Good Thursday to you all. Hope it is a good one and deadline pixies are staying away ;-)
I'm trying to juggle some small assignments until the bigger ones come through in a couple of weeks (they said) and in between my comic story which is going well. I've been tied up and it seems I haven't posted my "semi-regular, but working on posting more frequently" update. Thanks go to Allison who reminded me that yes, people are reading this. That's good news, so I'll try to update more. Lastly, make sure to run over to my portfolio site which I updated with some new production art. www.flickfolio.com/craiggilmore/.
So........the last topic today is........
My workflow step 3) Thumbnail sketches and the art of drawing really small....
Well, after I have all the script broken down into all those circled paragraphs etc. I will draw a number of small boxes next to each circled section to draw a visual "note" to myself about what I want the panel to do. I've often heard from my fellow artists that these rough thimbnails are notes only I can decipher, and indeed they are no more that scribbles and shapes for the most part. Honestly, sometimes they are so rough even I, look at them later and go "what the....is that a foot or a hammer?". At this stage of the game, that is all that I am interested in. I'm thinking about action, timing, composition, camera movement and clear storytelling. Not correct proportion, setting up vanishing points and the later stuff. So I will go back through the script, and basically draw all the key frames of action. I like to think of each one of these drawings in animation terms of being "keyframes" that will later have "breakdowns" and "inbetweens". When this process is done, for the most part, all of my job as a storyteller and the hard (but fun and challenging) part of the job is through because in my mind, I know exactly what I need and want to draw at this point. All that is left is to draw out the panels in the appropriate size and demensions, with all the eye candy added in i.e. correct perspective, figure proportion, drapery, lighting. All of this is no more than proverbial "icing on the cake". This brings me to the next step which will be posted later.....
#3) Approval stages, and finishes or "grab your director and tango"
Thanks for reading, until next time...
Craig
