Panelling for graphic novels

It has been a while since I last posted on this blog, so what have I been focusing on.....the answer is panels.

My recent findings on panels

After getting “Create your own graphic novel” by Mike Chinn and Chris Mcloughlin out of the library I came across an interesting part about panels. A typical page should between 5 and 7 per page, but can range up to 9. When I re-looked at my manga I noticed that I always tend to have very few panels per page. Actually I struggle to manage to have 5 panels sometimes. Hence I am sure this is one of my problems towards getting the story to move along.

In the aim to try and improve my abilities I spent time looking at some yaoi mangas since the only way to learn is to study other's work, that and it was a good excuse to read some yaoi! Haha. Like what Mike Chinn and Chris Mcloughlin said in their book, the theory stood up where on average each page had about 5-7 panels. I also look at the amount of text per page and again on average this was a lot more than what I ever managed to place upon my pages. For example an average page by Yamato Nase's would have on average about 16 pieces of text. It was after looking at some of Yamato Nase's work that I noticed the big difference between how she lays out her work compared to mine. With Yamato Nase's pages they are crammed full of detail, text and panels compared to mine which tend to be quiet sparse. I also noticed the pages I liked most in Noctivagus: Wandering by Night were the ones where I had managed to get quiet a bit of text on the page and also the ones where there was more panelling.

Hence I think the moral of the story is pages need a lot of text and panels. Although dramatic pages where you want to create atmosphere work well with little on them, an average page needs to be full of detail / text. Therefore my aim for future pages is to follow this logic and increase the amount of text / panelling I have per page.

Artistic Style - have I finally got one?

Why is an artistic style so hard to find? As can be seen as you read my yaoi manga, my style towards how I draw characters seems to change after each couple of pages.

Part of this is because:

• I have never been able to find a style that I like.
• What I want to achieve I don't know how to do within Manga Studio

Hence as I try and battle with these two points I keep coming up with new style creations (some looking better than others lol).

After becoming an active member on Deviant Art I found a tutorial which explained how to alter line widths to show where light and shadow was within a picture. Although I knew varied line width within an image was important within manga work I had never really understood how it worked. Hence that tutorial was a light bulb moment for me. I suddenly realised what I needed to try to do within my work and suddenly taddah I had a style which a. looked good and b. I was finally able to replicate. 

So when looking how to get an artistic style, practise and try a lot of different things and one day await the light bulb moment when you can finally say.... "This is it!"

Here is a snap shot how my style has changed over the last chapter within my manga (from page 4 on the left through to page 27 on the right).

Censoring yaoi

Many yaoi mangakas censor their work (some better than others). But when censoring is done well it can produce something, which although you know it has been censored, looks just as good and as if the picture had not been censored. Personally I think it is an art form in itself the ability to censor a picture without detracting from the original image.

After reading many yaoi mangas I have come across several ways (good and bad) as how an image can be censored.

1. Put a massive black rectangle over the area.
   My opinion:
   This has to be one of the worst ways to censor a picture since it totally distracts from the composition of the page. It grabs the viewers attention and holds it on that area as opposed to letting the viewers eye wander around the page's composition in a natural way.
   
   
2. Having the area blurred / pixelated.
   My opinion:
   Again like the massive black rectangle method this can also effect the page's composition. Although not as bad as black rectangle method, it still creates areas of the page which just stand out as being different and not fitting in. Also you are spending your time drawing something in detail just to then blur it to the point it is not recognisable. Seems a bit counter productive to me. Only useful if you are censoring a page but will need the uncensored version for something else. 
   
   
3. The invisible penis
   My opinion:
   For me the invisible penis option is the best way of censoring I have come across for many reasons. Firstly it does not detract from the composition of the page since you can work the empty areas into the composition. Secondly it uses the concept of less is more. It leaves something to the readers' imagination. Thirdly, since the penis is invisible it can therefore show, for example, what a hand is doing from a view point which would not normally be seen (due to it being obscured by the penis).

Due to the above thoughts, this is why when applying censoring to my yaoi manga I opted for the invisible penis option. To see my attempt at this method see chapter 1 page 25.

Graphic tablet's highs and lows

Well after having my Wacom Cintiq graphics tablet for a while I have had several ups and downs with it.

First with the negatives.

Like I read on many reviews before I got the Wacom Cintiq, the display at the bottom of the screen gives off a lot of heat. So much so it can become a bit uncomfortable to use after several hours. Although in the reviews I found it said it was a problem with right handed people, I am left handed and find it is still an issue for me. I found that a way to solve the heat problem was simply to turn the screen off for say 10-15 minutes. Go have a drink, relax, come back and it was not such a problem. Hence in some weird way this problem could actually be a positive, since it will force me to take eye breaks from the screen (which I have a tendancy at the moment not to do).

Second problem 2 of the pixels on the display do not display correctly. One is always a lighter colour than the pixels around it and the other pixel goes bright red (if it is supposed to be black). The red pixel issue is the worst one since a. it is in my line of vision and b. because I work a lot in black and white (because of my manga pages) it means it is really off putting to see a bright red dot where it should be black. After consulting my user manual and the Wacom online forum I found out that this problem is not covered by the warranty and as Wacom states “Production techniques cannot guarantee an absolutely perfect display, and some panels may exhibit a certain number of pixels that show an incorrect colour”. Hence I faced the option of return it (since I was within the returns period) or just carry on and deal with that issue. I chose to keep the graphics tablet since well the positives far out way the negatives.

Now for the positives

Firstly OMG how easier it has made it to perfect lines (which before would just drive me nuts trying to get right with the old conventional graphics tablets). Now all I do is zoom in, place pen in the exact spot I want to fix, move pen and taddah done onto next issue. I know I found one review video online where the person said the Wacom Cintiq had problems drawing lines where they should be and hence you needed to rehearse each pen stroke. Personally I have not found that to be an issue at all. I know I still redo lines several times, but that is because of my drawing skill not being perfect vs their being an issue with the graphics tablet itself.

I love the fact that the Cintiq graphics tablet gives me all the benefits of drawing with pencil and paper but at the same time has the wonderful facility of undo, move, cut and copy. I really like the express keys the graphics tablet has. I love the fact you can customise each programme you use with the tablet to have its own set of express keys. This is great when say Photoshop and Manga Studio don't use the same keys for drawing tools for example. Also with the express keys gone are the days where I am constantly trying to stretch my fingers between “p” (for pen tool) and “e” (for eraser tool) when I am working on at picture in Manga Studio!

One thing I have found though is while working on the Wacom Cintiq I have a tendency to adopt a really relaxed and laid back of working with one hand while the other arm is supporting my head. This would have been impossible with a conventional tablet but yet it seems so natural to draw and doodle this way with the Cintiq.

Next fantastic thing about the Cintiq was that it came with some free software. Considering how much I paid for the graphics tablet I was jolly well hoping it would come with some art software! I got Corel Painter Essentials 3 with my tablet and I have to say, OMG at the difference with colouring in this programme vs Photoshop! Actually I felt a bit like a kid in a candy store when I had installed Corel Painter, so much so I just could not stop playing around with it and seeing what it could do. Here is the weird and wonderful thing I created during my play session. 

I have to say I can well see myself using Corel Painter in the future to do my colouring vs doing it in Photoshop. 

In conclusion

Even though it has one or two things which are not perfect, the fact that my Wacom Cintiq allows me to get the closest experience to drawing with pen and paper means it is well worth the money.   Working on it feels more natural when compared to working with a conventional graphics tablet and it is this which makes it really stand out as a great gadget.

Anyway I hope this proves useful for anyone who is contemplating getting a Wacom Cintiq graphics tablet.  If anyone has any questions please feel free to contact me.

New Year's Resolution

Since the New Year's resolution I had last year was such a success I thought that this year I would also have a New Year's resolution. This year I have decided to try and draw every single day (be it sketch, inking, colouring etc). Hence I am hoping this will have 2 good results.

1. My manga pages should progress quicker
2. My art skills should improve

After watching a TV programme which said the reason Beethoven was so good at playing music (even at the age of 6) was because by the time he was 6 he had already practised play for thousand of hours. The more you practise the better you get. Hence because of this, this is why my New Year's resolution is to draw a bit each day.

So with that I am off to do a bit of drawing before I have to go to work.

Hope you all have a Happy New Year and a great 2011.

First Sketches

So after well over a week, yesterday I finally was up to installing and using my Wacom Cintiq for the first time. Over the last week I have been ill and stuck in bed and it was driving me around the bend that after so many years of waiting to get a Wacom Cintiq tablet I could not use it. But yesterday I finally felt up to setting it up and all I can say is OMG I am so impressed. Such a difference in quality and usability compared to my old Wacom Graphire 3.

After an hour or so to install (this included all the minor tweaks of setting express keys and generally getting my head around using two monitors instead of one), I finally did a couple of sketches just to test my new graphics tablet. Straight out of the box, the Cintiq was instantly ready to use in Photoshop. Manga Studio however was a bit more fiddly since for some reason the express keys (in their default mode) would not allow me to zoom in and out using the scroll strip and the pan express key was very jittery. I managed to fix the zoom issue by removing it from Auto Zoom and just setting the button to just Zoom (although then there was no control over the speed it zoomed in). Also (simply because of how Manga Studio is) using Manga Studio over two screens is not as fluid as for example Photoshop is. But, even with these minor issues I am still very impressed.

Below are 2 sketches I did. Left one is in Photoshop (which I know is really sketchy) and right is in Manga Studio.

New Graphics Tablet. A dream come true

After months of going....."hmm I think my old Wacom Graphire 3 is on it's last legs after 7 years+ years of service.  Maybe it is time to get a new graphics tablet.  I don't want to be left without a graphics tablet since how will I carry on regularly updating my yaoi manga and being able to do commissions for people?"  Hence I started to research what graphics tablets were available to upgrade to. 

Since my previous Wacom tablet had been so reliable (never needing once to have a part replaced or mended) I was instantly drawn to getting another Wacom graphics tablet.  The two options which Wacom offers (which would fulfil my artistic needs) are:

1. Wacom Intuos 4
2. Wacom Cintiq 12WX

When I first found out about the Wacom Cintiq model about 5 years ago, I instantly wanted one, simply because it was so revolutionary.  Here was a graphics tablet where you could draw straight onto the screen!  It was just like how you would draw onto a piece of paper.  Gone would be the age old problem of never being too sure where your cursor was or the unnatural drawing experience of drawing something while looking somewhere else.  The only problem was the price.  It was and still is SO EXPENSIVE!  Hence because at that time my Wacom Graphire 3 was still working perfectly fine, I put off getting a new graphics tablet.  I hoped that one day (years later) the price of the Wacom Cintiq would have dropped significantly.  5 years later, and yes, the price of the Wacom Cintiq had dropped but it still is very expensive when you compare it to the other graphics tablets which are available.  Currently it is about 3 times the price of a similar sized Wacom Intuos 4 :S.  

No matter how much I wanted the Wacom Cintiq, I was realistic and went that "it is just a dream".  I cannot justify spending that much money on one when there are other graphics tablets from Wacom which are more reasonably priced.

I then started to look seriously into getting the Wacom Intuos 4.  I had found out about all its product features which my old Wacom Graphire 3 did not have.  I had see the promo videos showing you around the tablet.  I had even done some shopping around to find the best price for the Intuos 4.  Cheapest I found was on Amazon.  

Everything was going well until I started to read the reviews from people who had bought the Wacom Intuos 4.   Yes there were several reviews which gave the Wacom Intuos 4 excellent reviews, but there was one review which really stood out.  The reviewer had given the graphics tablet 1 star out of 5.  This person had commented on how their graphics tablet the nibs wore out quickly (in a matter of HOURS!) causing damage to the surface of the tablet.  This automatically made me think OMG this does not sound good!  The reviewer also commented on how there was a thread of the Wacom support forum which had 64 pages of people complaining about this one issue (the thread is now on 71 pages) See http://forum.wacom.eu/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1438.  Not being a person who will just take one person's word for something, I read pages upon pages of that thread and all the bad experiences people had had with the Wacom Intuos 4 in relation to nib wear rate.

After reading that forum thread and seeing Wacom's responses of how to "modify" your graphics tablet by sticking a sheet of paper onto of it to help reduce wear (as opposed to Wacom actually doing something to fix the problem), it made me go right off purchasing a Wacom Intuos 4.  If I was going to be spending a large portion of money on a new graphics tablet I wanted something reliable, not something where I have to replace bits every couple of hours.  Nor did I want something where the official solution to fixing the problem is to do a Blue Peter jobbie of sticky back plastic and paper!

I was therefore back to the drawing board (lol at pun).  Out of the two options available to me the Cintiq 12WX was too expensive and the Intuos 4 was unreliable.  When I looked into reviews for the Cintiq 12WX the only major downside which kept cropping up was the price.  All other problems I did not consider to be a big issue or were not applicable to me.  i.e. one issue is that the right hand side heats up more than the left.  Hence if you are right handed this can be a problem if you are using it for several hours in one go.  But, since I am left handed this isn't a problem for me ^_^.

Hence I came to the conclusion, the only option was to get the Wacom Cintiq (irrespective to the price).  Due to this I spoke nicely to my parents and as a joint Birthday and Christmas present (plus with me also putting money towards it as well), I could get a Wacom Cintiq!!!!!!!  My dream come true.  5 years of waiting was finally at an end.

Today was a momentous day since the new graphics tablet was delivered.  Tomorrow I am planning to install it and test it out.  Tonight will be spent reading the weighty user manual.  :S at the first couple of pages being don't do this or that with the tablet.  But eeeee I am so excited at finally getting a new tablet after so long, and at it being the Wacom Cintiq!

I hope the next update of Noctivagus: Wandering by Night will be on schedule  (i.e. Monday 20th December).  If it is a bit late though, it is because I am still trying to figure out how to use my new graphics tablet.  >_<