Js wanted to say that I reaaally like how you draw comics,they’re super skilful, engaging and pleasant looking(on top of being hilarious). Can you maybe share some of your creative process,or fav works that inspired your style?
This is really kind, thank you, honestly a compliment beyond what I feel like I deserve lol 💞
My creative process is very nonlinear and hinges on a lot of intuition that I’ve just built up over the years, finding what works and doesn’t work for me. For most of the comics I post online, I have a few things I’m considering as I’m putting down the panels
- I usually don’t like doing more than three rows for comic panels on one page. I think you can certainly do more or less to achieve a specific effect, but to me, 3-4 rows is the common amount for most comic artists, and there’s a reason for it lol (I think you can be very creative with how you choose to depict each row on the page, but I’m not very ambitious when it comes to paneling)
Moreover, the row in this context is determined by the biggest stacked panel on the page. I think you can do multiple new rows beside that. There’s merit to having less space to get an idea across. Example from a current comic I’m doing:
- I like visual mediums a lot, most of the art I engage with is that. I think I’ve built up a decent mental library of references of how directors and artists far better than me like to make use of angles/space/composition, and it helps me play out the scene in my head with more clarity before I put it down to paper. I think I'm really lucky; countless of artists before me have already figured out what makes art good, now I get to study what they did, but faster.
I almost always operate subconsciously with Scott McCloud’s “Understanding Comics” principles. His examples of 6 types of transitions are crucial to making choices as it pertains to pacing. I think his book is a necessary read if you’re interested in making comics.
- Sometimes, I don’t even really know what the dialogue is going to be until I’m already halfway finished with the actual comic. I usually work with a general idea of how I know I want the conversation to go, but words escape me often so I just have vague speech bubble markers I (typically) do on a separate layer and then figure out for good once I’m fully done with the drawing part. Occasionally I’ll spread one dialogue line over two bubbles because the way it spreads over a panel is more appealing than forcing it into one bubble.
That being said, I think it’s worth being more intentional about something like dialogue placement. It’s an important part of comics. I’m not a good blueprint for this, lol.
- Most of the comics I do aren't thoroughly drafted. I'm doing a new comic now, and my starting page tends to look like this:
I don't do much early sketching. I do all my drawing on one layer. If I have a sketch, I usually erase and draw over it - the sketches serve as a placeholder so I don't forget my idea or the panel's vibe if it takes longer than a day or two for me to finish.
I wish I had more timelapses or better full-comic process pictures, but these are the only other two examples I could really find.
When I do more 'formal' comics (doujin-style, things I know will have more backgrounds, detailed drawings, thought out formatting that I want to see support and improve the narrative, I'll open up a huge canvas and thumbnail all the pages so I can go back and actually parse the panels to see if I can make them better. This is a rare occurrence though, because it drains me lol. If I did this for all of my comics, I wouldn't get anything out, these are intended to be way more polished.
(Sorry for the blur; it's NSFW and I don't want to give away spoilers for my upcoming ssbr comic :P)
- I try to be consistent with the gutters. Having a uniform width/height across all your pages between the panels is more or less the standard. Unless you're doing some creative stuff with your panelling, I like having thin vertical gutters and thick horizontal ones—I believe it's industry standard for most shounen manga.
That's about all for my process... very fuck it we ball/ YOLO for planning and then just locking in for the actual illustrations.
And as for works that inspired my style, it's just one big amalgamation that's hard to pin down. I will say I flip through Nakamura's works a lot. Doukyuusei is one of my all time favourite BL mangas ever. I rewatch the movie frequently, and when I'm stuck on my own comics, I refer to the Doukyuusei manga | keep on my desk. While my paneling could not be more different from Nakamura's (I'm a shounen lover, so my paneling tends to follow a more shounen manga structure) | think the content of what I draw inside the panels has definitely been inspired by her work. Her dialogue and pacing has also undoubtedly affected how I do mine. I don't know if it shows, though.
Kishimoto is great, too. Opposite to Nakamura, I don't know that the way I block a scene is similar to him at all, but I think his paneling is fantastic, and I keep a volume of Naruto on my desk to flip through when I'm stuck.
I used to read a lot of Urasawa's works. His stuff works as an incredible reference for anything to do with comics.
Fujimoto and Gege's linework is some of my favourite in shounen, l've definitely stolen some mouth, eye, and clothing fold shapes from both of them. Hell, I've even been stealing from Ikemoto since I started drawing Boruto, and I actually have major complaints about his style, lol.
But I'm surrounded with references. I engage with art every single day. I constantly keep a few novels, comics, art books, and drawing models that I like on my desk so that I can easily refer to something if I'm feeling unsatisfied or stuck with what l'm drawing, but I'm honestly just inspired by all the things l've read/watched and liked until now.
Thank you for the question, I’m flattered you think my work is worthy of it 💞 x)
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