Andromeda WIP: Don't Do Anything Stupid (Chapter 1 Page 7)
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Lost Scrolls Mass Effect Andromeda Chapter 1 Page 7 is a page I've been looking forward to making. As I was sketching the thumbnails, it came together quite seamlessly. Actually, the thumbnails of the entire chapter came along quite seamlessly and I enjoyed making them. I think I did the thumbnails, semi-detailed, in a matter of hours (which is pretty quick, for me).
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What I liked about this page, particularly, was the intimacy between Maruto Ryder and Cora. In the game, their romance doesn't really go down by the time this scene takes place but I decided to expedite it. It always frustrated me that Bioware always makes us wait until the endgame before the romance options kicks in. Why can't they show the two in a relationship before the final push and show us what that relationship looks like while they're approaching the third act? Think of how Tali and Shepard were on the Priority: Geth Dreadnought mission and the banter they had - that was such a fun scene especially with how they started to make the third crew member uncomfortable. That's what I'd like to see. I'd like to see healthy relationships in movies and games while everything else goes to hell - the protagonists have enough to deal with.
The first point was to blow up the thumbnail so that it fills up the whole page. I then had to rework some of the sketches to adjust for things that were not working (like how big and broad I made Cora in the last panel). A trick that I thought of a few years ago, but didn't really apply again, was to rather use blobs of shapes to create silhouettes instead of sketching in line. I found that it allows me to catch the form easier to start with the Shape element of art as opposed to the Line element of art and doing things digitally allows you to do this without making a royal mess of the page. I know it's not something I created and that it's nothing new but when I experimented with it and it worked, I loved how much easier it made things.
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I'm going to be honest: Inking lineart is my least favourite part of making comics. I really enjoy the sketching (I think it's my favourite part) and am even happy to start tightening the pencils, but make me start inking the lineart and it won't take long for me to get here:
But then I stick it out and get to the rendering and spotting the blacks and get to this part:
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I love this part of the comic creation process. It's so delicious. I love adding the blacks and the hatching and creating contrast. I also experimented with doing a screentone texture for Cora and Maruto Ryder's hair (the part that's shaved down). I know Cora's hair is not shaved down to that level but it just looked so tasty when I applied it that I decided "This is canon, now!". Next up was the background, which I had to do on the fly (i.e. no sketch).
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I didn't want to get too complicated and didn't want to re-invent the wheel. I also didn't want to be lazy, though. Backgrounds are that interesting thing that no one likes drawing yet are so important to include. What I've come to learn is that doing backgrounds is a session unto itself - don't haphazardly slap something together just to say "There! I did it!" Give it its own time as you would the subject of the page or panel and enjoy it coming together. Personally, I have come to enjoy doing backgrounds digitally because I get to slap anything together - throw anything at the wall and see what sticks. You see, a lot of art is about that: Just do any old crazy thing and see if it works. Some times, you must just throw plans to the wind and let the wild energy take over (Message!).
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A trick that I find to be very useful, to determine if the balance and the contrasts of the inked page is working, is to remove the contour lines from the drawing and see if it's still clear it's just made up of the Shapes, Space, Texture and Values elements of art. After removing Line, I check if I can still tell what is going on in the picture, if I can separate between two objects and if the overall blend of blacks and whites feels balanced (too much black will be overwhelming and heavy while too much white will make the page look dull). I've always found this part of the process useful...and it looks pretty cool, too.
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And there it is - Lost Scrolls Mass Effect: Andromeda Chapter 1 Page 7 inked and ready for the colours. I loved how this page turned out so far and can't wait to publish it with the dialogue. The poses came out great and I especially loved how Cora is holding Maruto. By the way, if you're wondering why I named him Maruto: It's not because of Naruto, it's because it's a combination of my wife's name (Marchelle) son's name (Maru), and myself (Thato). I will concede that it it's such a dad thing to do and that it's cringe, but I will not apologise.
And in come the colours. The first step is to add the flats and get the base colours to a point where I am happy. If you look back at the previous chapters, you'll see that I used to have a lot of dark pages and dark saturated colours. For this chapter (and this page specifically), I made a deliberate effort to use lighter colours and a lighter tone. I've struggling with the lighter side of colouring but I am glad that I am getting there. I also want to use a style that's basic and doesn't over complicate. This is because my inking is already doing the heavy lifting and I don't want the colours to "overpower" that work. I think I've said that before.
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The final step is to add some shadows and a touch of light. My colouring style has not been consistent throughout the comic and that's for a reason: I use the comic to explore art styles until I find one that I am comfortable with and I like. I think I've gotten a hang of that with the illustration but colouring is still comparatively new so I'm jumping from one style to another. I do like this style, though. It's nice and simple and is almost cell-shady but with smoother edges. Let's see how I feel when Page 8 comes along.
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I really love this page and think it turned out great. It's actually my favourite page that I've ever drawn. It was fun making it and it was fun documenting the process on this web page.
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If you'd like to see the final page, with dialogue, it's available here.
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This was a good week.