Dealing with the text walls

The infamous text wall, alias: when you have so much text in one page, that you struggle to actually put drawings in it. If you read the second episode of Valley-01 you know what I mean. I felt like the writers should learn to contain themselves and leave something up to the drawings, then I fell in the same problem myself with the EKOenergy script.

The main problem with this script is that is an informative comic. We had to put a lot of informations in it, as well as some developing of a story, and common dialogue scenes. It has been indeed a challenge: I'm still cutting some words here and there to make the text fit the actual space in the page, and we agreed on adding an information page at the end, because we felt we haven't expressed everything we needed to in 30 pages of comic. All of this, in english, that has some of the shorter ways to express a sentence. 

It's harder than I thought to keep a reading flow that is not too boring for the reader. I'm learning to get creative on where to place text, and which angles to use to leave as much space as possible without cutting too much on the drawings. I've had similar issues in some of the Bilateral Comics pages before, but in this case I don't have the easy escape

The ups-and-downs of this job? Valley-01 #3, online from mid-october, is action full. I'm sure I'll miss the text walls as soon as I have to handle full art pages with multiple people fighting.

Speaking of Bilateral Comics, our new short story CODE 991 is launching this week and already got a very nice review - so keep tuned, read it, and let us know your thoughts!

CODE 991 review - Curiosity of a social misfit

Warming up & exercises

While I wait to have the approval on showing off some work in progresses (aside the EKOenergy comic, I'm still working on a graphic novel that has to be kept private until release, sadly), I can still entertain you with my daily sketching!

My sanity is going down the sink while watching Battlestar Galactica, and its characters have become a regular presence in my drawings.

In a similar way, some of Stephen King's characters are popping out again due to "The eyes of the dragon"

And last but not least, I'm still studying on coloring and inking, looking for the best way to improve my drawings. Everytime I start to think that I'm getting closer it ends up in nothing: I gave up on the brush for now, moving on to pens. I don't know if I just get excited by the new look or if I'm actually improving.

As usual, my comic pages effort are always up and readable for free at Bilateral Comics. Second issue of Valley-01 is almost over, be prepared to the next short story CODE 991

EKOenergy - European Volunteer Service

The big project for this summer brought me all the way to Finland, thanks to the European Volunteer Service, to work on a one-shot comic for EKOenergy. It's an Helsinki-based organization working with European electricity supplier to improve the green energy market. 

I couldn't image to build a project so close to my studies and interests, when I applied for the EVS some months ago. I've spent the last month writing the script for the story, teaming with the other volunteers and members and let me tell you: I thought it could go worse. I've never had to write such a long story, neither to write alongside with other people. It's been interesting, but not a thing I'll do again. I've been longing to draw, and finally I've started the pencils!

The pages are meant to be black and white, both because I feel more comfortable and because I don't have that much time to color, too. The project lasts only three months, mostly due to school that starts in october already. I'm trying to focus on perspective more than I've done in the recent other stories, and it already feels different. Life is better when perspective works.

Once the comic is done, other volunteers will translate it in various languages, as it's going to be readable for free on their website. 

Not dead!

Hey there! I'm not dead, even if the lack of updates might make you think that. I've moved to Finland for the summer, and adapting to the new surrounding had me dazzled and confused for a few weeks. I've been writing my first long script (30 pages) for a one-shot comic for EKOenergy, as part of the European Volunteer Project. Now that the boring part is over, I'll be able to update y'all with some drawings in the next days. Note to self: I'm better at drawing than writing. Keep it in mind.

I have been doing some random drawings as part of the morning warm up, as well as some sketchcrawling...but my bad again, not having the scanner at home is making me missing a lot of opportunities. I bought a few pens for inking, following the suggestion to clean up my lines instead of painting them black, and I'm quite satisfied.

  

And late as everything else this month, a drawing for a friend. She dyed my hair a month and a half ago and only a few days ago I've been able to do my part of the trade. Enjoy!

Bilateral Comics is still up and running, with a brand new website and soon to come a new short story for you! Please read our comics for free on our website...and if you like them, maybe you can consider a donation through our patreon page. Every dollar counts! Help us to keep making awesome comics!

Code 911 and the mysterios Inkling

I suppose you're all reading the awesome comics David Heath and I are creating for Bilateral Comics (and if you don't, you're breaking my heart). I'm very happy I found a good collaboration as this, since David is allowing me to experiment a lot with the art and I really hope this will help me grow. Right now the second chapter of Valley-01 is readable online, and Ten Fingers is now available to buy printed.

Now we're starting to build the next short issue - as Ten Fingers, this is going to be a one shot and a break from Valley-01 that will come back with the third issue after Code 911.

Code 911 is a "noir" story (as you can imagine, I can't get away too much), and I thought my usual style wouldn't fit the mood. I've always wanted to try the sketchy style done with ballpoint pen, because I use it for my life drawings and they turn out pretty good. It was time for my Inkling to shine!!!
...and it failed terribly. I haven't had the chance to actually try the pen before now: it has various flaws that make clear why it's not so popular as I believed. This is what I drew (scanned, with black areas outside the panels and text properly added after)

and this is what the Inkling saved.

Now, forget the eye in the third panel, as I moved the receiver without noticing. I'm also ignoring the fact that it doesn't cover the whole page, as it's meant to work on smaller paper. I know that not having the paper infos on the file make a difference; anyway, there are a bunch of gaps between lines that are actually filled, and it seems not to feel the pressure I put in making the signs on paper. I wanted to draw in pen as it's actually the media closer to the pencil in my hands, but the Inkling doesn't make justice to what I can do with a ballpoint pen. It's a pity, as it could have been very practical do to the whole comic without having to scan the pages.

Well, it seems that anyway Code 911 will be done like this. Bonus: the color test.

You all know I hate how colors often destroy my drawings, but this time it quite fits. I hope this turns out to be awesome!

School's out!

I study in the best school ever. This is the final project for this year (for those who can't read italian...well, look at the drawings ._.)

But HOW did we get here? This school year was full of new things to learn from the begininning. I felt like a newbie again, and it wasn't bad, but I think I need a lot of practice to actually learn what we've been taught.
First of all, inking.  I switched from various tecniques (nib, brush, brushpen, pen, digital...), and I'm still looking for the most suitable for my drawings. Anyway, I definately did a lot of progresses: one of the best of 2013 done with nibs, and one of the best of 2014 in brushpen.

Most of all, I think I'm starting to balance the ink with the color, that was one of the most difficult part for me. Color is still a bitch, but I've managed to make some progesses too (spoiler page from Valley-01 #2!):

There's definately a lot of work and exercise to do, as well as in every other aspect of the page (I'm still struggling with backgrounds, and I probably always will), but I got the principles and I think the result is waaay better in just a couple of months.

The most difficult part of this year's studies is that there are a lot of possibilities, both with ink and color, all of them equally useful. I mean, faces and hands and bodies and backgrounds have basic rules to follow, and I'm pretty sure about how I want them to turn out. This doesn't apply to ink, mostly because I'm not sure about the result I want. I like most of the results I can get, and I haven't even started to go into details as mostly of the scenes I draw are actually pretty plain (dialogues, mostly inside, with a few characters). I don't even start to talk about color, you can imagine how many differences there can be in coloring pages. As for now, I want to find at least one satisfying way to have a solid page, and avoid the messy look of my older pages.

Sketchcrawling!

Yay for nice weather and some sun!