No pin-up pose for me!
Fast sketches inspired by a traitorous back ache. Ouch.
Tagged art, back ache, humor, Pencilling comics, Sketches
Here is another page that gave me a lot of work in all the stages! Drawing cluttered interiors is the bane of my art!
This page was finished in greytones with Gimp 2.6 and my trusty Wacom Intuos tablet. The perfectionnist, I even put in a late perspective correction in the last panel!
Read the rest of this installment in Destination Nexuz3!
Posted in Art, Comics, humor, Science-fiction
Tagged Adalou, Comics, Gimp software, greytones, Intuos graphic tablet, manga, Michele Laframboise, Science-fiction, work-in-progress
Here is page 15 of my ongoing project, sketched on a comic format art board.
For years, I have been watching the stores, lost in a sea of cheap A4 size scanners… I am now testing my new Brother MFC-J6510 inkjet. What a pleasure to be able to scan my work, currently draft in A3 (11 × 17 inches) format! With our old Scanjet doing only legal size, I had to scan separately sections of my work, then rebuild the page, a hassle.
The colors are slightly accentuated, because in real life, these very faint pencil traces will disappear under the ink stroke. I do like using the little blue and green crayons .*
I scanned this pencilled page at 200 dpi because it takes a lot of memory! However, I can keep a memory of my drafts. All artists know that sometimes, an unfortunate stroke can mar the picture. Or, in my case, an accidental penstroke during a public event … Fortunately, the computer correction comes in handy!
Below is the first draft, drawn with GIMP 2.6 with my Intuos 4 tablet. With dialogues added in a separate layer. It may be noted that I have made changes in the two boxes in the center, which became two elongated cells, suggesting the passage of time.
Some dialogues have been modified. I am a perfectionnist, but I do follow my instinct, and I felt that my backgrounds were not enough visible. And the inside floor plans of this house had not even been planned before I drew the exterior!
The house of page 5:
Which was done between the first and second draft.
It would be an interesting issue to discuss, as how we are influenced in our creation by the material available . As the autobiographical strip at the end of this post illustrates…
I remember the bad ball pens and cheap white sheets I used for my first comics in 1975. Looking at this disaster of coagulated ink blotches, Jacques Hurtubise suggested to me to use India ink on larger sheets.**
A advice that I have carefully followed thereafter, leading to a series of unfortunate events with a variety of technical pens, and jars of ink. I have experimented doing comics on a variety of medias, and I’m now addicted to mechanical pencils… and my graphic tablet!
* I use 0.7 mm leads, because I was always breaking the non photo blue 0.5 mm leads. Those color are fragile! However, the pencils sold with the colored mines were poorly designed and the mines broke in several parts inside. So I used an run-of-the-mill 0.7mm Steadler, that preserves the leads inside.
** I met Jacque Hurtubise at a Comic festival at the University of Montréal in 1975.
Last October 2nd and 3rd , the Mississauga Bookfest was celebrating the Central Library’s 20thanniversary. As I was among the guests, I attended, meeting with fine local authors : writers, historians, poets… and even a robot (what an occasion for a SF author!)
The robot is on the left.
Even our mayor Hazel visited! The writers were supposed to be outside, but the harsh winds forced the organizers to set our tables inside.
Local bookshops like Image Collections were present, too. We can see Todd, the manager (long hair) at the table. Next to his was the Celtic Shaman table.
On to the 24-24 at the Image Collections comic shop of Streetsville!
In the evening, I packed my boxes and went to the Image Collections shop, to partake of the 24-24 challenge under way since midday! I go
t there around 18h.
The artists at 20h Saturday, eating pizza and pondering their stories. Todd always feeds us well! The challenge is to produce 24 comic pages in 24 hours, and is done everywhere in the world on that week-end.
A 18h20, I sat at the table, « for a few minutes of doodling», telling myself that if I got too tired (after my full day at the Mississauga library), my husband could drive me home from the shop.
I eventually found a story corresponding to the « Species Change » theme, set in my own Science-fiction universe. At ten o’clock, I was confident enough to tell my husband: I stay here for the night!
Then, I worked all night, one page every 50 minutes, with my blue pencils. Had some trouble with the 0.7 mm blue mechanical pencil, always breaking, so I switched for a more classic pencil.
The artists at seven the next morning. Tiffany have given herself totally to the challenge… note the superb coloured pages she managed to produce!
Of course, as I was late, this was a 24-18 rather than a 24-24 for me. So I opted out of a fully completed comic, as I did last year. I manage the full night with only two coffees (meaning, a brisk walk to the Tim Horton at 4 am) and one chocolate milk carton.
Todd did play some awful or bizarre music to keep us awake!
Here is one page pencilled in my trusty bleu pencil. In the notebook under it, some rough break-ins and sketches. I am still working my personal manga style.
I made the thumbnails and draw some lay outs of my story, then worked hard to realize a good pencilling of 22 pages, detailed enough to make the inking part easier. I kept an eye to the overall balance, so that the panels flow smoothly. Todd took pictures of all our pages at the end.
The triumph : Sunday Artist, Paul and Carolyn (Tiff had to leave earlier). Paul is a pure amator who never did a comic before. Carolyn is an accomplished artist who had fun scenarizing her first comic. This is the fun of the 24-24 challenge!
Tiff has a strong talent, and you may glimpse part of her work in last year 24-24. To see my first impressions of the 24-24 in 2009, go here!
Posted in Comics, Event, Science-fiction
Tagged 24-24, Comics, graphic novel, Image collections comic shop, manga, Michele Laframboise, Mississauga
I finally took the step and register in Webcomic Nation for The Jules-Verne Saga
Here is the banner, a composite from two different pictures, one being the header of this blog! Eventually I will put on a fresher picture.
Enrolling herself as a navigator on the Jules-Verne Alliance Space Ship, young Armelle, a shy brittle-boned Martian Belle, discovers life onboard the Jules-Verne, an old cruiser, its irascible and alcoholic commander , and its colored (and quite pissed off) crew mates. Then, there is this mission…
The graphic style will be slightly less realistic than the image suggests, a bit more on the manga style.
Posted in Comics, humor, Science-fiction
Tagged Comics, graphic novel, Jules-Verne saga, Michele Laframboise, Science-fiction
Do you remember the comic page rough draft in blue pencil shown this spring? Now here is the same page finished, inked, scanned then digitally toned in shades of gray.
This is an excerpt from my graphic novel Maîtresse des vents published in the issue no 7 of the magazine science fiction and fantasy Nexuz3 (edited by Gérard Lévèque) that just came out. Nexuz3 is available in various bookstores in Quebec.
There aren’t so many SF&F comic fanzines published in French, so this one should get a fair notice in the field. All the other participant artists are quite talented : their works are well worth your support!
The page you see needed less working of the grey tones, because I did not daddle too long to ink my blacks and whites. I took several frames off, making the panels “breathe” easier over the page. The “degraded” filling tool in my Gimp 2.6 software proved useful to give a sense of depth. The ocean in the first page is another example.
In the second panel, I decided against putting a grey filling in the kite… the speed lines and shadows were enough. I am beginning to get the hang on manga dynamics, but a long way from a mangaka’s nimble hand…
You would be surprised to learn that I used only one layer through the whole process. Managing the layers in Gimp has proved unduly complicated. I rather use the “darken only” option of the paintbrush to lay my greys without erasing the blacks, and the special selection tools for the degraded colors effects.
The more observing among you will remark that I clipped off some of the rock outcropping in the last panel (with the two characters sitting on it). I also moved the kite a bit along.
Wind Mistress (a working title, I’m not sure how the English version will be titled. “Kite Mistress” sounds good, too), takes place in my space-faring civilization of super-gardeners, several years before the Quest of Chaaas cycle. And, yes, I will have it completed and translated before the next TCAF, promise!
With all that work, I have missed the Fan Expo 2011 in Toronto. At least, I carry on other works, like my Otaku Ladies webcomic.
Posted in Comics, Science-fiction
Tagged art, art technique, Chaaas universe, Comics, fanzine, Gimp software, graphic novel, Michele Laframboise, Nexuz3, Science-fiction, shonen manga
To celebrate the official arrival of summer, here is another pencilled page, with the blue hues darkened after the scan. Yes, it is the sequel of a low-tech SF story aimed at young adults.
You may note the little black ink trait on the top panel. This was a little accident happening on the last Free comic Book Day. Fortunately, a little post-treatment with Gimp will make this smear disappear.
I kept the horizon line at the same level in the two first panels, to give a sense of continuity. There is still some detail to clear up on the interior backgrounds in the two last panels. Interiors are the hardest to draw for me.
Posted in Comics, Science-fiction
Tagged art, Chaaas universe, Comics, graphic novel, manga, Michele Laframboise, pencilling, Science-fiction, YA science-fiction
Well, I totally missed the TCAF, but my experience at the 2011 Free comic book day at Streetsville was a happy one. The artist tables were on the parking next to the Image Collection shop at Streetsville. The artist under the white cap is Christopher Yao, supported by his wife.
Our families play a great role! My husband with Superman. Up, up, and away!
It was a place to meet colleagues of all ages and places! Here Tiff, who participated in the last 24-24 at Image Collection. She was making Joker-inspired make-up. I don’t sport my Quark’s Bar T-shirt often, so enjoy!
The open port-folio of Daniel Wong, co-creator of Celtic Shaman, with Chris McQuaid
My table neighbor, Mark Bertolini and his portfolios.
Mark Bertolini, creator of Breakneck
One drawing on my comic book The General’s Garden
Richard Comely, creator of Captain Canuck!
As it was getting cooler, I put back my 24-24 red-black polar fleece.
Todd and super-Todd! with a glimpse of Chris Mc Quaid in the Canada shirt.
An enlarger view of the drawing.
And the Green Lantern was here! In person!
A few short notices for April!
Working: on the fifth installment of the Chaaas’ Quest series, in French. I am developing the outline before getting to the actual writing. I am building new and exotic surroundings and exciting plotlines.
The Otaku ladies Webcomic is on hold until after the elections.
Freshly done: 10 pages of Kite Mistress, a graphic novel set in Chaaas’ Universe.
Translations: The first novel of the Chaaas’ Quest series has been fully translated in English. The second novel, Winds of Tammerlan, has been translated, and is waiting for its final revision.
My YA novel Les Nuages de Phoenix, (The Clouds of Phoenix) is being toted around in Mexico for a Spanish translation.
Adaptations: The Clouds of Phoenix exists in treatment form for a feature movie adaptation. One movie company refusal, so far. The three first installements of the series Chaaas’ Quest have their synopses and treatments ready, available from the author.
Making plans: The serialized graphic novel adaptation: 12 chapters of Chaaas’ Quest have been prepared and the first chapter have been broken down into pages. I choose a simple manga style as in The General’s Garden.
Tagged Chaaas, Comics, graphic novel, manga, Michele Laframboise, Movie adaptation, novel, Science-fiction, Writing
Echoes of a Sunday artist 