Next, I moved on to the drawings. For these I ended up scanning them still in progress and arranging them in a kind of half-step between thumbnail and rough. My initial thumbnails were so loose I wanted the editor to be able to see more clearly where I was headed.
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Rough pencils! Not pictured, an oubliette. |
Now, you've no doubt been able to gather from how scattered I write, how scribbled out and nearly useless my thumbnails are, all of that -- my comics process is a little fragmented. Alright, fine, guess what, it's literally fragmented. I tend to draw everything separate and figure out panels later. I don't like drawing small. Or in panels. That's absurd, you might say, it's comics. And you'd be right. But I fell into comics on accident. And I'm obliged to make it up as I go. (How I started doing any comics at all might worth a post of it's own in the future.)
What it amounts to is drawing each panel individually. It's not much more effort or time and it feels more natural to me.
Here's a look at some of the original scans of these "panel" pages.
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This is exactly what it looks like. Goblins overwhelming multiple sheets of paper. |
Once finished with the drawings I scanned them and began to prep them for the final work, flatting shapes to block out the figures and elements.
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Dance, magic. |
After this pass at flatting is done, I go back and begin to work on the actual characters themselves. This means making sure base colors are correct and that things are mostly in place. A lot of this initial color work takes place underneath the drawing.
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Tally-ho! in progress. |
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And now for the real goblin magic! Getting those above images to final. I'm always kind of amazed when it happens. It does feel like magic sometimes. Here's a look at a few finished pieces.
So that does it! I also lettered the story, laying out the all the type.
I had such a good time with every part of this project. My editors were great, always helpful. This was also the first time I had the chance to write something Henson as well as illustrate.
I'm not going to lie, I felt like I'd been given a challenge by the Goblin King himself. Not quite as challenging as solving the Labyrinth and rescuing a lost sibling but still, a little challenge from Jareth.
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And you know what, speaking of that guy:
Look, everything I've done, I've done for you. I'm just saving you the trouble of looking up that song later.