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Email the author at
qwanderer7+lgc@gmail.com
The Elves of LleuGarnock is Copyright
Irene Pitcairn<2008-2009. The Elves of
LleuGarnock is hosted on
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May 12, '08
So James adjusted the contrast on our montor the other day. I knew it was uncommonly bright, but I didn't realize by how much. I'm seeing my comic in a whole new light. In case you wondered, the elves are supposed to be pale. But I'm not going back and changing all my pictures now.
I've gotten a few comments now, and most of them have been about my art - specifically how little detail there is in my drawing. I definitely agree there is a certain lack in that area. However, some of that is intentional - I set out to design characters that would be easy to draw over and over again. Some of it comes from my working process and materials. My scanner isn't huge, and I don't have a tablet, so my inking gets done on an 8x11 sheet. From experience I know it takes me a lot longer to get a good layout if I draw and scan the panels separately. I have some fairly fine pens, but there's only so much I can do with them.
Those are trivial reasons. One of the more important reasons is tied to my reasons for doing this project. I write because I love to write. I love the process and I think I'm good at it. I draw because ... well ... I can draw pretty well. My stories need illustrating, and if someone else drew my characters, I'd be bullying them terribly about all the things that weren't right until I'd end up drawing them myself anyway. And I really do want to get better at drawing, because I know the talent's in here somewhere. I draw The Elves of LleuGarnock because I really think my pictures are the best way of getting my message across, even if they are somewhat primitive.
Another reason for the simple style of my drawings is, of course, my level of talent and the way I percieve the world. The best way to illustrate this might be a little story: I was sitting and drawing in some public place, perhaps college campus. I might have been drawing a dragon or a fairy or somesuch. Someone came and looked over my shoulder and commented:
"You're a really good copier."
In my own literal way I replied approximately: "Thanks, I am, but this isn't copied from anything."
They returned: "No, I mean you can copy what's in your head onto paper."
"There's nothing like this in my head. I don't know what a picture is going to look like until I start drawing it. Then I just add and adjust bits until it looks good."
The problem with me and drawing comics is that I don't know what to make the pictures look like. I have tons and tons of art-reference and art-tutorial books that I look at, and I can copy pictures out of them almost flawlessly. But then when I go to draw my own characters and scenes, very little of that stays with me - except in the larger generalities. I notice this especially when I try to use books done in more realistic and/or detailed styles - my anatomy references, costume references, how-to-draw-crime-noir books, Batman comics.
I just don't have a picture in my head of how Gemi's nose looks from such-and-such an angle, or how light falls on the curve of one face as opposed to another. When I draw a character, I do it very formulaically, because otherwise I would have no idea where to start.
My ability to draw seems to be based on a structure something like Plato's Theory of Forms. The more specific examples of a particular object I see, the more solid the idea of what it looks like becomes in my head - but I never remember how that specific example looked. It only contributes to the whole.
When I draw a person I try to put that general idea of "personhood" on the page before anything else. This step combines with arranging their body position as the scene necessitates. If there isn't anything specific these two steps may only produce a rough egg shape hanging in the panel. Then I add the formula for that character - the ears, the shape of the hair - and the formula for the expression the character might be wearing - the eyebrow slant, the mouth shape. Then I look at it and ask myself, "What is wrong here? What could be improved?" And I modify the image.
If I were asked to put in more detail, I just wouldn't know where.
I guess I just have to add to my vague ideas of form, and specifically line, by looking at more comics. Time for some serious research.