Comics & Manga – Page 2 – Brett Chalupa's Journal

From Thumbnail to Ink to Color

A peek at my process for iterating on a comic panel

When making the art for a comic, I do a rough sketch, letter the text and sound effects, ink over the rough sketch, and then add Color.

Here’s what a panel from Lunar Space Colony looks like in the rough thumbnail stage:

And then after inking:

LSC Panel Inked - Fran's Couch

I’ve tried skipping the rough sketch to see if I could speed up my process, but then I end up lost when trying to figure out what goes where at the inking stage.

Once the inking is done, I go in and add color:

LSC Panel Color - Fran's Couch

Lunar Space Colony has a pretty limited color palette since I’m still learning color and need to work relatively quickly with the weekly deadline.

That’s the evolution of a panel from sketch to ink to color. I’m sure that evolution will only get better and better as I improve as an artist.

I’m going to start publishing Lunar Space Colony in only a few days! On Tuesday, July 3rd, I’ll publish the first three episodes and then publish a new episode every Tuesday after. I’ve hit my stride with the project and am enjoying working on it. I’m excited to share it publicly soon! 🙂

Lavender, My First 24-Hour Comic

My experiences and the outcome of attempting to make 24 pages of comics in 24 hours

On Friday and Saturday I participated in my first 24-Hour Comic Challenge where I made 24 pages of comics in 24 hours. It was a heck of a challenge, and I’m happy to share that I successfully completed it!

I documented my experiences in the video above.

The result of the challenge is an action fantasy comic called Lavender, which can be read free online.

Read Lavender (just a heads up, there’s some violence)

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Lunar Space Colony Launch Date and Preview

How I’m going to publish the project and a sneak peek at the first episode.

I’ve been steadily working away at my next project, Lunar Space Colony. It’s a slice-of-life sci-fi story about a woman named Bri who leaves Earth to work on the colony. It’s a longer story that I’m going to serialize weekly online. My plan is to launch the first few episodes on July 3rd and then release a new episode every Tuesday after.

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Going to do my first 24-Hour Comic Challenge on June 22 & 23

I’ve been wanting to do a 24-Hour Comic Challenge for a bit now, and I’ve got the date all set. I’m going to try to make 24 pages of comics over 24 hours on June 22 and June 23.

It should be a great way to push myself to work faster and hopefully learn a lot.

I’m not doing it on the international day in October because I want to take on the challenge sooner, and I’m also not going to go for 24 consecutive hours. I’m planning on taking 8 hours to sleep. I’m not into staying up all night, and skipping a night of sleep will really throw off my life balance.

My employer, Big Cartel, has an Arts & Service Hours program where we can use some time to work on personal projects, volunteer, or learn new skills. I’m using some of my hours to take on this challenge.

I’ve got a little over a month to prepare. I’m feeling a little nervous, but also really excited.

Details on the original challenge from Scott McCloud.

Podcast Spotlight: Process Party

A few thoughts on my favorite podcast about making comics.

I enjoy listening to podcasts, so I’m starting a new feature called Podcast Spotlight where I’ll be sharing my favorite podcasts.

Process Party is a podcast hosted by two comic creators, Zach Soto and Mike Dawson, about making comics. Each episode typically starts with Zach and Mike talking about what they’ve been working on (the jibba-jabba segment) and then they interview a comic creator. There have been over 70 episodes as of writing this, with new episodes releasing weekly.

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Lunar Space Colony Character Designs

After a bit of a break between projects to focus on developing my skills, I’ve started Lunar Space Colony in earnest. I decided that I’m going to publish the project online in weekly episodes as vertical comics instead of print sized pages. Printing my last project was a good learning experience, but I want to instead focus on accessibility and publishing regular chunks of the comic.

Also, with this change, I started drawing digitally. When I started making comics last September, I set out to focus on using traditional tools because it seemed like a nice way to take a break from the computer. After taking some time to think about it, the power and ergonomic implications of digital started to really appeal to me. I don’t have space for a drafting table or a setup that would serve me best for traditional art. But I do have enough space for a tablet. I’m going to write more about this switch soon.

After taking some time to get used to drawing digitally, I began Lunar Space Colony by designing the characters.

LSC Character Concept Art - Bri

Bri is the main character of the story.

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What I’ve Been Studying: Understanding Comics

My key takeaways from Scott McCloud’s landmark work

In the months since finishing reading Drawing Words & Writing Pictures, I’ve been making my way through Scott McCloud’s trilogy of books on comics. I started with Understanding Comics, which is the first and probably most popular in the trilogy.

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Terminal Retrospective

Everything I learned making my first comic

Two weeks ago I published my first multi-page comic, Terminal. It took me three months to make it, and I’m proud of what I’ve made. I’ve been reflecting upon the project since finishing it, so I thought I’d share my process and what I learned.

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