Week 47, 2021
I think that with this week's activity I've got rid of all my commitments and I can dedicate myself calmly to move forward with my comics.
The Inktober book has had a very good reception, I have seen that many people have been posting it on social media and I'm really proud, even a colleague asked me, as a favor, to sign it for him at the store!
It makes me think that sometimes the things we do without looking beyond and only with love and affection, are those things that come out the best.
I include here a button that takes you to MilComics and there you can buy it if you want.
I'm so excited about doing my own projects that I'm thinking about finishing Espiral, in whatever way I can, but finishing it, I've already started to make some approaches, but well, it's something that I think about cyclically.
This week in Streaming de Dibujantes we had Aleix Gordo, a fellow who does street art and is a master of diversification, a cartoonist who touches all areas and has a lot of cool ideas, in fact he ventured with the NFTs, a very controversial video.
I'm not going to waste any more time with my inktober, so as a colophon, a few images of the process of the cover and that's it.
As in all Inktobers, I went without a sketch underneath, no tracing, no digital drawing, no safety net. The character had to be born on paper, as I did when I was 15 years old.
Then watercolor. The point here is that I was interested in giving the watercolor as a base and then doing a digital finish on top of it. In the drawing on paper there is the definitive pencil and a very transparent watercolor in which the texture of the paper and the brushstroke can be seen well. The problem is that to achieve a definitive illustration like this you have to dedicate a lot of time and you have to have a technique that I don't have and I don't know if I will ever reach.
Finally, it is scanned and digitally processed.
1. I apply a level layer to lift the image, make the darks darker and boost my paper color to get a richer base on which I can bring out highlights if I need them.
2. A adjustment layer with a gradient map that takes the colors to where I need them to be, basically it tones the image in a second.
3. I separate the background to be able to correct it, in this case I gave it a cleaner white, I didn't want so much texture for the cover.
4. Finally I add opaque brushwork, correct the lights and do everything I would do with gouache if I knew how.
5. Some adjustments to make the whole look good.
This cover would be nothing without the crazy eyes of the protagonist, I only get those details when I work without a sketch and the character grows as I draw it. Spontaneity, freshness 100%.
Enjoy your week.