As we all know, Halloween is coming up and of course that always leads to some fun. Well, we got another Kalwa illustration coming to site this fall. BUT while it will be done in the next few days you’ll have to wait till Halloween to see it. Don’t worry there will be other stuff going up on the site but this piece will remain secret till Halloween. But I do leave you with this little preview from a WIP to give you all a small taste.
So I mentioned that we would be doing some behind the scenes work, and while on that subject matter, there is indeed some commentary that must be said. In today’s blog, I want to talk about… the FULL PAGE.
Since starting this comic in 2014, I’ve personally discovered much on this long journey. I dare say that a full use of page was honestly something I had not even considered, for I, as a rank amateur back in the day, only saw a page as simple means to align panels. Over the course of time, I looked at a few artist who talked about using the whole page but it wasn’t until webtoons that I started to develop my own style.
Commonly found on webtoons are single panel comics, which are read through the use of scrolling down. It was something I had not once seen before and I dare say, did NOT adapt to it well. My comics were originally done with full on pages and cutting up those pages and making high quality scroll down pages was quite new and difficult for me. In fact I feel my lack of experience is one of the big reasons the comic didn’t exactly fly so high on webtoons. Shortly afterwards, smackjeeves also switched to this format and thus I left that site as well.
Since leaving and the struggle with scroll down comics, one of my working methods is to ultimately challenge the single panel scroll downs and thus not only make use of multiple panels but also design a page that can’t have the same effect otherwise.
Whenever I make page, and it’s possible, I try to make it artistic and present a unique scenario that can only be achieved through use of multiple panels. One such example is this page from chapter 22 where Kalwa goes on a rant. Kalwa’s text balloons are designed in a way that guide the reader down the page and keeps all focus on her. Yet the reader also has the option to view the members of the tribe who show a great deal of remorse, as though they were secondary focuses
Most of the time I do tend mix text with the pictures in order to set up and guide certain scenarios to the reader. Often I deliberately have text leak over into the next panel so that readers will be guided all over the page through the text itself.
This technique can also be used to convey a certain sensation, and example can be found in this page from chapter 24, which at the time of this post is the latest chapter to finish. The use of sound effects coming from the following panel convey a sense of interruption and swiftness. This of course does pertain to real life and Kalwa’s own perspective, as realistically an strong opponent would move quickly on a weak one and hit them before they knew what would hit them. These are types of scenarios and feelings that I try to convey within my pages, and attempt to make the entire page on big illustration in itself rather than just being a collection of smaller illustrations. Something a single panel scroll down comic could never achieve.
So all that being said, I hope this post has been most informative and (possibly) inspirational for some of you. I’ll be doing more posts similar to this in the future when I’ve got something I feel is worth talking about. Thanks once again for reading and I hope I can continue to bring you all more entertainment and some inspiration in the near future.
We’re there everyone, here on October 1st we conclude another chapter in the Kalwa story. Chapter 24 has now concluded, so as per usual, chapter updates will take a small break while we prep the next script for chapter 25, but be on the look out for art updates and behind the scenes and more coming soon. Meanwhile, check out what we got by click the thumb below.
So I mentioned a little while ago that there was some behind the scenes story with the recent page 22 and I want to share as a note to future comic artists. So when I’m doing pages, I tend to try to break up the actual drawing process and the inking process. I will usually strive to get the drawing done one night and then do the inking another. The reason being is so I can dislodge myself from the drawing and take a second look at it before finalizing it, as I might be tired and unable to properly judge immediately after drawing.
A primary example of this being the recent chapter 24 page 22. Initially I had a different angle for Kalwa in the original drawing of the page, which can be seen below on the original pencil drawing. However during inking I felt it looked real boring and not very dynamic at all. The viewer couldn’t get a sense of her strength or really absorb the power of her weapon. So in the 11th hour during Inking the pose was changed to what we have today as also seen below. So in my closing statement, I say to all that it’s always good to break up the drawing and the inking in order to properly judge situations such as this. Give yourself some time to gather your thoughts and better judge your work, don’t be so obsessive on timing if it means turning in a product you won’t be happy with.
Sorry everyone for the late post, I was busy shopping this morning for some supplies, and spent longer out than I planned, mostly because I was looking for the stuff in store. This page also took longer to make partially because I was working on some personal hobbies. But more importantly, it involves two characters locked in combat, which always are harder to do. I have a lot of trouble working two people into battle because the poses always get hard to lock together in the way I want, as well as making it clear to the reader what is happening. So that’s just how it works sometimes, regardless, enjoy the new page by clicking the thumbnail.
NEVERMIND!!! Despite my last post, I reliezed that the activity I was about to perform would really just inconvenience recent plans for today and just cause frustrations. Meanwhile the page was pretty much done and I had time to finish it. So here you go everyone, your early “late” page for today. As usual, click the link to see the new page.
This is one of those projects I just gushed over, and all of yesterday I was just obsessed with finishing it. So those who know me should know that Dr. Stone is to date my favorite anime (other than Digimon which really just wins due to nostalgia) and Kohaku is also my “anime crush.” As a result I just love drawing her, and more of my drawings of her can be found over on the Green Raptor website.
Across the internet I’ve also been seeing a number of people coming up with their own Dr. Stone OC’s and then crossing them over with the canon characters. So since I already had a stone world design for Kalwa from last year, I decided to give it a whirl and (once again) I just gushed at the idea of my crush meeting own character. Real life wise, I’m not completely sure how well these two would get along with each other, Kohaku does have a decent sense of humor, so I could imagine a scenario like this playing out. I’m not completely sure Kohaku would approve of Kalwa playing with her knives, but she is known to have a great judge of character, so it’s possible.
One of the many works I did while in quarantine which was inspired after listening to some Nighcore remixs. I was listening to a remix version of the song “hips don’t lie,” and it featured a lovely image of a manga styled girl wearing a belly dancer outfit, which prompted me to drawn Kalwa and some of our more recently introduced females performing the dance. In reality this idea had been floating around in my brain for a while, but it was thanks to that image that I finally acted upon it.
Really these full color group shots are actually quite intimidating for me, because I feel that after the first or second character, my quality on the characters tends to diminish from all the work. So this piece was kinda padded out slowly to give all the characters equal attention to detail. I went working on some other projects in between to distract myself. So after this long time coming, I hope everyone enjoys what we got.
Another busy week of uploading, it’s what happens when you are at home with pretty much nothing to but work what you love. Well here you all go, new page and that much closer to finishing this chapter. As usual click the link below to view the latest page.
An adventurous manga series about a teenage girl and her time traveling cell phone 