Hello all! I’m going to do my best to give you a peek inside the madness that is my stupid process. The truth is I work on every page a little bit differently (bad idea kids, don’t work like me), so I’ve tried to choose some of the more interesting and hopefully more reasonably put together pages from the first Awakening collection (out June 24th so go get one!).  Lets start with the enormous 4-page spread from issue 3. Hang onto your butts:

Sparing you specific panel breakdown, this is the general description of the page that I got from nick: Three scenes at once here, all coming together at once – Sandra runs along the top in a smaller sequence at roughly ¼ of the page. She runs 6 panels, 3 per page. Cynthia runs along the bottom of the page in an equal fashion to Sandra. Derrick takes front and center for these two pages at 4 panels, 2 per page, taking up roughly ½ of the spread. I’m thinking we could even break up the panels; have them overlap the middle image slightly, kind of in a shattered motif…

Laying out this sequence was daunting to be sure. The first attempt worked okay but wasn’t very dynamic, and a boring presentation could totally kill this sequence.

Ah, that’s better. This is starting to look more interesting, more like a shattered window, closer to what Nick was looking for.

The next step is to add the drawing. I rough in the shapes using a texture brush I made out of some ink splatter. This leaves things kind of hazy and undefined. Perfect for misty settings or just getting the layout down. This is fairly close to what the finished line art looks like for this page save for some cleaning and sharpening.

Now it’s time for some color! I’ve tightened up a lot of the drawing, but I’m leaving things a bet hazy to give the scene a sort of frantic confusion. It’s also starting to rain in two of our scenes. I’m keeping certain panels extra blurry to give that sense of panic I was talking about, sort of as if our “camera” can’t focus on what’s going on.

Thomas adds the lettering and there we have the first finished spread! The second page comes together much the same way:

Next up I thought I’d show you what happens when I get to tear into a splash page. By tear into I mean fumble around until I find a solution I’m comfortable with. Here the script calls for a close up on a certain someone handcuffed to a desk in an interrogation room.

Right now he’s looking a little bit too much like yours truly. I wonder what that says about me… of course it’s also pretty boring to look at. I went with a very strait forward and central composition with the hopes of getting a strong kind of in your face stare-down with our perp here. This means I’ll need to find some ways to add visual interest.

That’s a little better. I’ve added a bunch of newspaper clippings and headlines that relate to our story. Most notably man guilty, abducted, stabbed, etc. you get the idea. He’s literally surrounded by his charges. I scanned some ink splatter to give our hanging bulb a little pop, and collaged together a handcuff to keep him stuck to that desk. We’re getting there, but it’s still looking a bit flat.

So the last step here is to pile on all the texture and color adjustment layers that I possibly can until my computer screams uncle. I’ve tried to highlight sections in the newspaper background that I liked, and push back less necessary sections. And of course I had to sneak some ziptone in there. At this point I’m happy with how the face is coming forward from the body and the texture in the background.  He really looks like a smarmy rat doesn’t he? Still a lot of resemblance to the artist there…  

So that about does it. Hopefully this gave you at least the beginning of an idea of how Awakening comes together. Tip of the iceberg, my friends! If you liked what you saw (or even if not) be sure to check out the book. It hits shelves on June 24th and we have made this: Awakening coupon.

A handy coupon you can take to your local shop to preorder. Or if you’d prefer to just order over the internet, sit back and wait for us, here’s where you can order us online:

http://www.tfaw.com/Profile/Awakening-HC-Vol.-01___321119

We’ve made it so easy for you!

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