Blambot link before though, good stuff.

Anyways, I've finished, yes finished the page now. taken some of the advice, not all-I still have my own mistakes to make. I'm trying to think like a professional, and if I was, I wouldn't have PJ or Jim sitting at home with me helping me out, especially PJ's accent. Scare my kids...



I put the foot in panel 1, changed the position of the woman, table and re-drew Dredd in page 2. 3-5 have fundamentally stayed the same drawings, but fitted into different panels to make the flow work.

Final thoughts?

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: James on 21 February, 2010, 10:17:05 PM
Final thoughts?

I liked it better the old way.

KIDDING! I'm kidding! What?!?

Cheers

Jim
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

El Chivo

That's a mean looking Dredd (as in good!)
Almost Bolland-esque

Chi

pauljholden

Second from last panel could do with seeing the corner of the window, just to help reinforce the fact that they're the same people in panels 2&3. Also, still think blacking in those walls will help focus that pic - but your call.

-pj

SuperSurfer

#39
Very, very good drawing/inking, James. You have an excellent economical style. Very brave of you to put your storytelling up for comments.

So no exclamation marks after sound effects? There's another example of blindingly obvious yet I never in a million years would have realised that bit of advice from Jim. Amazing how these things need to be spelt out for me before I realise them, even though I've been reading comics virtually my whole life (and I'm talking quite a few decades, folks).

Emperor

Quote from: James on 21 February, 2010, 10:17:05 PMFinal thoughts?

Something I forgot last time which seems more pronounced in this version - it looks like Dredd's hand is bent back for that shot. As he is shooting just up and left of the POV in the last panel you'd not expect to see much of the side of the gun (you wouldn't be looking right down the barrel but it'd be pointing in your general direction).

Anyway overall the art looks solid across the board - I;d be very happy with that if I were you and I think we'd want to be seeing more work from you very soon (get a blog!!).

PJ is right about a darker wall helping focus the eye but it might be something that can be picked up in the colouring stage (perhaps dropping the wall down to a dark grey, so you can keep the shadow and cracks and other details). I would recommend sneaking the corner of the window in like he suggests as it does help with context and continuity.
if I went 'round saying I was an Emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!

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Jim_Campbell

Quote from: SuperSurfer on 21 February, 2010, 11:46:27 PM
So no exclamation marks after sound effects?

There are plenty of letterers who do, and lots of examples of SFX with exclamation marks ... but Nate argues that a sound effect is not a sentence in the normal meaning of the word, and if you can't make an effect look dramatic by virtue of it being twelve times larger than the dialogue font, in a different typeface, and bright red, then an exclamation mark isn't going to make much difference!

Cheers

Jim
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

pauljholden

Quote from: Emperor on 21 February, 2010, 11:54:22 PM
PJ is right about a darker wall helping focus the eye but it might be something that can be picked up in the colouring stage

When you're dealing in samples NEVER EVER rely on something being 'fixed' or 'picked up' in colours. It's got to be clearly readable in black and white.


-pj

Emperor

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 21 February, 2010, 11:59:09 PM
Quote from: SuperSurfer on 21 February, 2010, 11:46:27 PM
So no exclamation marks after sound effects?

There are plenty of letterers who do, and lots of examples of SFX with exclamation marks ... but Nate argues that a sound effect is not a sentence in the normal meaning of the word, and if you can't make an effect look dramatic by virtue of it being twelve times larger than the dialogue font, in a different typeface, and bright red, then an exclamation mark isn't going to make much difference!

Unless the exclamation mark is just punctuation!!! Possibly more cartoon/manga effect though ;)
if I went 'round saying I was an Emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!

Fractal Friction | Tumblr | Google+

Emperor

If you are doing "Cycle of Violence" then some of the images in this thread might be useful for you as handy reference ,aterial:

www.2000adonline.com/forum/index.php/topic,26304.0.html
if I went 'round saying I was an Emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!

Fractal Friction | Tumblr | Google+