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This is a weblog of one person's multi-year quest to write, draw, and publish a graphic novel. This is my story: my trials, tribulations, successes and failures. -- Robert Stradley, Weekend Artist


2007  Backgrounds, Foregrounds, & Maps

Designing a World
Not too hard, just dive in and draw, right?  The Engineer in me rebelled.  I’m a stickler for scientific detail.  What is the climate, weather, and rainfall?  Where are the oceans and currents, and where do the monsoons fall?  Where is the water supply for the cities?  What is the agriculture and products for sale?  Who makes them?  And once I know where they are, what do they look like, then and only then am I allowed to draw them.  Sometimes I can’t get out of my own way.    

What works for me
Mountains:  Lay in the edge outlines.  Then add masses of shadow with felt tip or Copic.
Trees:  Trees could be squiggles drawn on the horizon or they could be drawn in front of the mountains, depending on viewpoint.  As William Alexander said, “Be bold.  Fire them in.” Design a few trees of each type and then use these prototypes over and over, scaling larger or smaller as needed.  Boy do I wish I had a TrueType font for Trees. 
Bricks, blocks, and stones:  Again, draw a few and use them over and over with a light table.  In many cases, less is more.  Lay in a few lines to suggest bricks or stones.  You don’t have to draw each one.  This is especially true when you are in city perspective.  I’ve killed myself for hours getting them all right in perspective, only to have most of them obscured by characters in front of the background.  Same thing for windows in city houses.  Make an architectural standard and keep to it in that city.  It will be easier and will help give each city a personality. 
Water:  don’t get me started.  It’s a whole problem of its own.   Based on my limited results to date, I could probably spend years getting it right.   

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On sketching
Start with fast small squiggles.  Don’t stop to analyze or admire or correct or anything.  Immerse yourself, get into Zen state, and just draw.  Make lots of tiny examples.  Keep moving, keep drawing, change paper when you run out of space, but keep on.  Use whatever method works best for you:  wandering hand, cross hatch, single line, circles, or  curves.  Repeat as necessary. 


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On drawing
Here’s what I do.  Steps 1-3 are done in analytical state to improve composition and proportion.  Steps 4-5 can be either Zen state or combined state. 
1.  Make the under-drawing with basic shapes and positions.  Include a horizon line and at least one vertical, especially if the view is skewed.  When composing, I stretch for thirds and triplets and the golden points.  How much time on step 1?  Ces depends.  For a cow in a field --  30 seconds max.  For a 2 or 3 point perspective drawing – several hours. 
2.  Fill in the blanks.  Measure and lay in proportionally the key elements and interest points.  Add secondary perspective gridlines if needed.  If drawing from reality instead of pictures, then measure proportionally using the “pencil at arm length” technique.    Watch for complex slopes, especially when using a skewed viewpoint.  Construct buildings and other man-made items with simple geometric forms – circles, boxes, eggs, cylinders. 
3.  Refine outlines and check proportionality.  I have a tendency to jump into details before I have everything set up, and I end up having to do a lot of pictures two or three times to get everything right. 
4.  Add masses of light and dark – depending on your medium – shadows and chunks and planes and blobs. 
5.  Final execution.  Go nutz with the details. 
6.  Know when to stop.  I have to continually ask myself am I adding new things or simply fiddling with details?  I stop when I realize I am fiddling.  For me, details are best done during the inking or coloring phase. 

 

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Quill  News-2007

News 2007
What a year gone by.  I started down the long path to learning how to draw realistically.  Now that I’ve gotten the characters under control, this year I’m going after the backgrounds. 

Oriental Mangas [in copying the style of Disney] are known for tremendously detailed backgrounds and simplified strong outlines on characters. 

Forests, mountains, clouds, castles, cities, roads, taverns are rendered in great detail by rising young artists in the bullpens of Manga factories. 

For me, a whole new world needs to be visually designed from my writings.

1st Look: Backgrounds
Click on the backgrounds below for a first look: 

Forests, Mountains,
Trees, Castles, Atrium,
Taverns, Abbey, Swamp, City of Robia, Knotbridge, Foot bridge, Snow scenes, Path in Woods, Rock cliff,

Amberleigh, City street.



©2007 Weekend Artist Weblog Archives