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something I am grateful for today
Jul. 27th, 2018 07:55 amfeeling warmed up after doing more drawing more regularly -- actually getting comfortable with the work again [but dunno if I'd go so far as to say I am getting my mojo back!]
Jul. 27th, 2018
comics mastery
Jul. 27th, 2018 04:59 pmI've recently acquired a complete run of Randy Reynaldo's Rob Hanes comics, and have started reading from the beginning. In my reading today, I was struck in particular by the skill and craftsmanship of a panel which I will share and discuss here:
This is panel 5 of page 5 of The Princess, the story which appears in Adventure Strip Digest Starring Rob Hanes #1 (1994). I think this is a terrific panel, and here's why:
Everything in this drawing is kept clear, simple, strong, and bold, to communicate instantly and easily. Forms are declared simply with strong black shadows -- not a lot of fussy over-rendering to clutter and distract. There are a few lines used to indicate textures (mostly on the ground), and even these are done cleverly and with command -- note how the texture lines in the bright light are themselves lighter than the textures in the darker background. The use of gray tone is clean and restrained, primarily to indicate the background plane and separate it from the white of the foreground -- creating a sense of depth that is (once again) simple, clear, and immediate.
Best of all, note the caption in the bottom right. The text in that box suddenly gives form to what was an abstract black shape at the far right. What was a meaningless blackness up until now, we can suddenly "see" and recognize -- and it now carries an air of menace and foreboding, the lifeblood of adventure comics! (Also, note the further attention to differentiating the planes of depth thru tone: background is gray, foreground is white, and now extreme foreground is black...)
What's more, the placement of the caption made sure that this recognition did not come until the last possible second. That right there, the interaction of text and image to create new meaning -- even how that interaction is affected by where the text appears -- is the sort of thing that only the comics medium can do! Even better, this little reveal happens right at the end of the page [cuz this is the last panel], which creates exactly that sense of "now what" that makes a reader want to turn to the next page and find out, so the placement and timing of this panel is perfect.
And all this process of creating forms and depth, of guiding the eye through the scene and creating anticipation, all this stuff which is the very essence of conveying a story in comics, is done in a very casual, Fred Astaire "make it look easy" way. This panel is not a powerhouse display of surface rendering; rather, it shows a deep awareness of the structural fundamentals of the form, and in its own deceptively quiet way it's a masterpiece. Bravo, Randy!
This is panel 5 of page 5 of The Princess, the story which appears in Adventure Strip Digest Starring Rob Hanes #1 (1994). I think this is a terrific panel, and here's why:
Everything in this drawing is kept clear, simple, strong, and bold, to communicate instantly and easily. Forms are declared simply with strong black shadows -- not a lot of fussy over-rendering to clutter and distract. There are a few lines used to indicate textures (mostly on the ground), and even these are done cleverly and with command -- note how the texture lines in the bright light are themselves lighter than the textures in the darker background. The use of gray tone is clean and restrained, primarily to indicate the background plane and separate it from the white of the foreground -- creating a sense of depth that is (once again) simple, clear, and immediate.
Best of all, note the caption in the bottom right. The text in that box suddenly gives form to what was an abstract black shape at the far right. What was a meaningless blackness up until now, we can suddenly "see" and recognize -- and it now carries an air of menace and foreboding, the lifeblood of adventure comics! (Also, note the further attention to differentiating the planes of depth thru tone: background is gray, foreground is white, and now extreme foreground is black...)
What's more, the placement of the caption made sure that this recognition did not come until the last possible second. That right there, the interaction of text and image to create new meaning -- even how that interaction is affected by where the text appears -- is the sort of thing that only the comics medium can do! Even better, this little reveal happens right at the end of the page [cuz this is the last panel], which creates exactly that sense of "now what" that makes a reader want to turn to the next page and find out, so the placement and timing of this panel is perfect.
And all this process of creating forms and depth, of guiding the eye through the scene and creating anticipation, all this stuff which is the very essence of conveying a story in comics, is done in a very casual, Fred Astaire "make it look easy" way. This panel is not a powerhouse display of surface rendering; rather, it shows a deep awareness of the structural fundamentals of the form, and in its own deceptively quiet way it's a masterpiece. Bravo, Randy!
