A Look at the making of ‘Star Wars’

December 7, 2012 at 9:51 am | Posted in Art, Comic Books, Dark Horse, Star Wars | Leave a comment
Tags: carlos d'anda

Comic artist Carlos D’Anda posted some of the preliminary interior art for the upcoming new Star Wars series from Dark Horse Comics. He also answered some questions in the comments with insights on his process. Click below to check it out.

Carlos D’Anda: aaaaand since this page has already been shown, no harm showing a bit of process stuff for those of you who like to see that kinda’ stuff! :)

… the image on the left is my initial roughing-in process… I’ve betrayed my pencil with a computer and do my layouts digitally for the past few years, mainly because it’s faster (for me), and also because by printing the layout in “blue-line”, I put no wear-and-tear on the paper by the time I start inking it (I still prefer to ink on paper) … I also like doing just ‘basic info’ on my layout so I still feel like I’m drawing when I’m inking, otherwise, it feels like I’m doing the same drawing twice!.

Are you using a Cintiq for everything or a Wacom?

CA: Cintiq for the ‘roughing in’, but I still much peefer to ink on paper, I got faster and there’s still no matching the feeling of pen in paper!

Your roughs are so clean!

CA: there’s a step before this that’s messy as all hell, this is my clean ‘bare-bones’ rough that allows me to make my choices at the “ink-stage”.

So you print onto paper and ink…what kind of paper do you print onto? Most papers good for inking don’t run through any printers I’ve seen.

CA: I got a large format printer that allows me to print on comic board, so I just blue-line the mofo and print it out.

I love seeing clean inked artwork. Are you using the strathmore Rich has been mentioning!

CA: I have NOOO idea what kinda Bristol I’m using, just whatever I have on hand… I do need to go buy some soon tho’, so I’ve been paying A LOT of attention to Richard’s posts.

You print onto bristol?

CA: yeah, large format printer have gotten waaaay cheaper these past few years, and I don’t need anything super-fancy, since I just use it for blue-line stuff. it’s an EPSON 1100 Workforce, and so far I haven’t had any issues with it.

I meant with what you did here-layout the basics but do all the detail work while inking. It’s something I’ve just started experimenting with.

CA: I prefer to work that way, but that’s all a matter of personal-preference. I’ve tried doing full pencils then inking, but then it feels like I did the same drawing twice, so personally, I prefer to give myself ‘bare bones’ information, and make decisions at the inking stage, keeps it fun that way (for me).

What do you mean by “doing basic info stuff on your layout”?

CA: ‘basic info’ for me means basically ‘structure’, so making sure all the main shapes are lined-up, the perspective is there, angles are working etc, but I don’t bother with ‘details’ at all at this point… think of it like cake without any frosting!

Posted By: Skuldren for Roqoo Depot.