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.