“After the storyboard is completed and I am
confident that the story and layout are working,”
says Svetlana Chmakova, “I enlarge my storyboard
sketches and use them as a base for pencilling the
actual pages. I used to pencil completely digitally,
using the Photoshop brush tool, but the last few
years I’ve gone back to HB pencil on inkjet paper
and only use Photoshop to sketch out the really
complex and tricky scenes (so that I can use the
layers function to help me out!) Once I have my
pencilled pages, I scan them into Photoshop and
use the Hue/Saturation functions to convert them
to a light non-photo blue colour. I then print them
out at inking size (on B4 paper), ink with Sakura
Micron pigment liners and a Pentel pocket brush,
and scan them back as black and white art (the
blue lines do not scan at all with this setting, so I
get a crisp ink scan). Screentoning I usually do in
Deleter ComicWorks and Manga Studio, but if there
is any colour, I usually paint in Photoshop.”© Anthony Williams© Svetlana Chmakova
- MAKING MANGA
23. BE READY, BE OPEN, BE FLEXIBLE
“Draw from life,” says Anthony Williams, in wise
words for any type of artist. “Don’t just reference
other comic artists. Study illustrators from other
disciplines. Be a constant student of visual
storytelling in its many forms, whether it be print,
film or theatre. Above all, keep drawing, and if you
really want to break into comics, build a body of
your best and most competent work for your
portfolio. If you get the opportunity to show it to
someone in the profession, be open to their advice
and criticism.”
And if you want to work, be flexible. Williams says
he has the “ability to adapt to the job in hand. My
style is determined by the particular commission,
and I really enjoy the ability to dramatically switch
gears depending on the demands of a particular job.
The one thing that is constant no matter what style,
is telling exciting, dynamic stories.”For Luke Pearson, panel rhythm “varies massively
depending on what I want to convey. I guess an
example would be that if it’s an action scene,
something new will be happening in each panel. I’ll
keep the dialogue down and keep extraneous
details to a minimum so that you don’t linger too
long on a particular panel. For quieter, more
introspective scenes, I might spread a character’s
action out over a series of panels, or explore the
environment a bit more, dragging things out to
keep you on that page and give the impression of
time moving slowly. I like to do big, full bleed
establishing shots to give a good sense of the
setting before I spend the scene more concerned© Luke Pearson/ Nobrow Press- PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTHS
with close-ups and the characters’ interactions.”
And when it comes to words, “The main thing to
avoid is having the text say what the art is
showing. It’s usually best if neither works without
the other, or if the text adds subtext to a seemingly
straightforward image. I find you can get away
without much text at all. There are plenty of
comics that eschew text altogether and still tell a
clear story. But then I tend to use text as sparingly
as possible because I’m aware that I’m not a
‘writer’ and it’s the part I feel most self-conscious
about. Comics made with a writer/artist
partnership tend to be a lot more text-heavy for
obvious reasons.”