Hazeymaiko

...And putting it online anyway.

2010-05-24T01:27:00.000-07:00

After calculating a realistic drawing schedule, I realised I could just as well post this story online while I'm working on it. If I wanted to complete it before posting anything, I wouldn't update my site in 14 months. And that sounded a bit harsh to me.

So, here's what I'll be aiming for: three pages a week. I'll be posting them in monthly installments of twelve, to cut myself some slack. The first six pages are up now, for starters. Enjoy!

Draw it again. And again. And again.

2010-05-19T15:48:00.000-07:00

There's hardly been any time to draw pages these past few weeks! I'll be working fulltime until the end of June and I'm moving house as well. And then there's a couple of family matters... Oh, well. Just a few more weeks until I get my 'drawing Tuesday' all back for myself.

In the meantime, here's an idea of how I've been tweaking the first couple of pages. It's another reason my progress has slowed down: these first pages have become a kind of test lab where I can work out some style / drawing issues.

version 1:

version 2:

version 3:

Well, I hope this panel has improved...

Page!

2010-04-26T01:53:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks have been incredibly busy (at the office, mostly), but I have been able to squeeze out the first couple of pages! Inked, lettered, scanned and all! I'm so glad this project is finally up and running.

Also, I'm slowly building up my (work)flow. Two-hour sessions seem to work best, with some crocheting afterwards to unwind my brain. That way, I'll have a comic AND a nice blanket in a couple months time!

Again, I'll chart my progress in the column on the right. And I'm considering to publish the story as it unfolds, in episodes of about 12 pages.

Pre-pencilling jitters & new tools

2010-04-08T01:57:00.000-07:00

Hey, the page layouts are complete! They have been for over a week! Shouldn't I have some pages up by now? Yeah, I should... But I'm down with a small bout of 'pre-pencilling jitters'... I've got everything lined up to start drawing, and now I'm worried I'll mess things up as soon as I put my pencil to the paper. Or worse, that my inking will ruin any reasonably pencilled page...

But the only way to get better at drawing is to just do it, right? Lots and lots of it. Even if it means doing a page over and over again.

It's probably not the pencilling I should be worried about, it's the inking. My inking is hardly as tight as I would like it to be, and it doesn't 'read' very well. It's funny: I love inking, it's my favourite part of the process, but I've never given it any thought until now. I just race my brush around without planning line width, direction or anything. Perhaps it would be even better to just switch back to inking with (dip) pens and let the brush rest for a while...

So this past week I've been reading and watching inking tutorials. And I've bought a bunch of new pens and markers to experiment with. All I've got to do now is just start drawing. Right...

Page layouts

2010-03-24T14:20:00.000-07:00

The page thumbnails are coming at a steady pace - I'm marking their progress in the list on the right - and I'm really enjoying this job! These tiny sketches probably don't make any sense to anyone but me, and they look terrible, but they're really helpful. I hardly include any visual ideas for pages or panels when I'm writing a script, so this step in the process forces me to create an actual comic out of a big pile of words.

I'm well on my way to finishing these by the end of the month. Only eight more days before I can start pencilling actual pages... Yay!

Page distribution

2010-03-15T14:05:00.000-07:00

OK... time to start planning this book. I've gone over the script and broken it down into individual pages. Which is not exactly rocket science: it's more like a rough estimate of how much information will fit on a single page. I'm trying to build up a nice flow / rhythm throughout the whole book. And scribbling lots of brackets in the margins of the script, as you can see.

I've decided to make it an A5-sized book, out of folded A4 sheets. That'll save me the paper cutting I had to do for my previous book. Including the title pages, the counter has come to a stop at 168 pages. That's a LOT of work... but doable... I guess... And they can can be split up in 14 sets of 3 A4 sheets for the folding and binding. Neat!

Still not sure if it's best to start pencilling right away (I want to!) or to make miniature sketches & page layouts for the whole book first. I could try to do both things simultaneously. Sketch thumbnails in the mornings & afternoons while I'm on the bus, and draw pages on the evenings & weekends. The best ideas tend to pop up while I'm zoning out onboard public transport anyway :)

Research: props

2010-03-11T07:47:00.000-08:00

Including the sparrow skull :)

Research: locations

2010-03-10T01:08:00.000-08:00

Research is addictive! I must have collected over a hundred images in the past week, and now I have told myself to STOP. This comic also needs to be drawn, remember?

More Anne

2010-03-01T00:29:00.000-08:00

My brush pen and I had a bit of an argument while we were inking this one. Splitting hairs and such.

More Martin

2010-02-26T03:25:00.000-08:00

... and a dorky jacket! :)

More Emma

2010-02-25T01:14:00.000-08:00

Character design: Anne

2010-02-19T03:32:00.000-08:00

Anne is fun to draw! She started out as a kind of Emily Dickinson, but it looks like she went to the same hairdresser as Amy Winehouse. What was I thinking? No idea. Anne is a weird girl who does weird things, like bruising in the rain, so I thought I could get away with some outlandish looks here.

So, sketches for the whole cast are up and running. I'll probably make a few extra sketches of each character, so look out for those.

Next, I'll be collecting reference material for all the indoor and outdoor locations, as well as for some crucial props. I can't sketch an accurate sparrow skull out of thin air, for example...

Character design: Martin

2010-02-18T12:44:00.000-08:00

Martin's looks are based on the gorgeous Mr. Gary Lightbody (cue annoyed boyfriend shouting in the background: 'Lightbody?! Come on! Is that even a real name?!'). Actually, Martin is based on the most unflattering picture of Gary Lightbody I could find. No pretty boys in my book!

I think he still needs a bit of work though. Martin is the kind of guy who's a little soft in all the wrong places, both physically and psychologically. The nice guy (art school drop-out) who'll break your heart anyway. That doesn't come out enough in this sketch.

Character design: Emma

2010-02-17T14:31:00.000-08:00

Meet our protagonist!

This is Emma, 24 years old (as of 2006, the year this story will take place). Always dresses like she's going to the office (probably some nondescript-fresh-out-of-university job), even on nights and weekends. Sometimes she sleeps in this outfit as well.

When I come up with a character, they're usually 'played', in my mind, by an actual person. A singer, an actor, a writer, or someone else I happen to be aware of, in real life or through the media. This person then becomes the starting point for the character design.

Emma is based on Beth Orton. That (partly) explains me including one of her songs on my playlist. Upon closer inspection, I suspect I also added some Kate Winslet to the picture :)

A blurb

2010-02-10T01:06:00.000-08:00

Nothing's harder than trying to explain what your work-in-progress is about. At least, it's hard for me. I tried to explain Scratches to my boyfriend. His reaction: ' That doesn't sound very interesting'. My reply: 'Well, I'm just not very good at selling stories. I couldn't even tell you what this book is about (I held up the Murakami novel I was reading) and make it sound interesting to you!' And he admitted I was right about that.

But I can't share my progress on this project here and not tell you what the story will be about. So I tried my hand at writing some 'blurb' text. Something that could be printed on the back of the book. Something that might make it sound interesting. Here we go:

How do you stop loving someone?
Emma needs to know.

Since Martin has left her, she's been trapped in a place
between night and day, dreams and reality, past and present.
Literally.

The damage is invisible on the outside.
But somewhere, someone is drawing blood. Scratching the surface.

Emma finds that there is no safety in memories, or in good intentions.
Not even in friendships that never die.

Emma will have to draw a line somewhere.
Dig another's grave, or be buried alive.

There. How does that sound?

A playlist

2010-02-09T02:59:00.000-08:00

Perhaps it's a silly thing to do, but I love compiling soundtracks when I'm working on a story. Here's what I've been listening to while writing the script for Scratches:

01 The Postal Service - The district sleeps alone tonight
02 Beth Orton - Stolen car
03 Mystery Jets - Half in love with Elizabeth
04 Doves - The cedar room
05 The Killers - Smile like you mean it
06 Kashmir - The curse of being a girl
07 The Arcade Fire - No cars go
08 Say Hi To Your Mom - The death of girl number two
09 The Cranberries - I can't be with you
10 Counting Crows - A long December

And now, you'll have to excuse me. I'm putting a playlist together for the story I'll write after Scratches is done. I know, I won't be doing anything else but Scratches for at least a year, but it's just too much fun :)

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a script

2010-02-07T12:14:00.000-08:00

Twenty-nine pages of dialogue, monologue & descriptions: the script for Scratches is done! I wrote the final scene yesterday morning, on a train to Rotterdam that had to cut its way through the fog. Some of that fog ended up on the last page of the story. Which is only fitting, since that last scene also takes place on a February morning :)

And now I've got my work cut out for me...